Craig’s new worship cd  

“Renewed Hope” offers a wonderful
selection of new worship music
composed by Craig, backed by HONK,
and featuring vocals by Rick Tatum. 

(Click here for more info.)

To listen, download, or purchase, click here.

 

 

Can pop hits grow up to be
jazz standards?  

Skykomish offers 10 of them, recast
in fresh new settings, along with a
pair of original blues charts. 

 

(Click here for more info.) 

To listen, download, or purchase, click here.

 

Songs by:

• The Doobie Brothers / Kenny Loggins
• Stevie Wonder
• The Beatles
• Gordon Lightfoot
• Foreigner
• Vanessa Williams
• From The Prince of Egypt
• From Flash Dance
• Dionne Warwick / Burt Bachrach
• Edwin Hawkins Singers

8 great jazz musicians:

• Lee Thornburg, trumpet  (The Tonight Show, Tower of Power)
• Dan Barrett, trombone  (Concord All-Stars)
• Brian Atkinson, vibes  (Disneyland Band, Lou Rawles)
• Paul Kreibich, drums  (Ray Charles, Gene Harris, James Moody)
• Craig Buhler, sax & clarinet   (HONK, Brian Doerksen, Andy Park)
• and First-call LA session players   Karen Hammack, piano   Jamie Findlay, guitar   Chris Conner, bass

Throughout the history of jazz, pop songs have been
a major source of new material  –  along with blues,
show tunes, Gospel, originals, etc. 

Though some jazz fans may have considered the pop ditties of their day unworthy of notice, many have been transformed into classics through imaginative arranging & virtuosic performance.   For example, listen to Ahmad Jamal’s “Poinciana,” Louis Armstrong’s “Sleepy Time Down South,” Coleman Hawkins’ “Body & Soul,” Basie’s “April in Paris,” Miles’s “Someday My Prince Will Come,” or Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things,” to mention just a few. 

Granted, the process of importing pop songs into the jazz universe can be risky. 

• The song itself may be unworthy.
• People’s associations with the composition’s pop roots may be too strong.
• Some will accuse the artist of stooping to commercialism.

But we believe that jazz musicians must take these risks in order to keep their repertoire fresh, vital, and relevant.  If we do not continue to recruit new compositions from the public consciousness, then the jam session is reduced to thumbing through The Real Book, and the jazz art continues to drift away from the mainstream of American culture.

Hopefully, some of the arrangements on “Skykomish” will strike a chord in you.  We believe the experiment is worth taking and hope you will enjoy the results as much as we relished the creative process. 

Please let us know what you think of this effort.  Whatever your reaction, i hope you will bare in mind that our soul motivation in producing this CD is to continue to give listeners the finest music we have to offer.

To listen, download, or purchase this CD, click here.

• Clarinet
• Improvisation
• Jazz
• Jazz Band
• music
• Saxophone