Noy originally hails from Israel, where he was a seasoned studio and performance pro by age 16. By the time he relocated to New York City in 1996, he was fully armed with unreal rock, funk, blues, and bop chops. Noy soon landed gigs with some of the best in the Big Apple, including Nile Rogers, Richard Bona, Gavin DeGraw, and Roger Glover, as well as loads of television and film session work. He eventually became a fixture at the venerable Bitter End, and attracted top-shelf backing talent including drummers Anton Fig and Keith Carlock. Noy continues to play and record with both, as well as bassists Will Lee and James Genus—sometimes alternating trios within the same tune.

2002’s Oz Live led to a deal with Magnatude Records, which released Noy’s debut solo studio effort in 2005. Ha! was a tour de force of infectious-yet-involved instrumentals, and featured a guest appearance by NYC guitar boss Mike Stern. Noy’s new CD, Fuzzy, is similar, though generally less aggressive and more refined. It also represents Noy’s recent sojourns to L.A., where he hooked up with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Jimmy Johnson for three tracks.

What was it like growing up as a guitar player in Tel Aviv?
The Israeli pop and rock I grew up around was heavily influenced by American and British music, so it wasn’t that different. I learned by playing Beatles songs. The weird thing for me was that I was really into ’80s rock—shredding and tapping—and at the same time I was deep into jazz, especially Joe Pass, George Benson, Charlie Parker, and Wes Montgomery. I studied the Barry Harris method. He’s a pianist and jazz educator who developed a specific, simple approach to bebop. When I hit a Stevie Ray Vaughan phase, I started playing his songs instrumentally. As I began to mix in James Brown and Stevie Wonder tunes, I realized I could do all my jazz stuff over those funky grooves, and my split personality came together.

Did anyone flip you out once you got to New York City?
Wayne Krantz is heavy in New York, and he was going so far out over one-chord vamps that it was mindblowing. He inspired me to limit the amount of chord changes in my music. That enables me to play more stuff, and it doesn’t sound like it’s coming from outer space. I walk a fine line because when other players hear you go out, they want to follow, and that can become one big mess. I prefer them to stay back in the pocket so it sounds much clearer.

What’s going on in your head harmonically when you improvise a solo?
I try to play melodies and go with my ear. If the chord is dominant, I might start with a Mixolydian motif, and apply different scales, say, pentatonic for a bluesier sound, or maybe the whole-tone scale for a modern, out sound. I see the overall harmony like a white piece of paper, and scales as available colors. The same principle can be applied to chords, which is what I do at the beginning of “Three Wishes.” There’s an Em, and all those other abstract color chords are out, but in. They’re soaked in delay, too. Some sounds will make you play certain things.

How did your pedal fetish develop, and what are your fave five?
As I experimented with sounds for certain songs while writing Ha!, my pedalboard grew. I use pedals to create certain types of sounds. I can get essentially the same sound out of ten different overdrives. For a basic five, I’d start with an overdrive booster, and then add an octave fuzz. I’d want some kind of Leslie sound—it could be a Uni-Vibe, or a rotary speaker simulator, or a chorus—and then either a wah or an envelope filter. I specifically need a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler for looping and various delays. The very first sound on the new CD is an Xotic Robotalk, which is an envelope filter with an arpeggiator. I looped it with the DL4.

What’s your method for making records?
The drummer really creates the sound of the band for me, so I start by deciding whose sound is best for a certain song. I record multiple takes of the core trio like we’re playing live, except most of the tunes are recorded to a click. I edit takes together rather than overdub. I might chose the best head, and then chose the best solo. If I need to fix something, I cut in the whole band so it still feels cohesive because it’s all about the interaction. I actually flip back and forth between different trios from section to section on half of Ha!, and for the first cut on Fuzzy. We planned certain transition points—sometimes right in the middle of a solo—and worked through them onstage. I recorded each trio separately playing different parts, because it’s too hard to record both drummers simultaneously, although there are times where it worked to leave both drummers in the final mix. It’s a modern way of making jazz records.

Your music seems awfully complicated to play to a click track and get straight with one trio, let alone doing it twice with different players.
It’s a little twisted in certain areas, but the way I write tunes is all based on grooves and vamps. What sounds complicated is often simple themes strung together. I’ll start to build some lines, and then I’ll go back to the riff. I’ll write a melodic bridge if it’s needed. The main themes are actually pretty basic. It’s really not as bad as it seems!