One of most appealing things about Jeff Oster’s music is that the New Age jazz trumpet and flugelhorn king is always testing the limits of the genre, often breaking free of it. The constancy of his art through all the experimentation is his devotion to a chilled out mood and it’s always interesting to hear him take different approaches to achieve that goal.
While up in Canada to care of his significant other convalescing from ovarian cancer, Oster knocked around some tunes that he later recorded, mixed and sometimes remixed by younger artists hip to newer music forms like lo-fi hip hop, a jazz/hip hop blend pioneered by Japanese DJ Nujabes. It’s sort of a subgenre of downtempo, but with the DIY imperfections that’s made lo-fi music so popular in recent years. The jazzy elements and the atmospheric mixes make it the perfect platform for Oster’s expressive horn.
The results of these collaborations came together in a new album from Oster, hØwling lØØn, which is unlike anything he’s done before and at the same time couldn’t have come from anyone else. Those familiar to Oster’s work will find the celestial melody and his floating, muted flugelhorn of a tune like the aptly titled “Old Dog, New Tricks” very much part of his signature but Tom Eaton’s beats, keyboards, guitar and bass as well as his mix puts Oster’s music into a different realm. It’s a realm that’s closer to the pulse of the kind of music being made by creative people perhaps a generation younger than Oster.
Amid the vinyl crackle and hiss, “Winterpeg” has a warm glow shining through. The lounge piano, acoustic bass and even saxophone loops dubbed into “Weight On Me” sounds very 50’s and very 2010’s at the same time. enluv puts a mix to Oster’s recording of “Slow Drift” that includes a good dose of hip hop backbeat and a little RnB rhythm guitar.
Just as he did with Ruslan Sirota for Reach, Jeff Oster found collaborators perfect for taking his music into fresh territory, revitalizing it without stripping out its highly individual Oster character.
Get Jeff Oster’s hØwling lØØn from Bandcamp today.
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