Peter White - Light of Day (2025)

Gearing up for the release of his highly anticipated 17th album Light of Day in early 2025, veteran guitarist and contemporary jazz icon Peter White is celebrating a series of key personal and professional milestones. Having just turned 70, the British born artist says of the new collection, “I think this recording is one of the best I’ve ever made. I have as much enthusiasm and energy for music as I did in my twenties!”

There are a lot of exciting twists and turns in the production throughout. Case in point, “Odyssey” features expansive arrangement, an excursion full of different moods, twists and turns, uncertainty and explosive excitement. Likewise, White gets the album off to a rollicking, rip-roaring start with the buoyant “Catalonia,” whose spirit of high adventure echoes some of the guitarist’s earlier epic tunes like “Ramon’s Revenge” (from Good Day) and “Don Quixote’s Final Quest” (from Smile). At the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, White fulfills a career-long goal by having legendary saxophonist Ernie Watts join him on the soulful, sensually romantic ballad “Enchanted” and taps one of smooth jazz’s most exciting young artists, saxophonist Vincent Ingala, to create a passionate duet with his guitar on the heartfelt ballad “I Love You Still.” Also in this gentler vein is the lilting, graceful tune “Till I See You Again”, White’s tribute to one of the genre’s most impactful and beloved artists, the late guitarist Nick Colionne.

Over the course of his 35- year recording career, White has had four #1 Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums and seven #1 Smooth Jazz Airplay hits.