Eric Muhler Trio at

Eric Muhler – Piano
Marc Van Wageningen – Electric Bass
Phil Hawkins– Drums & Steel Pans
Zoë Muhler & Matthew Wicket - Dance
Special Guest – Dr. Susan Day - Flute

Jazz has always been full of colorful, powerful individualists, and characters whose music is as unique as their lives. Eric Muhler, a pianist inspired by the giants of twentieth century jazz, has survived the ordeals of a full life and emerges as a unique force in the twenty-first century.

To top off an unusual life, he beat Stage Three thorat cancer in 2010. To demonstrate his gratitude to the doctors and health technicians who saved his life, Eric performed a benefit at Yoshi’s Oakland. The show was a sold-out smash. In 2011 Eric discovered he required extremely delicate spinal surgery to remove a disk crushing his spinal cord. He spent six weeks after the surgery immobilized in a neck brace. Now he has healed completely and is writing new music, riding his mountain bike up and down the trails of Marin and staging another benefit show for California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and the Institute of Health and Healing (IHH) where Eric was recently the Gratitude Speaker at their Celebrating Science and Soul fundraiser dinner honoring Dr. Grace Damman, Reverend Cecil Williams, and...

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Eric Muhler – Piano
Marc Van Wageningen – Electric Bass
Phil Hawkins– Drums & Steel Pans
Zoë Muhler & Matthew Wicket - Dance
Special Guest – Dr. Susan Day - Flute

Jazz has always been full of colorful, powerful individualists, and characters whose music is as unique as their lives. Eric Muhler, a pianist inspired by the giants of twentieth century jazz, has survived the ordeals of a full life and emerges as a unique force in the twenty-first century.

To top off an unusual life, he beat Stage Three thorat cancer in 2010. To demonstrate his gratitude to the doctors and health technicians who saved his life, Eric performed a benefit at Yoshi’s Oakland. The show was a sold-out smash. In 2011 Eric discovered he required extremely delicate spinal surgery to remove a disk crushing his spinal cord. He spent six weeks after the surgery immobilized in a neck brace. Now he has healed completely and is writing new music, riding his mountain bike up and down the trails of Marin and staging another benefit show for California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and the Institute of Health and Healing (IHH) where Eric was recently the Gratitude Speaker at their Celebrating Science and Soul fundraiser dinner honoring Dr. Grace Damman, Reverend Cecil Williams, and
Janice Mirikitani.

Muhler’s 21 year old daughter Zoë will be featured with her dance partner Matthew Wicket doing hip hop dance to a composition she wrote with her father. “Zoë did a solo freestyle in last year’s show that brought down the house! We decided to formalize her contribution a bit and collaborated on a very funky composition that includes a Bach Prelude.” Muhler’s guest artist is Dr. Susan Day, a gifted flautist as well as a famous pediatric ophthalmologist at CPMC.

Legendary SF Examiner critic Phil Elwood said, “Muhler roams the piano demonstrating remarkable technique.” Muhler doesn’t just roam, he appears practically airborne at times, feet flying, hands diving for runs at the keyboard that defy analysis while sounding completely home-grown, and unique.

Mark McLeod wrote of Muhler’s Yoshi’s Oakland 2009 show, “Your extraordinary quartet performed one of the most impressive sets I have experienced in my thirty years of fairly frequent attendance at SF Bay Area performances of some of the greatest jazz artists in the US…Wild, energetic, exuberant music.”

“When I was first diagnosed with cancer it was natural to think ‘maybe this is the end.’ I’m in a unique position to share a much deeper appreciation of the gifts life has given me. It’s a gift to be able to inspire people with the good things that are all around us. Being treated by teams of dozens of specialists, who give their lives just to help others save their own, was one of the most inspirational thing to ever happen to me. Like improvisational music, the cures for cancer or a broken neck involve strange beauties; sharing, improvising, exploring and putting human technology to the purposes it was intended for, combined with a deep commitment to compassion and caring..” Says Muhler, and that says it all.

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