Jeff Oster is an Independent Music Awards winner

Jeff Oster, a one-time limo driver, standup comic, bar-band musician and financial planner who has turned into an unexpected force in the world of instrumental music, has won in the category of “Best New Age Song” at the 2008 Independent Music Awards. At the same time, the composer, trumpeter and flugelhorn player has placed his music on iTunes, made a distribution deal with Artist Garage LLC and launched a Smooth Jazz radio promotion for his album and new single, “Serengeti.”
Oster, a Northern California-based artist who blends ambient grooves with warm, jazz-inflected playing, won for his song “Saturn Calling” at the 7th annual Independent Music Awards, which helps independent artists though yearlong promotion, marketing and distribution programs.
The IMAs are sponsored by the Music Resource Group and chosen by a prestigious group of judges that includes tastemakers from the worlds of radio, video, live concerts and the press, along with producers, musicians and such artists as Ray Davies, Suzanne Vega, Judy Collins, Charlie Musselwhite and Snoop Dogg.
“Saturn Calling” is the opening track on Oster’s second full-length album, 2007’s “True,” which was produced by Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman. That album, as well as his 2005 debut “Released” and the EP “At Last,” is now available for download on Apple’s iTunes service.
Oster, is signed to the Artist Garage label, which is distributed by Fontana Distribution, a subsidiary of the Universal Music Group and a full-service distributor for independent labels around the world. Fontana’s catalog includes close to 150 different labels in all genres, with artists that range from Mannheim Steamroller to Kiss, from rising classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein to punk pioneer Thurston Moore. Twenty-three Fontana-distributed records are currently nominated for Grammy Awards.
To further complement Oster’s success on New Age radio, the “True” album and an edited version of its track “Serengeti” have been serviced to more than 200 radio outlets playing the Smooth Jazz format in the United States and Canada. In its first week, the CD was listed among the most added new music at Radio & Records and at www.smoothjazz.com
Promotion for the CD and single is being handled by Peer Pressure Promotion/Roger Lifeset.
Both of Jeff Oster’s albums were named “CD of the Month” by Echoes, the daily two-hour music program hosted by John Diliberto and airing on 150 radio stations via Public Radio International. In September 2007, “True” was ranked as the Number One album by New Age Reporter.com, which tracks worldwide airplay for ambient, new age and chilled jazz music on more than 200 radio stations.
“It might sound like hyperbole, but we may be witnessing the emergence of the next instrumental superstar,” wrote Bill Binkelman in the New Age Reporter.