Craig Brenner –
Passages (Self-produced): “Craig Brenner explores the jazzy side of blues and boogie woogie piano. Called “a fine and funky pianist” by Living Blues, Craig has received multiple Indiana Arts Commission grants and he has been voted “Best Musician” in Bloomington, IN, in the Bloomington Independent; Craig & The Crawdads has been chosen best band.” (https://www.craigbrenner.com/bio) He has recorded and performed with the Meters and Dr. John. Passages offers “eight original tunes in various styles, with stellar musicians: Lori Brenner and Merrill Garbus (Merrill appears courtesy of 4AD) on vocals, Nate Brenner and Ron Kadish on bass, Dan Hostetler and Tim Brookshire on drums, Mike Baker and Gordon Bonham on guitar, Joe Donnelly and Jake Belser on sax, Dena El Saffar on violin and viola, Kyle Quass on trumpet, and Dave Pavolka on trombone.” There are two songs with vocals. The straight-forward NOLA style on several songs offer the greatest punch on this release to my ears. Click here to listen to samples of the songs on this disc.