Jeff Oster

Jeff Oster is an American brass instrument player who has recorded flugelhorn or trumpet with artists such as William Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records. He got his start in the Coral Gables (Florida) Senior High School Band of Distinction playing under William "Uncle Willie" Ledue.

2004-2005 - AT LAST and RELEASED
In 2004, Oster and Will Ackerman collaborated on, and Ackerman produced, Oster's four-track EP, At Last, and followed this with his CD Released in 2005. Released won the 2005 Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album awards at the NAR Lifestyle Music Awards presented by NewAgeReporter.com, a music airplay tracking website. At Last, co-written by Jeff Oster and Will Ackerman, and performed by Jeff Oster, Will Ackerman, Philip Aaberg and Happy Rhodes, also won the Best New Age Song award at the 2005 Independent Music Awards. Listeners of the national radio program Echoes voted Released as its 6th-place winner for The 2005 Listeners Poll, and the Echoes staff chose it as one of the 25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2007, at #18. Also appearing on Released are Jeff Pearce (American artist), Charlie Bisharat, Philip Aaberg, Gregory Douglass, Bryan Carrigan, Taylor Barefoot, Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, Jeremy Mendicino, and Happy Rhodes.

2007 - true
In 2007, Will Ackerman produced True, which features music composed by Oster and Ackerman, Ugandan vocalist Samite, Jan Pulsford and Patrick Gorman, and guest performances from Michael Manring, Philip Aaberg, Eugene Friesen, Keith Carlock, Jan Pulsford, Patrick Gorman, Samite, Derrik Jordan, Bryan Carrigan and singers Melissa Kaplan from Splashdown, and Noah Wilding.

In December 2007, one of the songs from True, the composition "Saturn Calling", written and arranged by Oster, and mixed by engineers Bruce Swedien and Corin Nelsen, won the Best New Age Song award at the 2008 Independent Music Awards. Listeners of the national radio program Echoes voted True as its 10th-place winner for The 2007 Listeners Poll, and the Echoes staff chose it as one of the 25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2007. True won the 2007 NAR Lifestyle Music Awards for Album Of The Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in March 2008. In 2009, Echoes listeners voted True No. 88 of the 200 CDs for 20 Years of Echoes poll

On April 23, 2008, NASA and JPL added a profile of Jeff Oster and his song "Saturn Calling" to the NASA and Cassini-Huygens websites. "Saturn Calling" includes a sound excerpt from the Cassini spacecraft's recording of the auroras of Saturn.

On January 25, 2011, Jace Vek created a symphonic remix of Saturn Calling.

2011 - surrender
Jeff Oster has completed work on a new album in Los Angeles, California. Produced by Bryan Carrigan and Jeff Oster, the album is called Surrender, and was released on August 16, 2011 on Retso Records. Also appearing on Surrender is vocalist Diane Arkenstone.

In September, 2011, Echoes, the nationally syndicated radio program hosted by John Diliberto chose Surrender as its September CD of the Month. In September and October 2011, Surrender reached #1 on the Zone Music Reporter New Age/Ambient radio charts

On December 6, 2011, Surrender was chosen by the staff at Echoes as one of the Top 25 Essential CDs of 2011, ranking it at #12 The listeners of Echoes voted Surrender as its 7th most popular CD on the Best of Echoes 2011 Listeners Poll on December 12, 2011

On February 12, 2012, Surrender was nominated by broadcasters worldwide for Album of the Year and Best Chill/Groove Album for the 2011 ZMR Awards at ZoneMusicReporter.com

On March 8, 2012, Surrender was nominated for Best New Age Album, and Beautiful Silence, a track from Surrender was nominated for Best New Age Song at the 11th Annual Independent Music Awards.

On March 11, 2012, Surrender won the ZMR Music Award for Album of the Year and Best Chill/Groove Album for the 2011 ZMR Awards,at ZoneMusicReporter.com

Collaborations
Oster has played flugelhorn or trumpet on albums by Karen Marie Garrett, Rory Sullivan, Kathy Moxham, Matt Millecchia, Kori Linae Carothers, Lawrence Blatt, Will Ackerman, Fiona Joy Hawkins, Rocky Fretz, Stanton Lanier, Frank Smith, Garneau, Ann Sweeten, Dana Cunningham, Tim Gaetano, Bob Belden, Shambhu Vineberg, Heidi Breyer, Ann Licater, River Donaghey, Jamie Bonk, Robert Linton, Ronnda Cadle, Laura Sullivan and Carl Weingarten.

Discography

 * At Last (2004), Retso Records
 * Released (2005), Retso Records
 * True (2007), Retso Records
 * Surrender (2011), Retso Records