Biography

Eric Muhler

I began classical piano studies at the age of six with Jolan Kanyuk in Berkeley, California and started my first rock and roll band, The Pacers, when I was twelve years old. At Skyline High School in Oakland, California, I began to teach myself blues by listening to records of my favorites, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, and many others.

In the early seventies I led a rock and roll band named Edge in and around Lake Tahoe and Reno. Returning to the East Bay I began the serious study of jazz piano, harmony and theory with Mike Nock, Bill Bell, Don Cardoza, and guitarist Dave Creamer. I began playing accompaniment for jazz, modern and ballet dance classes at the Peralta Colleges, UC Berkeley, private dance companies such as Margaret Jenkins, CSU Hayward, the Contra Costa Ballet, and was the Company Class Accompanist for the Oakland Ballet.

In the early eighties I co-led the jazz quintet Mobius Band with collaborator and electric guitarist Jim Slick and sidemen such as Bruce Williamson on saxophone, Mark Van Wageningen on fretless bass, and Cary Griffin on drums. Later in the eighties I formed the group Quiet Fire featuring Dave Creamer and myself as co-writers of the band's material and played for several years around the Bay Area club and jazz festival scene. This group featured many Bay Area greats such as Larry Schneider on tenor sax, Kenneth Nash on percussion, the Van Wageningen brothers on bass and drums, Michael Wilcox on bass and Glen Cronkhite on drums and percussion. We produced a record, “Red Daze” for Catero Records which was re-released as a CD in 2007.

When computers began to become prominent in music production, I started a sideline of composing and producing scores for children's videos, feature films, and animated educational films. I also recorded the solo piano album “Other Worlds.”

During this period I married and had two children. Throughout my career as a full-time parent, I continued to accompany for dance classes, write new music, and play the piano. During the 1990's I attended CSU Hayward where I earned a degree in English Literature.

My latest musical endeavor is playing live concerts with the Eric Muhler Trio. The Trio recorded a CD, “Live at the Jazz School” in February of 2006. The release of the CD in May, 2006 hallmarks my return to live performance and recording my large library of original compositions for commercial release. In February of 2007 I recorded my fourth CD, “Something New,”, a collection of solo piano music. It includes original tunes and jazz standards by Cole Porter, Horace Silver, Toots Thielmans, and Billie Holiday. Recorded on the incredible Fazioli F-380 Grand Piano at Piedmont Piano in San Francisco, the CD was released on my label, Slow Turn Records, in May of 2007 to excellent reviews.

In 2008 the band expanded to quartet format with the fortuitous and remarkably musical addition of Sheldon Brown on saxophones. The band recorded a live concert at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, California. The CD The Jury Is Out was released in 2009 at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, California to great reviews.

In 2009 my life took a dramatic turn for the worse when I was diagnosed with Stage Three Throat Cancer and my wife and I decided to end our twenty-two year marriage. Following my full recuperation from Cancer, I was then diagnosed with a crushed spinal cord and stenosis. After delicate spinal fusion surgery, I had another complete recovery in 2011 and have returned to the stage to perform at Yoshi’s Jazz Clubs in Oakland and San Francisco, performing a series of benefit concerts to give something back to the doctors, California Pacific Medical Center, and the Institute of Health and Healing that have helped me to recover a full, healthy, and active life.

I am currently working on two CDs of new material I have been composing and practicing at my home in Lagunitas, California.