OffBeat Magazine
Jazz pianist Craig Brenner of Bloomington, Indiana, has been in and out of New Orleans so much over the past five decades, he may as well be an adopted son. He first caught the Crescent City bug by seeing Professor Longhair at Jazz Fest, which ultimately led to Brenner befriending Fess’ percussionist Uganda Roberts. He often hired Roberts for gigs when he was around, including an Old U.S. Mint concert, which netted Brenner his
Live at the Old Mint release in 2014.
Since
Old Mint was an amalgam of covers and originals, Brenner vowed to do only his compositions next time with a few family music professionals, most notably son Nate (bass, synth) and daughter-in-law, vocalist Merrill Garbus of the nationally known art-pop duo tUnE- yArDs. Brenner’s Crawdads bandmates and various friends round out the studio talent.
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 t