Fun One

Description

Some might think that guitarist Oz Noy, a renowned voice of jazz fusion over the last quarter-century for adapting his formidable guitar talents to funky rhythms and blues-based arrangements across 13 albums and hundreds of concerts, is not an obvious candidate for Criss Cross, whose catalog of over 420 albums is almost exclusively tied to the various streams of pure, hard acoustic jazz. Noy, 52, does not share this view. "I've known Criss Cross since my brother brought home albums when I was a teenager," he says, recalling the story of his first album, Fun One, a creative, sophisticated, and let's say, swinging trio encounter with pianist David Kikoski, bassist James Genus, and drummer Clarence Penn. "I know Peter Bernstein's and Adam Rogers' albums. I love Mike Moreno's latest album. I know how the albums sound. I started studying jazz chords and harmony at the age of 13. I began making a living playing pop and rock music when I was 15 or 16, and throughout my years in New York, I had an electric trio that played groove music mixed with jazz and funk, which allowed me to get a recording contract and make albums. But I've played standards and jazz my whole life, and probably since 2017 with this quartet. It's just that I've never recorded it."