Music man's journey comes full circle

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Oct 16, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Jonathan House / Beaverton Valley Times

Dan Schauffler tries to get a little more sound of his Jazz Band during practice at Valley Catholic.

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Valley Catholic High School’s very own band director Danny Schauffler has a big Saturday night ahead of him.

The 51-year-old musician will lead the school’s band during the home football game against Gervais High School before heading to a club for a live radio broadcast with his band, The Crazy 8s.

The Crazy 8s will have to then rush from that gig to the second annual Oregon Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Roseland Theater to perform a set with Quarterflash, Shock, Curtis Salgado and Norman Leyden with Thomas Lauderdale.

The hectic schedule doesn’t even phase the lifelong musician who has the good fortune to continually “stumble” into golden musical opportunities.

“When I was about 6, my dad had me singing and playing Bob Dylan songs,” Schauffler recalled of a childhood filled with music in his home and at school.

Trained on the flute, saxophone and guitar, he graduated from Catlin Gabel in 1975 and began playing professionally that same year with Felicidades, a nine-piece Latin, reggae, calypso band that would become Nu Shoes.

“I tend to stumble into things,” he said. “I hooked up with Felicidades after stepping off a bus in front of Meyer & Frank in downtown Portland. They were playing on a street corner with their steel drums, congas and guitar. I had my flute with me all the time and started playing with them.”

Before he knew it, Schauffler was living in a band house in Southeast Portland and touring the Pacific Northwest out of a bread truck with his new band.

“On the road, we would always meet people,” he said. “Music was a language and my hope was to communicate with other musicians.”

In 1979, Schauffler shifted his focus to study with some of the great jazz musicians in New York at City College in Harlem.

“I met and played with a lot of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, and we spent our weekends playing in night clubs until 3 and 4 a.m.,” he said.

In his senior year in 1982, Schauffler got a call from Nu Shoes asking him to return to Portland. He spent a solid couple years touring with the band and making a Grammy nominated album.

Deciding he didn’t want any part of the pop genre direction Nu Shoes was heading, Schauffler left the band and joined The Crazy 8s, playing the saxophone and keyboard.

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