Snapdragon

Constantly seeking untapped musical terrain, New York-based guitarist and composer Oz Noy steps onto fertile ground with his new album, Snapdragon. The collection will be available on all digital platforms and through his label Abstract Logix, preorder link here. Today , Modern Drummer shared the first single from Snapdragon, Looni Tooni. The entire project showcases some incredible drummers, Looni Tooni features Dennis Chambers who said, “Playing with Mr. Oz Noy was very refreshing, because he is always reaching for new ideas."

The spry rhythmic wallop that characterized his previous album, the backbeat-driven Booga Looga Loo, remains in full force — only now welded to an open, bop-inflected chromaticism fostering a more dynamic, searching improvisational energy. Intricately winding unison melody lines spiral out across fatback rhythmscapes, expertly realized by an impressive cast of soloists and supporting musicians. Among those stoking the fires of the rhythm section are Dennis Chambers, Will Lee, Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl, James Genus, and John Patitiucci, while Noy trades improvised solos and notated melodies with saxophonist Chris Potter, keyboardists David Kikoski and Jason Lindner, trumpeter John Sneider, guitarist Adam Rogers, and Jazz Trumpet Virtuoso Wallace Rooney, in what is likely his final recording before succumbing to complications of the Coronavirus this spring. Rooney’s trumpet subtly blues-tinged solo glides over the nimble rhythmic modulations of “Outer Look."

Noy’s signature vision, as both a player and composer, is the beating heart of Snapdragon. The themes include six original compositions, alongside a surprising, evocative reading of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There” and two Thelonious Monk pieces. Throughout, Noy’s playing is alternately tender and treacherous, moving from open-hearted, nearly vocal melodic statements to the sort of ferociously off-kilter, explosive soloing that has made him a favorite amongst connoisseurs of guitarists and improvised music at large. In Noy’s universe, odd intervallic leaps, unresolved dissonances, and radiating slabs of electric distortion are heightened and enlivened by nimble funk. The resulting sound is simultaneously accessible and refreshing — an entirely modern refraction of the glorious tradition of greasy organ combos and gritty two-horn soul-jazz.