Wayne Gratz

Throughout the 1990s pianist Wayne Gratz issued a steady succession of refined, new age-tinged quiet piano recordings, each shaped by its own distinct atmosphere and thematic focus. His affiliation with the Narada label supplied considerable visibility, establishing him among the more prominent and commercially successful figures in that specialized field. Reviewers dismissed his work as bland rather than inventive and sharply criticized its broad, commercial orientation. Gratz disregarded these assessments and sustained an unusually high output, most conspicuously in 1997 when four separate albums appeared. He consistently anchored each project around a single, attractive concept—sometimes reworking well-known popular songs, at other times paying tribute to specific places. Although he handled the bulk of the composing as well as the piano and synthesizer parts himself, he regularly brought in additional musicians whose varied timbres and approaches enriched the overall accessible style.