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Jeff Oster – NEXT:  There’s truly a good reason why Jeff’s “Surrender” album (issue # 118) was chosen as a “PICK” for that issue… the one-sheet with this new release declares that his trumpet/flugelhorn is a cross betwixt Miles & Pink Floyd… though that sounds like an odd comparison – nothing could be more accurate.  As I listen to the beauty emanating from the title track, “Next“, I can’t help but be “transported” into “the zone”… I can tell you right now, you simply MUST listen to this entire set with your headphones on… no interruptions, only the calming tranquility that a true artist can evoke.  “Turn Left At San Pancho” is slightly more upbeat, and will melt the heartstrings of any true jazz lover… every note is “right on” the mark, folks! A part of this excellence may be that Will Ackerman co-produced it, but when you listen to Jeff’s mastery on my personal favorite of the dozen tracks, the 4:04 “Ibiza Sunrise“,  you’ll know that the tunes on this CD will stay on your playlists – FOREVER!  I give Jeff a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, with an “EQ” (energy quotient) of (a perfect) 5.00 – meaning that this outing also receives another “PICK” for “best trumpet/flugelhorn” album of this issue.  Get more information at Jeff’s website.

— Rotcod Zzaj

Read the review on Improvijazzation Nation

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This review originally appeared at Wind and Wire.

Jeff Oster’s Next (as in “the next big thing”) is a masterful collection of tunes that blurs the lines between jazz, chill, funk and ambient/new age as if boundaries simply didn’t exist. It is certainly one of the most entertaining albums of recent years, one that is polished to a chromium sheen by the ace production/engineering team of Ackerman and Eaton (I shouldn’t have to give you their first names at this point), suffused with genuine warmth and humanity, and overflowing with a sense that the many musicians on the album had a great time recording it. (more…)

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This post originally appeared at Hypnagogue

According to his website, what flugelhorn player Jeff Oster offers up on his latest album, Next, is “New Age Ambient Funk.” In fact, he says he’s created it. I think that’s a pretty fair claim, but let’s also give a nod to the killer lineup he’s pulled into the studio to make it happen. We’re talking folks such add Nile Rodgers, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Chuck Rainey, Michael Manring, Ricky Kej, Tony Levin, Todd Boston, and Philip Aaberg, among others—and also got Will Ackerman to man the production helm. With that checklist of style squarely in place, Oster proceeds to get his smooth on and just seduce his listeners with gorgeous jazz stylings for the next hour. (more…)

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This review originally appeared at vice.com

One good thing about 2015 is that nothing means anything anymore. Music is completely amorphous—hip teens from Omaha slow down elevator music and invent vaporwave. Fat little white kids appropriate the hip-hop vernacular and end up on World Star. Even the indie rock wimps make black metal now. You can pretty much do whatever you want. When Mac Demarco rips off Barry Manilow and bros mosh to it in sold-out venues, you know that the concept of “Cool Music” is gone. (more…)

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NASA

All That Cassini Jazz: Musician Uses Saturn’s True Voice to Make Beautiful Music, 04.23.08

Imagine being able to listen to the music of the ringed planet Saturn. Now you can! Musician Jeff Oster has turned the eerie sounds coming from the Cassini spacecraft into “Saturn Calling,” a beautiful, ambient, new age jazz piece. “Saturn Calling” won the 2008 Independent Music Award for Best New Age Song and is the first song heard on Oster’s latest album, “True.”

– Laura Woodmansee – NASA and JPL (Apr 23, 2008)

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ALL MUSIC GUIDE

While his ambient-electronic approach to the trumpet and flugelhorn are perhaps not as commercial and in the pocket as 2000s hitmakers Rick Braun and Chris Botti, the Florida-bred Jeff Oster — years after abandoning his musical dreams in favor of success in the financial world — scored impressive breakthrough success in the new age world with his 2005 debut Released. (more…)