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.

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 5th 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.

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 remixof Saturn Calling.

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 #12The 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

On July 27, 2014, Jeff announced that he has begun work on a new album to be released in early 2015. The new album will be called Next. He will again be working with producer William Ackerman, engineered by Tom Eaton who also plays synth, bass guitar and keys. The new album will include guest performances from Nile Rodgers, Chuck Rainey, Tony Levin and Michael Manring on bass, Bernard Purdie on drums, Catherine Marie Charlton and Philip Aaberg on piano, singers Melissa Kaplan from Universal Hall Pass and Noah Wilding, and Shambhu Vineberg, Will Ackerman, Carl Weinberg, Scott Tarulli, Todd Boston and Taylor Barefoot on guitar, Britt Brady and Ricky Kej on loop and track programming, Vanil Veigas on sarangi and Jeff Taboloff on saxophone. Principal recording begins on October 20, 2014 at Imaginary Road Studios in Windham County, Vermont. Principal recording has been completed and Next will be mastered on March 20, 2015 by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering in Portland, ME. Next will be released on April 14, 2015. In May and June 2015, Next reached #1 on the Zone Music Reporter New Age/Ambient radio chartsNext has been nominated for Album of the Year, and Best Chill/Groove Album at Zone Music ReporterOn May 7, 2016, Next was chosen by broadcasters as the Album of the Year and Best Chill/Groove Album at Zone Music Reporter

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, Carl Weingarten, Jennifer DeFrayne, Louis Colaiannia, Angelo Rapan, and Masako.

On Friday December 6, 2013 the 56th Annual Grammy Awards nominations were announced. Jeff played trumpet and flugelhorn on two of the nominated recordings. The two nominated albums are Love's River – Laura Sullivan, nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album and Pete Seeger: The Storm King; Stories, Narratives, Poems. by Pete Seeger, nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album

On January 26, 2014 Love's River – Laura Sullivan, won the 56th Annual Grammy Award for Best New Age Album

• At Last (Retso, 2004)
• Released (Retso, 2005)
• True (Retso, 2007)
• Surrender (Retso, 2011)
• Next (Retso, 2015)