Mr. A-Z

Background:

Grammy Award nominated American singer and songwriter Jason Mraz was a hit in the Southern California club circuit before establishing himself as a major label artist with his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, in 2002. The album, which contained the popular single “The Remedy (I Won't Worry),” made Mraz a platinum-selling entertainer in 2005. He also won three San Diego Awards for Best Acoustic (2002), Artist of the Year and Song of the Year (both 2003). The follow-up effort, Mr. A-Z, released in July 2005, reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album charts and brought him his Grammy nomination. He is currently recording his third album, slated to be released in the fall of 2007. His new single, “The Beauty in Ugly,” was released in early 2007.

An eclectic artist with multiple and varied stylistic influences, including rock, pop, country, jazz, hip hop and rap, Mraz's popularity has grown outside of the United States to Ireland, England, Korea, Japan, Australia, and Southern Asia, including the Philippines. It has been reflected in a number of his sold-out shows in those countries. In concerts, Mraz has performed with various musicians such as Alanis Morissette, The Rolling Stones, Bushwalla and Rob Thomas. In 2005, he was featured alongside other singers like Michelle Branch, Keith Urban and Michelle Williams in an ad for The Gap, “Favorite.”

As for his personal life, the 5-foot, 9-inch performer is divorced from Sheridan Edley Mraz, whom he married in 2001. He had a long-term relationship with San Diego singer/songwriter and former Roxy model Tristan Prettyman, whom he met at a coffee club in San Diego. On February 14, 2006, he stated on stage at a show in the United Kingdom that she had split up with him earlier that day by e-mail. Mraz and Prettyman wrote two songs together, “Shy That Way” and “All I Want For Christmas Is Us.”

Frost

Childhood and Family:

Jason Thomas Mraz was born on June 23, 1977, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. His last name means “frost” and it is of Czech origin. Growing up in a suburb of Richmond, Jason became an admirer of the Dave Matthews Band and local roots musicians like the Agents of Good Roots. Hiss real introduction to music came when he took part in musical theater, an interest that led the Lee Davis High School graduate to study musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. He left college after a year when he picked up the guitar and started to focus on songwriting.

In 2001, the Virginia native was married to Sheridan Edley Mraz, but they divorced shortly after that. The two remain good friends.

The Remedy

Career:

After a brief tenure at New York's American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Jason Mraz headed to San Diego, California, in 1999 to pursue his musical career. He began performing at local shops and booked a regular gig at the now-defunct Java Joe's coffee shop. Concurrently, he met drummer/percussionist Toca Rivera and they decided to perform together with Rivera. They became a success on the South California club scene.

Over the next two years, Mraz's following spread outside of San Diego to Los Angeles and record labels began to notice the promising talent. He signed to Elektra Records in early 2002 and returned to his hometown to prepare the material for his debut album. He teamed up with producer John Alagía and recruited his high school heroes, the Agents of Good Roots, as his backup band. The resulting attempt, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, was released in November 2002. The album showed the mixture of Mraz's early influences and the coming-of-age by combining country and roots rock with the poeticism of coffeehouse folk, the pulsating charge of hip-hop and elements of jazz.

Thanks to Mraz's clear, strong tenor vocals and easygoing positive lyrics, the first single, “The Remedy (I Won't Worry),” began to gain regular play on radio, MTV and VHI in 2003. Co-penned by music production team The Matrix, the song's popularity played a significant contribution to the sales of the album, which finally went platinum in May 2005. The follow-up singles “Curbside Prophet,” which he wrote with funk-hip-hop-folk artist Billy “Bushwalla” Galewood, and “You and I Both” became hits on the Adult Top 40.

In June and July of 2005, Mraz hit the road as an opening act for Alanis Morissette during her Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Tour. He launched his sophomore major label album, Mr. A-Z, on July 26, 2005, and it debuted at no. 5 on the Billboard 200 album charts. In the first week of its release, Mr. A-Z sold nearly 90,000 copies and later in December, the album was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. The album spawned singles like “Did You Get My Message,” “Song For a Friend” and “Geek in the Pink.”

After performing at the San Diego Music Awards, Mraz toured from September to October in support of his new album. In November, he opened for the Rolling Stones on five dates during their 2005-2006 tour. 2005 also saw Mraz join other singers like Joss Stone, Michelle Branch, Keith Urban, Brandon Boyd, Michelle Williams and Alanis Morissette for an ad campaign for The Gap called “Favorite.”

Kicking off 2006, Mraz flew to the Philippines to promote the Mr. A-Z album. He greeted his fans in two concerts held at the Rockwell Tent in Makati and the NBC Tent in Fort Bonifacio, in Taguig City. In February and March, he toured the U.K. and Ireland with James Blunt. It was also in March that the singer (for the first time) experienced a sold-out live performance when he appeared alongside Toca in Singapore as part of the annual Mosaic Music Festival. After the successful show, he promoted his album in Australia, in which he again enjoyed sold-out performances in Melbourne and in Sydney. Back in the U.S. in May, Mraz found himself touring primarily small venues and music festivals. In between, he had a few shows in both Ireland and Britain. In July, he opened for Rob Thomas on four dates during his summer 2006 tour in support of Thomas' album, Something to Be (2006). Following this, Mraz played at the Pentaport Rock Festival in Korea and the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. He returned to Australia in August for a short “acoustic trio” tour in Australia's main cities. After a couple of U.S. concerts, he took a break from his touring schedule to start work on his third album. Later, at the end of 2006, he released Selections For Friends, the live, on-line only album recorded during the “Songs For Friends Tour.” It consisted of his favorite songs from the Schubas Tavern and Villa Montalvo shows that he performed in during July 2006.

In early 2007, Mraz launched his new single “The Beauty in Ugly.” The song was an earlier track by the musician titled “Plain Jane” that was reworked for the ABC series “Ugly Betty.” He also released a Spanish track called “La Nueva Belleza” (The New Beauty). Carlos Olmeda helped him with the Spanish lyrics since Mraz himself is not fluent in the language. In April, Mraz headlined the Last Day of Classes Concert at Duke University. The indie rock group Young Love and rapper Common served as opening acts in the show.

Mraz's third album is scheduled for a fall 2007 release. The Atlantic Recording Artist (Mraz left his previous label Electra in 2005) has performed some of the songs from the album for open audiences at local coffee shops, including Twiggs's Coffee House.

Awards:

• San Diego Music: Song of the Year, 2003

• San Diego Music: Artist of the Year, 2003

• San Diego Music: Best Acoustic, 2002