For the discerning listener, Paris Zax is a breath of fresh air whose musical range encompasses a virtual jukebox of instrumental might. Exposed to heavy duty thinking cap material while young, Paris had everyone from Mozart to Lou Reed to Bowie, Miles Davis, Lighting Hopkins, Led Zeppelin, and of course Hendrix, laying the law down for any futurist soundscaping, courtesy of his father and older brothers.
Armed with drum kit skills since 12-years-old, this college dropout has provided the backbeat backgrounds for Los Angeles luminaries such as Busdriver (Temporary Forever and Fear Of A Black Tangent), Existereo (Dirty Deeds & Dead Flowers), Awol One, The Shape Shifters, Ellay Khule, Blackbird, Neila, and Metfly.
After cutting his teeth on those plus a slew of other beats, Paris was then ready to begin work on his solo opus. "It took me my whole life to make…" he says when asked about the origin and evolution of his debut album Unpath'd Waters.
He cites legendary jazz producer and close friend Jack Lewis, and his immense musical knowledge, as the catalyst that pushed the album in the direction under which it was incubated. Recording the majority of the album in a studio apartment in the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles, his primary goal was to produce "an album that people could press play and not have to skip a track.
" That goal, although hard to achieve by most, was easily surpassed and reset by young Mr. Zax. Unpath'd Waters is the end result – a seamless collage of hip-hop, jazz, blues and psychedelic rock. Paris does everything from hand-over scores to detective cinema noir films that never made it off of the cutting room floor to constructing real compositional pieces that go above and beyond the "beat tape" philosophy that so many bedroom producers seem to hold dear to their hearts in this day and age.
Guest performers include Ozomatli bassist Will Dog, as well as jazz giants Snooky Young and Bob Elford. Snooky has played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and many others over the years; his first recording was in 1930.
Paris describes the recording experience with heartfelt reverence: "Working with them was great. Real legends and masters of their art. I feel extremely lucky just to have met them."With plans to stay occupied in the coming days collaborating with lyricists Subtitle and Blackbird for their respective projects along with "saving some beats for a second instro," Paris is gearing himself up for a very busy year ahead.
With aspirations heading in the movie scoring and TV soundtrack direction, he's well on his way to becoming another key numeral in the instrumental versus neocomposer battle being waged in record store aisles and chat rooms abound.
And this is only his first album.
