It's All Because of You b/w Benjamin James - Just a Guitar Man

The Zaza Sound was a Toronto studio project created by composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Paul James Zaza, documenting the period when he was moving from pop recording and independent production into the film and television work that would define his career. Rather than functioning as a conventional touring band with a fixed public lineup, The Zaza Sound appears to have been a flexible studio identity used for Zaza’s own songs, instrumental productions and backing tracks recorded through his Toronto operation.

Classically trained in piano, harmony, orchestration and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Zaza entered professional music through performance rather than academia. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he played bass in the Toronto production of Hair at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and toured as a rock musician with The 5th Dimension. Those experiences gave him a practical understanding of pop arrangements, ensemble playing and the demands of professional production.

By the mid-1970s, Zaza was working extensively within Toronto’s recording industry. He established Zaza Sound Productions Ltd., building a studio environment in which he could write, arrange, record and produce material under his own direction. The Zaza Sound name emerged from this operation and served as both an artist credit and an identifiable house sound for recordings made under Zaza’s control.

The earliest known release credited to The Zaza Sound was ‘It’s All Because of You’, issued on the small Canadian Blue Chip label. Written and produced by Paul J. Zaza, the song was paired with Benjamin James’ ‘Just a Guitar Man’, also produced by Zaza and co-written with Cuff. The unusual split-artist single carried the catalogue numbers B.C. #1 and B.C. #2, suggesting that it may have been among the label’s first releases.

The record also introduced publishing names that recur within Zaza’s early work. ‘It’s All Because of You’ was published by Tanned Fur Music, while ‘Just a Guitar Man’ was divided between Tanned Fur and Zedesspee. The releases show Zaza already combining the roles of songwriter, producer and independent music publisher, a working method that later became central to his film-scoring career.

A second Blue Chip single paired ‘While You Were Away’ with ‘Windmill Song’. Both pieces were written and produced by Paul James Zaza at Zaza Sound Productions in Toronto and published through Zaza Sound Productions and Tanned Fur Music. The record’s B.C. #7 and B.C. #8 catalogue numbers indicate that the Blue Chip sequence continued beyond the two known Zaza Sound releases, although the full label catalogue and the identities of any additional performers involved have not yet been established.

The Zaza Sound name also appeared on Avril Chown’s 1980 debut single, ‘My Place Your Place’. Written by D. Wass and recorded at Zaza Sound in Toronto, the release featured Chown’s vocal performance on one side and an instrumental version credited to The Zaza Sound on the reverse. Issued by Cindril Records and promoted through Canadian trade advertising, the single demonstrates how the name functioned as a studio and backing-ensemble credit beyond Zaza’s own compositions.

The known Zaza Sound catalogue is small, but it belongs to a much larger body of work created during Zaza’s transition from performing musician to independent studio producer. In 1977, he also released several instrumental jazz-funk and disco-oriented recordings under his own name, including Le Payback, Zaza and Hot in Here. These projects reveal the same qualities heard in The Zaza Sound releases: concise arrangements, strong rhythmic construction and an ability to create polished recordings for a specific commercial purpose.

This studio discipline became increasingly valuable as Zaza moved into film. At the end of the 1970s, he collaborated with director Bob Clark and composer Carl Zittrer on Murder by Decree, earning the 1980 Genie Award for Best Music Score. He soon became one of Canada’s most prolific screen composers, writing for films including Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine, Porky’s, Curtains and A Christmas Story.

The Zaza Sound recordings therefore occupy an important place in Paul Zaza’s development. They capture the point at which he was building his own studio infrastructure, controlling publishing and production, and learning to create finished music quickly and efficiently. Those skills would later support a screen career encompassing more than 160 film and television productions.

Although the personnel behind The Zaza Sound have not been fully documented, the project was fundamentally an extension of Paul Zaza’s Toronto studio operation rather than a clearly defined public band. Its few known singles preserve an early chapter in the career of a composer who would become one of the central figures in Canadian film and television music.

-Robert Williston