Veteran guitarist and contemporary jazz icon Peter White is celebrating a series of key personal and professional milestones and touring n support of his latest release Light of Day.

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!” 2024 also marked his 50th year as a professional musician, which began with a gig in a Top 40 band at a holiday resort in Perranporth, a seaside resort town in the Southwest corner of England – six months before he met and officially launched his career recording and touring with singer/songwriter Al Stewart (and co-writing Stewart’s classic “Time Passages”).

Though early on in his career as a sideman for Stewart and later, Basia) White could never have anticipated becoming an acclaimed instrumental recording artist, let alone a popular headliner, 2025 marks 35 years since he dropped his debut album Reveillez-Vous. In that time, he has had four #1 Billboard Contemporary Jazz albums (Smile, Groovin’. Here We Go) and four #2’s (Glow, Confidential, Good Day, Playin’ Favourites), in addition to seven #1 Smooth Jazz Airplay hits, including “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” (16 weeks at #1), “Bright” (13 weeks) “Head Over Heels” (nine weeks) “Mister Magic” (eight weeks) and “Bright.” His most recent #1 was as a featured artist on Carol Albert’s #1 hit “Sunshine Yellow.”

Between the guitarist’s most recent traditional release Groovin’ in 2016 and now, he enjoyed another chart success in 2019 with Music For STARLUX Airlines, a set of six extended tracks originally created for in-flight entertainment on the Taiwanese-based airline. While his assignment on that album was to create beautiful, relaxing melodies, White’s happy to say that “all the drama that was intentionally absent on the STARLUX project is on Light of Day. There are a lot of exciting twists and turns in the production throughout.”