GRAMMY®-Winning Guitarist Will Ackerman, Pianist Fiona Joy, Guitarist Lawrence Blatt and Trumpet & Flugelhorn player Jeff Oster

Release Debut Album: FLOW

The new ensemble has won The International Music Awards (Album of the Year) and an International Music Award (Album of the Year).

Following Two Months at #1 on the ZMR Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart, an Appearance on Nationally-syndicated PRI Radio Show ECHOES and Multiple “Best of 2017” Honors.

Music enters a dynamic new era with FLOW, a fresh ensemble comprised of four innovative, critically-acclaimed and highly-awarded independent artists: legendary GRAMMY®-winning guitarist Will Ackerman, pianist Fiona Joy, acoustic guitarist Lawrence Blatt and trumpet and flugelhorn player Jeff Oster. The group debuted live to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, won the Zone Music Awards much coveted “Album of the Year” and The International Music Awards (IMA) “Album of the Year”.

Released on Blatt’s label LMB Music, it was Blatt’s passion for jazz fusion that sparked the idea of an ensemble. “The inspiration comes from Chick Corea’s classic ’70s all-star band Return to Forever with Stanley Clarke and Al Di Meola, who joined forces, wrote music and produced a sound that was more powerful than any of their individual works,” he says. “That was the idea, bringing great musicians together with this kind of concept,” he adds. “When I started thinking about who it might be, my thoughts turned naturally to Jeff and Fiona. We knew pretty quickly that this was going to develop into something.”

FLOW’s eponymous debut was recorded at Imaginary Road Studios in Southern Vermont, the longtime creative studio of Ackerman, founder of the legendary Windham Hill label. Windham Hill became a catalyst for a global musical phenomenon, driven by its bountiful legacy of best-selling instrumental solo works (George Winston, Liz Story, Alex DeGrassi, Michael Hedges) and Grammy-winning ensembles (Shadowfax). The artists concur they are pleased to continue that tradition in a modern way.

Michael Foster of Ambient Visions reviewed FLOW’s debut performance writing, “Their relaxed nature onstage and the quality of the music they produced did not speak of artists being thrown together simply to create a ‘supergroup’ but rather it showed individual artists who had gravitated towards one another and shared a unified vision of what they were coming together to accomplish with the music that was pouring out of each of them.” Foster’s full review can be accessed at http://ambientvisions.com/flowconcert.htm.

FLOW, the album, was an immediate success, spending two months at #1 on Zone Music Reporter’s Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart, and receiving a host of “Best of 2017” honors. They also performed live on Echoes Radio (PRI), and have secured positive press in Billboard magazine, Acoustic Guitar magazine, Keyboard magazine, Huff Post and more.

The all-star quartet performed at the 14th Annual Zone Music Awards Show, at Loyola University’s Roussel Hall in New Orleans.

As solo artists, Fiona, Blatt, Oster and Ackerman have all won or been nominated for ZMR Awards earlier in their careers. In addition to Ackerman’s Grammy, they’ve also earned recognition at the IMAs, HMMAs, IAMAs, Arias, and a catalog full of #1 albums in the Contemporary Instrumental Music genre.