ED BAZEL, A Weekend in Marin

While prolific pianist and composer Ed Bazel had released several previous albums and enjoyed a lengthy, multi-faceted career as a performer and entrepreneur, nothing prepared the new age/ambient genre for his emergence to true stardom in the genre when he dropped The London Sessions: Reflections from Studio 2 in 2022.

Beyond the dreamlike, feel-good story of a lifelong Beatles fan – who watched them transform the cultural landscape on The Ed Sullivan Show as a wide-eyed seven-year-old - fulfilling his longtime vision board goal of recording on the holy ground of Abbey Road, his set of original music (and a few Beatles classics) garnered him a nonstop outpouring of praise and accolades. These included wins at the World Entertainment Awards, Intercontinental Music Awards and the Hollywood Independent Awards, in addition to Solo Piano Album of the Year from Solo Piano Radio. With this kind of momentum, it made sense to keep the magic flowing from that sacred space on two more well-received projects – the sequel album The London Sessions: New Perspectives from Studio 2 and The Christmas Sessions: Season’s Greetings from Studio 2.

It’s never easy to follow-up a success story creatively tied to a specific time and place, but Bazel does so with his trademark effortless melodic grace on A Weekend in Marin, a lush, free-flowing 15-track genre masterwork which, as its title implies, breaks the Fab Four/UK ties emphatically for a warm, cozy, soulful and luminous session at another world class studio a continent away, Skywalker Sound.

Bazel’s alternately reflective and exuberant compositions would create magic wherever his fingers ramble, but it’s as if he traded one historic spot tied to a cultural phenomenon for another, setting up camp with Grammy winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones to make magic at the place where all the audio postproduction and sound design for the Lucasfilm/Star Wars universe takes place.

Also playing prominent roles in the creation of A Weekend in Marin are his Bazel’s longtime engineer/secret weapon Alex Carter, the incredible Nashville session musicians Austin Hoke (violin) and Laura Epling (cello) and Grammy winning guitarist Jim “Kimo” West. Working their subtle, sweeping magic, the three guest musicians add colorful moods and emotional depth to Bazel’s melodic energy.

“The album title A Weekend in Marin evolved out of us spending a weekend at Skywalker Sound Studios in Marin County to record,” says Bazel. “It was a beautiful setting with an amazing studio and vibe. It was nice to be in the Northern California area with plenty of nature, pine trees and an overall peaceful feeling that is reflected in much of the music. The album grew out of a specific space I was in – it’s about finding clarity in this stage of life. While each song stands on its own, they all circle around that theme of introspection, so it ended up becoming a conceptual piece almost naturally rather by design.”

With all the shade thrown California’s way in this divided sociopolitical climate, A Weekend In Marin is a chance to experience musical reflections that tap into the grandeur of the state’s grand, multi-faceted landscape – one of the reasons people have always been fascinated with California and much of the reason people want to live here.

Bazel adds, “California has so many different areas and I am proud that this album acknowledges the beauty of this state. I made my living out here as a pianist in Los Angeles many years ago and so enjoyed experiencing the wide variety of places, including the coast, iconic setting, and palm trees. You will see in the music videos that are coming out that we pay homage and salute the beauty of California in this album.”

Not surprisingly based on the album title and the overall NoCal-centric aesthetic, A Weekend in Marin has a totally different vibe from Bazel’s three Abbey Road albums. Interestingly, part of his process after composing a set of pieces he intends to record is taking six months to practice them every day – then formally titling them AFTER recording them based on the feel of the song. For instance, the bright, breezy melody underscored by the haunting string arrangement harmonies on the opening track lend themselves to the title “Pacific Drive,” a road which allows us to simultaneously feel the exciting rush of wind and ocean spray in our faces while perhaps thinking more introspectively about our lives. Likewise, the gratitude Bazel feels for the opportunity to make music in general and in such a breathtaking environment comes across in the heartfelt ballad “A Love Letter to the Coast” – an expression of romance not for a significant other but for a place and time.  

Like all solo piano based recordings, A Weekend on Marin is probably most impactfully experienced as a straight through 47-minute listen from “Pacific Drive” to the slower tempo moodier reflections of “The Tide” – a piece Bazel wrote decades ago when he was the house pianist at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel. Still, for listeners who like to arrange their listening time more creatively, his penchant for unique, very visual titles makes it fun to categorize the pieces by theme.

Among the most compelling tunes are the handful dedicated to specific places populated with Northern Cal’s famous trees - the lilting and lyrical nighttime excursion “Moonlight in Muir Woods,” the tender, classically tinged “Romance in the Redwoods” and the soothing, dulcet “Lullaby in the Pines.” Not far from nature, he also pays homage to the studio itself (and the imaginations sparked there) with the seductively adventurous “Sky Walking.” Then there are the compositions that struck Bazel as reflective of the regional weather – the alternately meditative and high-spirited “Windswept” and a darkly elegant immersion of “Foggy Morning.” Paired perfectly in the tracking, it’s supremely cool to experience the quiet, awe-filled magnificence of a “California Sunrise” immediately after the majestic, richly emotive “Sunset Over the Bay.”   

A less formal but no less important “theme” on A Weekend in Marin is the short list of Bazel’s personal favorites that he feels most personally connected to – the aforementioned “Romance in the Redwoods and “The Tide”; “In My Eyes,” a lovely, warmhearted reflective ballad that he says perfectly captures what he feels inside; and the emotionally powerful, classically tinged “Autumn Reverie.”

Reflecting on the album, Bazel says, “Music can be viewed in many different ways. I liken it to flavors of ice cream - so many choices. I hope that when people listen to this album, they can feel the beauty and emotion that lies between the notes of the music. I don't have to overplay or add in stupendous runs up and down the keyboard. I am relaxed into who I am and what is in my soul. And I am thrilled that I can share it with the listeners.”

Now that he’s recorded at two of the planet’s most iconic studios, what’s next? Bazel adds, “I recently returned from recording again in September of 2025 at Abbey Road Studios, and have plans for another session in 2026 at a studio to be named later.  Stay tuned - my goal is to make as much beautiful music as I can, while I can, to leave behind for others.”