Award-winning local jazz vocalist, Chris Williams has been nominated in the category of Best Jazz for the Orange County Music Awards, to be held March 3 at The Grove in Anaheim.

  Psychedelic pranksters M'lumbo return with the amusingly titled Celestial Ghetto. The title of the album is quite fitting as M'lumbo draw from many sources, and can alternate seamlessly between the gritty and the ethereal. With M'lumbo, there is no distinction between high and low art where refined soloing is juxtaposed against a sense of nutty humor. This might be irritating to some (why obscure a perfectly good solo with seemingly random samples?) but this recording is refreshingly free from intellectual pretenses.

Nothing hurt the new age artists and their market more than the advent of smooth jazz. When smooth jazzers took the kind of music new agers had been creating and gave it a backbeat, along with obvious R&B sentimentality, sales of new age music dropped off the radar. A few of the more well-known new age musicians have survived, such as David Lanz, but in order to do so they moved their music more towards the light R&B stylings, smooth jazzers grew and cultivated. Another new ager who has survived this market shift is keyboardist and composer Keiko Matsui.

Pianist Assaf Gleizner, bass guitarist Koby Hayon and drummer Nadav Snir Zelniker form Trio Shalva. Shalva is a Hebrew word that means serenity. On Riding Alone, the ensemble’s independently-released recording, Trio Shalva explores standards and original music from Israel, their homeland. Trio Shalva’s sound, for the most part, is New Age. Think Scott Cossu or Fred Simon without the saxophonist out front.

Born in Argentina (1978). Rodriguez arrived to Spain in 1986, where he spent most of his childhood. At an early age, he began to study modern and classical music. Between the years of 1993-1999, Rodrigo tutored at home enrolled with several teachers of classical guitar until he was 22 years old. Rodrigo's professional music career began in Spain. It was there that he discovered his first Asian instrument the Shakuhachi flute. Fascinated by Japanese music, he travelled to Japan several times to enhance his knowledge. He studied classical and traditional Japanese music under the lineages of Katsuya Yokoyama with the Master Kakizakai Kaoru in the International Shakuhachi Kenshu-kan School. His interest in traditional and ethnic musical instruments began before he reached his teenage years. As a young child, Rodrigo had a vision for imitating the music and sounds he heard in his mind. His many and diverse travels enabled him to acquire a rare collection of experiences from which to create his unique compositional language. Since 2004, Rodrigo has been the first musician in Japan to introduce innovative and developed instruments from European countries.For example, the Hang Drum, which significantly influenced his music and its composition, altering Japanese audiences' perception of 21st century sounds and their textures. In 2006, several compositions from his album "Inner Thoughts" were licensed, arousing the interest of a well known record label, Gemini Sun Record based in Los Angeles, CA. Rodrigo's compositions can be divided into three basic categories :New Age, World Music and Contemporary Music. In recent years, he has performed numerous concerts in both the West and the East, at legendary stages like Imperial Hotel Tokyo and NHK Culture Center of Japan. In the late 2009, Rodriguez started to study with the renowned master of Japan's leading players of shakuhachi Miyata Kohachiro,interested in Contemporary and Koten Shakuhachi. Rodrigo showed deep interest and dedication to Miyata's compositions and repertoire. He is also is working as full-time instructor for the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Balearic Island in Spain(Conselleria d'Educacio i Cultura) spreading the Shakuhachi tradition,culture, and philosophy. Thereafter, he resolved to study all types of traditional Japanese music, paying special attention to the differences between the two very different musical traditions.

