Prior to June 3, Israel-born, Manhattan-based jazz/fusion guitarist Oz Noy’s last appearance at the Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton was barely more than two-and-a-half years ago.
Yet those two shows in November of 2019, with bassist Hadrien Feraud and drummer Dave Weckl, appear further back in time because they occurred in a seemingly distant era — pre-COVID-19.
Noy’s trio for his two returning shows featured an equally impressive, yet differently flavored, rhythm section in bassist Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets, Allan Holdsworth) and drummer Dennis Chambers (John McLaughlin, Steely Dan). And the three musicians presented a smorgasbord of improvisational flavor during the June 3 late show, played for a near-capacity crowd happy that the tropical weather system passing through wasn’t dumping as much rain in Palm Beach County as it was further south.
“I’ve gotten used to working with musicians who play on a very high level,” Noy said in a 2019 ArtsPaper interview. Haslip and Chambers provided a continuum to the work of Feraud and Weckl in making that an understatement. And #Snapdragon#, Noy’s superb latest release from 2019, again became the emphasis of his most recent shows at the Boca Raton venue.
“I still call it a new record,” Noy said early during the late set. “Before COVID we were touring on it, and then you know what happened. Here’s a Thelonious Monk tune, just as he would’ve imagined it.”
The cover of “Bemsha Swing” went even further out of the box than the album’s version and was an early highlight, showcasing all aspects of the guitarist’s impressive, arsenal, including his bebop-inspired soloing, use of effects pedals, and rhythmic lock with his latest gifted rhythm section.
If anything, the first portion of the late show featured more guitar solos, and less interaction with Haslip and Chambers, than Noy had in 2019 with Feraud and Weckl. That would soon change via the guitarist’s #Snapdragon# composition “Boom, Boo Boom,” a bizarre blend of blues, jazz, and New Orleans funk. Midway, Chambers exploded into a torrential solo over the rhythmic vamp of Noy and Haslip, who seemingly had to concentrate on their patterns and not risk losing the tempo by actually listening to the drummer’s complex subdivisions.
A reading of Charlie Parker’s standard “Billie’s Bounce” was a pleasant surprise midway through the set, lightening the tone with Chambers using brushes and the left-handed Haslip providing a guitaristic, upper-register solo on his six-string bass, but most of the remaining selections turned toward energetic album originals.
The title track from the 2019 release started out as an inverted version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression” before turning into a stop-and-start showcase for Noy’s creative soloing and interaction with Haslip and Chambers. The drummer appears on #Snapdragon#, as do Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta (forming a Holy Trinity of modern jazz/fusion drumming), and introduced “Looni Tooni” with even more thunder than he did on the recording before leading his bandmates into another rhythmic shell game while soloing over their vamp.
The 63-year-old Chambers, who joined Parliament/Funkadelic as a teenager and whose credits also include Santana, Mike Stern, and Maceo Parker, is back to playing at a level that was hard to fathom in 2014. That’s the year he took a fall while touring with Stern, causing head trauma and internal injuries, and suffered a stroke. And the ageless, 70-year-old Haslip again showed why he’s the element that’s kept the Yellowjackets from venturing completely into smooth jazz territory during the second half of the band’s 40-plus-year career.
A generation younger, Noy has been unfazed by the elite company he keeps since arriving in the United States in 1996. He closed the show with an encore of The Meters’ instrumental funk classic “Cissy Strut,” complete with an intro that touched on Hendrix’s “Third Stone From the Sun” before the piece wandered into several different stylistic tributaries.
Comfortable playing jazz standards, rock, blues, funk, or R&B, the young guitarist is uniquely versatile. His motto is, “It’s jazz, it just doesn’t sound like it.” Except for when he ventures off into a solo that echoes Monk, Bird, or Dizzy. Then it’s guitar, it just doesn’t sound like it.