Nick Zala (born 21 January 1959), is an English pedal steel and guitar player from

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England.

Early life

Born Nicholas Michael Anthony Zala, he was exposed to music from a very young age. His grandparents were both skilled pianists - one a sight reader, and the other a

jazz musician This is a list of jazz musicians by instrument based on existing articles on Wikipedia. Do not enter names that lack articles. Do not enter names that lack sources. Accordion * Kamil Běhounek (1916–1983) * Luciano Biondini (born 1971) * A ...

who played entirely by ear. He took up the cello at the age of seven but gave it up only two years later in favour of the more portable guitar. By the age of 15, he had received jazz guitar tuition from

Ike Isaacs Ike Isaacs may refer to: * Ike Isaacs (guitarist) (1919–1996), Burmese-British jazz guitarist * Ike Isaacs (bassist) (1923–1981), American jazz bassist {{Hndis, Isaacs, Ike ...

and some useful advice in a one-to-one with

Joe Pass Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. Pass is well known for his work stemming from numerous collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, an ...

Career

After 30 years as a professional guitar-player and teacher, Zala took up the

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

. His first band,

The Loose Salute The Loose Salute are a British band founded by drummer Ian McCutcheon of Slowdive and Mojave 3 who also sings and plays guitar. The band consists Lisa Delatour Billson (vocals, keys, percussion), Charlotte King (vocals, percussion, bells and w ...

, contacted him eight weeks after he had bought his pedal steel. A positive review of his first gig with

appeared in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', boosting his career. Between 2003 and 2007, he recorded on eleven albums, toured in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, appeared on television and radio, and made it into the top ten of the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, with pop band McFly's

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

-selling album ''

Motion In The Ocean ''Motion in the Ocean'' is the third studio album released by English pop rock band McFly. The album was released in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2006. The album has sold more than 300,000 copies in the UK since its release, being certified ...

''. Numerous albums have subsequently followed, both in the retail and production music areas, and likewise many sessions, both on guitar, pedal steel and other instruments, including

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

and

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

. His latest title ''Jazz Guitar'' described by him as "a homage to Ike (Isaacs), and Joe (Pass), and a fresh look at the genre". In 2012, Zala played guitar and pedal steel in "Acetones" with Alan Darby (guitar), Jim Watson (keyboards), and Jonathan Noyce (bass). Zala has been working with composer Chris Bangs on the feature film, ''Highly Functional'' set for U.S. release in September 2016 (pedal steel, guitar, mandolin).

Discography

* 2003 - Seafood - ''As The Cry Flows'' * 2004 - The General Store - ''Mountain Rescue'' * 2004 - Frankie Miller - ''Long Way Home'' * 2005 - The Loose Salute - ''Suck It Up Buttercup'' * 2006 - Mojave Three - ''Puzzles Like You'' * 2006 - McFly - ''Motion In The Ocean'' * 2006 - Songs From The Blue House - ''Tree'' * 2007 - Jessica Blake - ''Three Good Reason'' * 2007 - Matt Willis - ''Crash'' * 2007 - The Loose Salute - ''Tuned To Love'' * 2007 - Virginia Younger - ''Fall In Love Again'' * 2010 - ''Bottleneck Banjo'' (Library/Production) * 2010 - ''Light Country Ballads'' (Library/Production) * 2010 - ''Light Country Ballads Volume 2'' (Library/Production) * 2010 -'' Pedal Steel Themes and Beds'' (Library/Production) * 2010 - ''Pedal Steel Themes and Beds Volume 2'' (Library/Production) * 2011 - ''Classical Guitar Concertos'' * 2011 - ''Classical Guitar Concertos Volume 2'' * 2011 -'' Pedal Steel Heaven'' * 2011 - ''Pedal Steel Heaven Volume 2'' * 2011 - ''The Ultimate Folk Collection'' * 2011 - ''The Ultimate Folk Collection Volume 2'' * 2011 - ''The Ultimate Folk Collection Volume 3'' * 2011 - ''The Ultimate Folk Collection Volume 4'' * 2011 - ''Classical Guitar Masterpieces'' * 2011 - ''Classical Guitar Masterpieces Volume 2'' * 2011 - ''The Platinum Country Collection'' * 2011 - ''The Platinum Country Collection Volume 2'' * 2011 - ''The Platinum Country Collection Volume 3'' * 2011 - ''The Platinum Country Collection Volume 4'' * 2011 -'' American Anthems'' * 2011 -'' American Anthems Volume 2'' * 2011 -'' Ultimate Love Songs Collection'' * 2011 -'' Ultimate Love Songs Collection Volume 2'' * 2011 - ''The Hank Williams Songbook'' * 2011 - ''Bluegrass Greats'' * 2011 - ''Music Of Love'' * 2011 - ''Music Of Love Volume 2'' * 2011 - ''Music Of Love Volume 3'' * 2011 - ''Strictly Swing'' * 2011 -'' Strictly Ballroom Swing'' * 2012 - ''Absolute Guitar'' * 2012 - ''Romantic Guitar Collection'' * 2012 - ''Romantic Guitar Collection Volume 2'' * 2012 - ''Country Classics'' * 2012 -'' Light Jazz Guitar Themes and Beds'' (Library/Production) * 2012 - ''Light Jazz Guitar Themes and Beds Volume 2 ''(Library/Production) * 2012 - ''Absolute Love'' * 2012 -'' 40 Folk Classics'' * 2012 - ''Songs From The Blue House - IV'' * 2012 -'' Songs From the Blue House - You’re So Vain'' * 2013 - ''Peter Sanford - Help For Heroes'' * 2013 -'' Jazz Guitar''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zala, Nick 1959 births Living people English rock guitarists English pop guitarists English jazz guitarists English male guitarists English multi-instrumentalists People from Chipping Barnet Pedal steel guitarists Musicians from Hertfordshire Musicians from the London Borough of Barnet