Jazz beats blues at benefit

Craig Brenner said he has always tried to make his music upbeat.

And on Saturday, the local jazz pianist, along with his band the Crawdads and several other friends, proved that at their “Dance to Live, Live to Love” benefit concert at the Bloomington Monroe County Convention Center supporting Bloomington’s Art of Mental Health Week. The band also celebrated the release of their new CD, “Live to Love.”

The concert was a culmination of weeklong events around Bloomington intended to raise awareness about mental health, said sociology professor Jane McLeod, the coordinator for this year’s Art of Mental Health Week.

Brenner said he and his band were able to coincide the release of their new CD with the benefit concert after talking with McLeod, who he said was looking for a band that could make the concert more dance-oriented.

The concert’s “Dance to Live, Live to Love” theme was magnified by the presence of several other musicians on stage besides the original Crawdads, which Brenner said usually includes anywhere from five to eight people.

On Saturday, Brenner played along with 12 other musicians, all of whom, he said, were part of the original recording process for “Live to Love.”

Brenner said there are some parallels between his newest songs and many of the themes of the week. The first song on “Live to Love,” called “Hey Anna, Come Back to Indiana!” offers a good example of the album’s positive feel by using an up-tempo swing rhythm with a little bit of humor, he said.

“The song called ‘I Live to Love’ is also another one that gives a positive message about what the purpose of life is, to us, anyway,” he said.

McLeod said she was confident that Brenner and his band would offer the right kind of music for the concert.

“This year, we wanted to highlight the ways in which you can live well despite challenges you might face,” McLeod said. “His music is very upbeat and is very oriented to talking about the things that make life joyful and meaningful.”

Before becoming a jazz musician, Brenner studied music at a community college in Florida, until one of his teachers suggested he apply to either the Juilliard School in New York or the Jacobs School of Music at IU.

Brenner studied at the Jacobs School for four years and became interested in many of the different styles of jazz piano.

“When I was at the school of music, David Baker was really important in teaching about improvisation and playing us samples in class,” he said of the music professor.
At the concert, Brenner and the Crawdads performed a lively set that tapped into that vast catalogue of jazz styles Brenner said he was exposed to at IU.

The band performed several songs from the new album, which spanned from New-Orleans style funk, to “boogie woogie” style blues.

Brenner planned additional horn arrangements, which left plenty of room for the band members to add improvisational solos. There was even one point during the concert when the horn section started walking into the audience while playing, eventually followed by most of the band in a sort of parade around the room.

IU students from Active Minds, a student organization on campus, worked at the event. Seniors Bailey Croke and Jessica Lampo, who are both members of the organization, said Active Minds is a relatively new organization on campus.

“We’re just trying to raise awareness for mental health issues,” Lampo said.

Croke added that besides its work in the community for the Art of Mental Health Week, Active Minds does work for students specifically.

“We also do a lot of things during finals weeks to raise awareness about stress and other problems,” Croke said.

McLeod said the music of Craig Brenner and the Crawdads would unite people of all ages by simply having a good time and forgetting their troubles.

“I really like events that bring the community and the University together,” she said. “This is one of those kinds of events.”