Window on the Soul\nCraig Brenner\nCraig Brenner Music\nHurray for local original music. \nLocal pianist Craig Brenner's latest album of bluesy, jazz-muscle-flexing and bopping sound boasts his highest quantity of original recorded music to date. With only one rearrangement of an old boogie woogie, Brenner is trying to force his own soul to the forefront of his music. Window of the Soul makes a concerted effort in personal style through multiple genre stylings. \nBrenner recruits the talent of many locally based or begun musicians for the album, including sons Eli (percussion) and Nate (bass) who is an IU student, as well as trumpeter and IU professor Pat Harbison, Janiece Jaffe on vocals, IU alumnus Pete Wilhoit on drums and many other guests. Much of the group got together last weekend to release the CD with a benefit concert for the Community Kitchen of Monroe County and the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. The album was recorded at Echo Park, a studio visited by other local artists such as Mysteries of Life, Johnny Socko and Dominic Spera.\nBreaking out with a piano solo piece, "Brenner's Boogie" shuffles up and down the ivories as a fitting introduction to Brenner's style, influenced by New Orleans and the blues. \nThough bearing these influences, Brenner aptly switches from shuffling blues to smooth jazz to a Latin feel and back again, including soulful jazz trios on "Nathaniel" (a song written for his youngest son) and the smirkingly cool "You." \nThe inclusion of 20 other musicians is what gives the album its spice -- though the music was written by a pianist, his various flavors of composition turn the album into a witness of these different styles, while still maintaining coherence. \nStandout tunes in this respect are "Aimlessly He Floats," "Hardly Bop" and "Tune for Grandma." With a bit of a groove on "Aimlessly," James Campbell carries the melody on clarinet until the sultry voice of Jaffe takes over. Nate's string bass sets the stage for the horn-powered bopping on "Hardly," including jazz style head-nodding solos. "Tune" ends the album with the four part harmonies of vocalists Jaffe, Susan Swaney, Sonja Rasmussen and Jane McLeod, which almost sound celestial. \nThere are one or two letdowns on the album -- "Elias" comes off as a bit too contrived, and the boogie-woogie tunes, while a nice addition, almost seem out of place.\nOverall, Brenner has combined musical styles with his own influences and experiences, creating a solid expedition of both local talent and soulful swinging music.\n
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