Pianist and Denver, Colorado native Lisa Downing has spent time touring with new-age artists like Liz Story and Lee Bartley, as well as shared the program with other artists like David Lanz. Her collegiate music degree is a joint one between the University of Colorado at Denver and Metropolitan State College.A Delicate Balance is her third solo piano recording and has a style very reminiscent of Liz Story. Downing’s 12-track, 42-minute disc is a collection of solo piano pieces inspired by peop

Pianist and Denver, Colorado native Lisa Downing has spent time touring with new-age artists like Liz Story and Lee Bartley, as well as shared the program with other art…

A new age experiment that was initially intended to explore the inner depths of Marc Martino’s imagination, this beautiful, often grandiose, sometimes even celestial pro…

If gentle, acoustic waves of peace, light, and sound are what you seek to rid yourself of the day’s rough handling of you, you really must give The Sound a list…

OK, picture or feel this. It’s been a long, long exhausting day and you just want to plop down on the sofa or in your recliner and enjoy some really good acoustic piano …

Flutist Nicholas Gunn, pianist Loren Gold and guitarists David Arkenstone and Johannes Linstead have aligned themselves as voices of plurality to record a Live!…

Norwegian pianist and composer Jon Balke has been performing as a professional since the age of 18. His early work includes time with Karin Krog and Arild Andersen. Late…

Back in 2006, I wrote here about this rocker guitarist-turned-introspective-new-ager and his sampler album, 1st Samuel 16:16-23. I noted that, while his Web sit…

Like your music with pinches of different spices all wrapped into a neat little new age package? Darol Anger (violins) and Mike Marshall (guitars, mandolins and mandocel…

Innovative? Atypical? Illuminating? Yes, to all of these terms when describing Steven Messenger’s Edge of the Wall. Messenger takes a bold step into the large, …

Here’s a very, very noble first for me. First of all, this is a project undertaken by a group of non-profit artists donating the profits from the sale of this album to D…

Simply put, Ice - Piano Slightly Chilled, the latest golden piano gem from Fiona Joy Hawkins, is a big "wow." In whatever category you feel this belongs (New ag…

I have to admit that I approached Karen Marie Garret’s CD "It’s About the Rose" with some trepidation. I am not a greater lover of the New Age music genre. Also the pros…

Tender is the touch that caresses the ivory tones. So angelic it brings the flowers to bloom and the sun to set. This, my dear friends, is Elise Lebec. Experience her em…

A very serene piece of work by an artist considered to be "one of the world’s leaders in creating eloquently-spiritual, modern-classical music that fully integrates elem…

Solo piano albums are among my favorites. The opportunity to listen to one person be who they are with one instrument and no others is truly awe-inspiring. This is the c…

Pastellic Reflections also equal musical reflections. Bringing together acoustic guitar and classical guitars, Joe Battaglia and Terrence McManus have come toge…

In the age of mixing genres comes a CD that purports to be many things. Jazz, rock, new age, acoustic, electronic, etc. While you can call your music anything you want, …

Soothing harmonic elegance with an underpinning of jazz free spirit, the Mirobolus String Trio produces beautiful music of classic distinction. The first track of the CD…

David Lanz’ Spirit Romance is his first for Narada since 1998. In the time in between, he has recorded an independent album and a few for Decca, which have sold…

This is the third album I have covered by Shannon Janssen and I am continually impressed and enlightened by her tremendous talent on the piano. The Keys Of Ch…

One World is a composite of excerpts and compositions from the pens of master musicians Jody Espina and Rolf Sturm. The title suggests world music, but it is more …

Suzanne Ciani takes listeners on an exhilarating voyage on Silver Ship, her first release of original work in six years. Ciani is a five-time Grammy nominee and w…

Out of the depths of the mass of instrumental jazz there is a rare spark, which ignites our attention, with no rhyme or reasonable explanation we turn our heads and list…

Don’t expect Broadcast No. 1 to fit into any category you might have in your library of recordings, it’s unique unto itself and defies description. With this debut…

Eric Roberts Summons Music from a Silent Place Eric Roberts describes his music as "jazzy, non-commercial new age." Technically, these origin…

Chris Nielsen takes you on a Mystic Holiday through his music and multimedia experiences on his website. He is a media developer and a music man. This CD…

Bassist/keyboardist and San Francisco native Andre Marcel Ajamu Akinyele’s sixth recording as a leader, his first using Ajamu Akinyele as his name - the previous five we…

Someone once asked me what my favorite instrument was. I guess they thought since I am a drummer, I would automatically spit out my love for all things percussive! Howev…

"Open air," the title track of Dagobert Bohm’s 1999 released (released this year), Circle Around, appropriately describes the environment for all of the music c…