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| Smooth Talk With Zig Noda - November 25, 2003 |
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CIM Radio:
How long have you been playing the flute?
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Zig Noda:
I started playing the flute in 5th grade and continued through Jr. High. Then when high school came, sports were much cooler to me than being in the marching band so music went by the wayside, until this cute girl in a few of classes told me she was in the jazz band and played flute. All of a sudden my interest in the flute picked up again! After high school though I picked it up again and in college started jamming and composing songs with a few people I knew, and picked up my first paid gig playing jazz standards. In college I never majored or played music except in one class which was jazz improvisation. In the beginning of that class, I was a musical disaster and for the most part think I still am, although I have alot of musical energy and tenacity. After several semesters of taking that class over and over, the instructor starting referring gigs to me, and I started taking music more seriously, however not too long after that I had a bicycle accident where I landed on my face and it was right before two major musical opportunities in my life, one was the possibility of being regular member of a latin jazz jam band in L.A. that I was sitting in with...at the time this band consisted of Madonna's former guitar player, the bassist from Oingo Boingo, a percussionist from the Pancho Sanchez Band, Susie Hansen (the Latin Jazz Violinist), and Artie Webb, one of the legendary flutists in Jazz and one of my mentors at the time. The other opportunity was that I had then just received a scholarship to go to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After the accident, which took me out for several months, the missed practicing and depressing thought of those missed opportunities and not being able to perform with those very legendary and influential people, took me out of the music scene for over 7 years. After this long hiatus, I realized that no matter what ups and downs I go through, and no matter how long I'm away from the instrument, the flute and music is something that will always be a big part of who I am. So to answer your question...I've been playing the flute off and on since grade school for over 25 years now, and I would say that only now do I feel that am I starting to have a better understanding of music basics and and the flute, and am just beginning to become a somewhat better musician.
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CIM Radio:
Who are your influences?
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Zig Noda:
I am inspired by any great musical performance, and can be influenced by any style from hip hop to pop to jazz to r&b. In terms of the great flute players, I really have a great sense of awe and spent alot of time listening to (and still do) of Hubert Laws, Dave Valentin, Herbie Mann, Nestor Torres, James Newton, Jeremy Steig and of course Artie Webb. There are some great newer flutists like Althea Rene, Lori Bell, and Dwayne Kerr that in my opinion are going to take the flute to the next level in popular jazz. I love the sax players like Sanborn, Warren Hill, Jeff Kashiwa, Kenny G (who I've followed while he was still Kenny Gorelick and was a member of the Jeff Lorber Fusion). Eric Marienthal is an alumni of the same jazz program that I had at OCC, in Costa Mesa, CA. And my all time favorite sax player and probably favorite horn player in general is Kirk Whalum, to me, Mr. Whalum is the most soulful and most expressive horn player. There are so many players I've left out that inspire me. Not to mention the pianists like Bob James, Brian Culbertson, Dave Benoit and guitarists and great vocalists. The list goes on and on. As you can see I am a HUGE fan of this music that's called smooth jazz.
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CIM Radio:
What made you decide to create the "In This Moment" CD?
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Zig Noda:
The song "In This Moment" was inspired by a private moment of reflection that I witnessed my father go through during a tough emotional time in our lives. That song is about what everyone goes through in life at one time or another. It's about hopes and dreams, what if's, family and love. The CD is a collection of songs that were composed over a several year period along with my friend Brian Tracy Evans, who plays keyboards and synths on the project. There were a few times while rehearsing and working out the compositions when neighbors were asking about the "CD" we were playing on the stereo, and wanted to know who it was...at that point I really felt that I needed to get it done.
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CIM Radio:
What is your process of writing music? For example, you have a beautiful ballad called "Miracles", what inspired you to create that song?
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Zig Noda:
What happens is that sometimes a musical idea, riff or rhythm or groove comes into my mind and it just plays over and over until you're just singing it and have to bring it out on the instrument. Usually, it's just a piece of a song at that point, and it gets developed over time with other musicians involved in composing and playing along. Sometimes, it develops really quickly, almost instantly. In other words, it's already there in my mind. Everything. But those are rare moments. Usually it takes hours and hours of developing and arranging and working out those musical ideas until you connect them together and it sounds like a polished musical composition. In the case of "Miracles", you wouldn't believe it, but that song was actually a song that started as someone's poem in a song writing contest where we had to put music to words that already existed. Since Brian is also an amazing singer (although he doesn't sing on this album), I decided to enter ourselves into this contest. After we entered, they told us we were disqualified because only one composer could be credited to the song. We were so mad and bummed out (other words were used but I can't say them here!!). Brian was even more disappointed because we didn't get to use his incredible singing voice after all this work we went through. At one point Brian even felt we wasted alot of time for nothing. After we recorded most of the songs for the CD, we were still a couple of songs short, so I just went in and recorded my flute track instead of the words that were someone else's lyrics (who we didn't even know). Anyway, since we had just finished composing the music, I was comfortable recording the flute over it. I'm glad to hear that you like the song, because mixing that track was a different story. It took much longer to get a mix that I thought was acceptable, than it did to write and record that song. In the end, it worked out better for us, because now the song has already been used in a movie and people are saying that they like this all instrumental original composition on the new CD, which is unusual, because this is a track that is over 6 minutes long. On top of all this, Brian's wife wrote a poem that received national honors, and Brian put them together with this title "Miracles", so now there are new words for the song that Brian can sing on the next CD too!
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CIM Radio:
Which countries have you been to while touring in the past? And are you currently on tour right now?
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Zig Noda:
My touring experience has been very limited. I've played extensively in Southern California with other projects, and once had an inquiry to play in Brazil. I would love to get picked up as a sideman for a major artist, but since the flute is not as popular as the sax, and not as versatile as guitar, bass, or drums I'm not gonna hold my breath very long waiting for that to happen. However depending on how it goes with this new release, I may have to put together a touring band by next summer. I am ashamed to say, I'm not as dedicated and hard working compared to other musicians, and much less aggresive about getting gigs than in the past, which is also probably why you've never even heard of me until recently.
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CIM Radio:
Tell us a bit about your second album and when it will be released?
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Zig Noda:
We have the songs for the next project already. Many of them were composed at the same time of the others on this CD, but they just didn't make the recording cut. It's hard to say right now, but ideally I would like to have new tracks laid down sometime next summer and released by next fall of 04. In the meantime, I am also working on some electronic techno/trance dance music with the flute. This project would be all computer based music with the the live flute playing over the loops. Since so far this project is 100% independent, the new projects all depend on time and finances. Everything from recording, performing, mixing, mastering, producing, graphics, financing, marketing and distribution is all handled by myself right now. It takes a lot of time and energy, and sometimes I wonder why I put myself through so much. But when I receive comments like yours Peter, and comments from listeners telling me how much they really enjoy the music, it's makes it all worthwhile. So, Thank You Peter!
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Listen to Zig Noda exclusively right here on CIM Radio Smooth Jazz. Visit jazzlover.com for more information on Zig Noda and his debut album "In This Moment".
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