Jason Mraz

Artist's Website

Hailing from Mechanicsville, Va., singer/songwriter Jason Mraz names Dave Matthews as a major influence for his own brand of music described as “world meets folk meets trippy meets jazz.” His critically acclaimed debut album, Waiting For My Rocket To Come (Elektra 2002), is filled with uniquely crafted songs as pitch-perfect and wide ranging as you’re likely to find on any debut album this year.

Mraz honed his intimate approach to audience building in the burgeoning coffee shop scene of San Diego. He had left Virginia for California in 1999, after a brief false start at a music career in New York City in the mid-90′s (he briefly attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy but dropped out a year later when he took up the guitar and began to focus on songwriting). During Mraz’s early coffee shop days, he hooked up with drummer Toca Rivera, whose Djembe style percussion and charismatic stage presence adds to Mraz’s one-of-a-kind live performance. Over the next two years, Mraz’s following grew outside of San Diego to Los Angeles, garnering the attention of record labels and in early 2002, Mraz signed to Elektra Records.