WHILE SOME GUITARISTS are adept at tweaking their tones through a variety of effects from song to song, Israel-born fusion maverick Oz Noy is like a virtuoso tap dancer on his pedalboard, meticulously coloring with tones and textures, often from bar to bar. It’s an intuitive skill that he’s developed since moving to New York in 1996, the sonic equivalent of an unassisted triple play in baseball.
Growing up in the ’80s in Tel Aviv, Noy gravitated toward American jazz and blues, as well as a bevy of shredders that includes Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Richie Kotzen and Greg Howe. He came to New York as an experienced pro, having held down a regular TV gig and performed numerous studio sessions around Tel Aviv. Rather than bursting on the Big Apple scene right out of the gate, he laid back and observed, taking in performances at Small’s, the West Village hipster subterranean club, by regulars like organist Larry Goldings, pianist Brad Mehldau, tenor saxophonist Joshua Rodman and guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel and Peter Bernstein while sitting in at the late-night jams that commenced at 2 a.m. Gradually, Noy began making an impression through his unique vocabulary that organically blends rock, funk, R&B and jazz. Within a couple of years, he had built a fanbase through his Monday night residency at the Bitter End in the heart of Greenwich Village, as well as an inner circle of musicians on the scene who admired his fresh energy and ideas.
Oz’s first release as a leader, 2005’s , featured the rhythm tandems from two popular TV shows at the time — bassist Will Lee and drummer Anton Fig from , and bassist James Genus. With it, Oz garnered favorable comparisons to such guitar heroes as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Scott Henderson and John Scofield (in jam-band mode). Another guitar hero, Mike Stern, gave his stamp of approval by appearing on the track “Downside Up” (a clever rewording of the 1986 classic track “Upside Downside,” which featured Jaco Pastorius, from Stern’s second album as a leader). Clearly, this Israeli six-stringer was on to something.
