 Jeff OsterWhen Animal Media Foundation founder Dexter Brown approached trumpet and flugelhorn player Jeff Oster about contributing a song to the double CD Giving Animals a Voice Through Music: The Best Friends 25th Anniversary Collection, Oster didn’t needed any arm-twisting. “I’ve always felt a great empathy for all kinds of animals, and I’m sure I always will,” Oster says. “And that’s why I’m attracted to the work AMF and Best Friends do. If there’s anything I can do to support the effort to make an animal’s life better and to educate people, it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.” Oster composes and plays a fusion of jazz, classical, new age, electronica, and acoustic music. Though he’s played trumpet since he was eight and had always dreamed about becoming a professional musician, it wasn’t until 2003 – after having worked as a stockbroker, financial planner, limo driver, and even a comedian – that he dedicated himself to it. He made several of his songs available online, and he soon attracted the attention of Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hills Records. Ackerman offered to produce Oster’s first full-length album. Titled Released, the album garnered him the awards for Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 2005 New Age Reporter Lifestyle Music Awards. His follow-up and most recent album, True, won the same awards in 2008. A song from that album, “Saturn Calling,” also won the Best New Age Song award at the 2008 Independent Music Awards. Oster became familiar with Best Friends in 2007, when Brown invited him along to the Lint Roller Party in Hollywood, California, a gala fundraising event for Best Friends’ Los Angeles programs. The event made him a supporter. The song Oster is contributing to the double CD album couldn’t be more appropriate. Off True, it’s called “Serengeti,” after one of the most animal-abundant places on earth, which was, of course, the inspiration for the song. Collaborating with Oster on the song is the popular Ugandan singer Samite, who speaks in the middle of the song about the animals who populate the area. “The inspiration was the cycle of life that has existed there unchanged for millions of years,” Oster says. “I left space in the middle of the song for Samite to speak in his language about the Serengeti. It’s about man not messing up things much bigger than himself, like that ecosystem. Samite’s words brought it all together. The Serengeti is one of the most majestic places on earth. But as important, it represents life that was here before us.” This is by no means the first time Oster has written a song inspired by or involving animals. He got into the act of writing such songs several years ago with “Gaviota,” Spanish for “seagull.” “There’s something about the freedom of birds that inspires me,” Oster says. “The ability to play music allows me to touch that kind of freedom.” Giving Animals a Voice Through Music is scheduled to be released March 11 but you can pre-order the CD or sample some of the songs. As part of Best Friends’ 25th anniversary in 2009, our goal is to double our membership so we can double our efforts to bring about a time when all companion animals have a forever home. What can you do to help? Give the Gift of a Best Friends membership to family and friends. http://www.jeffoster.com/ |
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