Craig Peyton

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Moving from music to film, Craig Peyton (born 1953) has charted a unique creative course. Peyton's production, writing, and arranging skills contributed to many music hits, including Peyton's own Latitude, 40 Degrees North. In the 1980s and 1990s Peyton worked with artists including James Brown, Melba Moore, Nona Hendrix, Levon Helms, and Dan Hartman. Peyton has written underscore music for Friends, the Smithsonian, PBS Nature series, and many TV productions and jingles.

It should be noted that Peyton is a top notch Jazz Vibraphone player and drummer by training.^[1] However with his music releases, including titles with Narada Records^[2] and Positive Records,^[3] he made exclusive use of the Fairlight Digital Computer keyboard system. Peyton, along with Peter Gabrial, and Stewart Copeland (from The Police) used this technology. The Fairlight trademark sound can be heard in Copeland's scores to the popular television show The Equalizer. In the 1990s Craig released an Acid Jazz Project with former Ray Charles arranger David Hoffman as well as Paul Adams.

In 1991 Peyton founded EarthFlight Media, a multi media production and music company that combined his passion for flying, filming, and music. A 5,000 hour instrument rated pilot, Peyton learned the craft of aerial cinematography flying his aircraft, a Mooney 201, while filming a full length music video to support his "Latitude, 40 Degrees North" audio CD.^[4]

The Outdoor Life network had Peyton fly throughout North America filming nature backdrops for a news info program. Peyton produced a one hour show for Speed Vision titled "The Rebirth of Civil Aviation". Peyton hosted BET's "Jazz Central" program, featuring many of his aerial "Visual Music" productions. This led to an appearance on the CNN Morning News, discussing music and aerial photography.

Peyton's industrial work includes turnkey productions for major aviation companies as, UPS Aero, Sennheiser, Extra Aircraft, Oxford Aviation, EADS Socata, Northstar Avionics, JP Instruments and many others. Peyton's aerial photography has contributed to many films like "Along Came Polly" with Ben Stiller, "The Punisher" with John Travolta, "Storm" with Luke Perry, "Island of Doctor Moreau" with Marlon Brando, "What the Bleep", and music videos including JayZ, Beyonce Knowles, and TLC, as well as numerous TV and feature releases.

A few years ago, (2001) Craig Peyton, was diagnosed with Stage IV esophageal cancer. He was able to be healed with an experimental procedure involving radiation, chemo, and dietary changes, as well as with the daily help of an energetic healer. As part of his healing process, this healer (Sarah) advised him to spend a few hours a day in and on water. Craig bought a kayak and spent many months floating on the Hudson River. Inspired by the beautiful crystal photographs of water in Dr. Masaru Emoto's book Messages from Water, Craig began a journey photographing the healing rhythms and qualities of water. Adding his music and nature sounds, this project became the Spirit of Water DVD.