1. Improvisation One 20:36
2. Improvisation Two 15:51
3. Improvisation Three 43:14
Ellery Eskelin - tenor saxophone
Erik Deutsch - organ
Allison Miller - drums
Brecht Forum, NYC, 2010
Recorded by Scott Friedlander
Showing posts with label Allison Miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allison Miller. Show all posts
Monday, January 3, 2022
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Brad Linde with Wendy Eisenberg / Erika Dohi / Luke Stewart / Allison Miller - Into Thin Air (October 2021)
Brad Linde is a saxophonist, bandleader, and presenter in the Washington DC metro area.
In 2010, he founded and began co-directing the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra - a 17-piece big band in residence at the historic club.
He was a participant in the Banff International Jazz and Creative Music Workshop 2013 and he studied with Barry Harris and Lee Konitz, among others.
1. 23D 05:46
2. PoE 05:16
3. Roots 09:22
4. Urge 03:38
5. Into Thin Air 06:19
6. Springtime In Chicago 06:03
7. Uso Mo Honto Mo 05:19
8. My No. 1 07:50
9. Warm Valley 07:25
Brad Linde - alto and C melody saxophone
Wendy Eisenberg - electric guitar and voice
Erika Dohi - piano, prepared piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Yamaha DX7, JU-06
Luke Stewart - bass
Allison Miller - drum set and percussion
Recorded March 6, 2021 at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, MD as part of the GDS Jazz and Creative Music Festival
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Charlie Pilzer
Artwork and design by Matt Rippetoe at Sideman Creative, LLC.
Cover painting by Mira Hecht
Produced by Brad Linde
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Allison Miller & Jane Ira Bloom - Tues Days (September 2021 Royal Potato Family)
In March and April of 2021 soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and drummer Allison Miller came together on five Tuesdays in March and April of 2021 to record some improvised sax and drum duets to see what might happen. They didn’t set out to make an album - they just wanted to play because they needed to improvise any way that they could. They played with complete abandon, performing remotely from their home studios in New York City in the reality of the world of 2021. Tues Days is the result of those recordings that now appear on Bloom’s Outline label and are available through Miller’s Bandcamp site, mixed and mastered by bassist Mark Helias with breathtaking fidelity. It’s a musical duet saturated in a kaleidoscope of color. The music is spontaneous composition at its best by two masterful improvisers – energetic, tactile, and alive.
Miller’s multi-colored array of percussion augments her drumset in exquisite counterpoint to Bloom’s signature tone on the soprano sax. The music is both rhythmic and deeply lyrical - drum and sax dancing around one another until their song is sung. The compositions are Bloom and Miller making-it-up live and in the moment, taking you on a wild ride through their musical universe. From the adventurous journey of “The Wild Frontier” to the unpredictable “A & J’s Test Kitchen,” get ready for Tues Days - a story for your ears that will have your head spinning in wonder.
1. Tues Days 04:43
2. Technicolor 05:36
3. Rowing In The Dark 05:26
4. This Is It 03:16
5. Five Bells 02:16
6. The Wild Frontier 08:30
7. Light Years Away 05:59
8. A's & J's Test Kitchen 04:16
9. Crayola 06:13
10. On Seeing JP 04:19
11. Walk Alone 06:08
Allison Miller drums, percussion
Jane Ira Bloom soprano saxophone
Jane Ira Bloom Outline Music/ BMI
Allison Miller Supaphine / ASCAP
Produced by Jane Ira Bloom & Allison Miller
Recorded by Allison Miller & Jane Ira Bloom on March 2,9, 16, 25 & April 6, 2021 in NYC.
Mixed & mastered by Mark Helias
Cover Illustration Leo Holder ©2020, All rights reserved, used by permission.
Cover Design Christopher Drukker
Artist photography Erika Kapin
All compositions by Allison Miller & Jane Ira Bloom except “Rowing in the Dark,” “Light Years Away,” “On Seeing JP” and “Walk Alone” by Jane Ira Bloom (Outline Music/ BMI)
Friday, June 25, 2021
Johannes Wallmann - Elegy for an Undiscovered Species (June 25, 2021 Shifting Paradigm Records)
Johannes Wallmann’s Elegy for an Undiscovered Species is the pianist’s ninth album and his most ambitious effort to date: a full-length album of new music for jazz quintet and string orchestra. The 19-piece ensemble is fronted by two returning collaborators of Wallmann’s, New York trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens, and powered by a rhythm tandem of drummer Allison Miller and bassist Nick Moran. Two years in the making, the album was recorded at the Hamel Music Center in Madison in late February 2020 – just prior to the Covid shutdown – and will be released June 25, 2021.
1. Elegy for an Undiscovered Species
2. Two Ears Old
3. In Three
4. Expeditor
5. Longing
6. The Greater Fool
7. Two Ears Old (reprise)
Johannes Wallmann - piano
Ingrid Jensen - trumpet
Dayna Stephens - tenor saxophone, EWI
Allison Miller - drums
Nick Moran - bass
String orchestra: Kaleigh Acord (concert master), Maynie Bradley, Mercedes Cullen (principal), Glen Kuenzi, Chang-En Lu, Anna Luebke, Richard Silvers, Mary Shin, violins; Emma Cifrino, Pedro Oviedo, Rachel Riese (principal), violas; Hannah Kasun, Cole Randolph (principal), Ben Therrell, cellos; Michael Dolan, conductor.
All compositions by Johannes Wallmann, MooseWorks Music, BMI
Recorded February 21 & 22, 2020 at the Mead Witter Concert Hall, Hamel Music Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Johannes Wallmann is a Yamaha Piano Artist and thanks Heid Music and the Yamaha Corporation for providing the Yamaha CF6 piano for this recording.
Recording engineers: Audrey Martinovich and Buzz Kemper (Audio for the Arts)
Mixing engineer: Audrey Martinovich (Audio for the Arts)
Mastering engineer: Mark Whitcomb (DNA Music Lab)
Graphic Design: Jamie Breiwick, B Side Graphics
Producer: Johannes Wallmann
This recording was made possible with generous support from: The Emily Mead Baldwin Award, Division of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison & The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the Graduate School Research Competition, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
NYC CD Release Gigs for Miller / Staaf & Walking Distance! (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS 2018)
Two CD Release Gigs at NYC's Jazz Standard!
Allison Miller & Carmen Staaf - Science Fair!
on Wednesday, Oct. 3rd!
Miller and Staaf’s experiments began to take shape as a recording project. They both began to bring tunes to their weekly rehearsals, and tinkered with arrangements and different ensemble lineups. They eventually picked bassist Matt Penman to round out their core trio. He proved to be of a similar mindset, fun-loving and open-minded, not to mention a highly swinging accompanist. For a number of pieces, the trio is augmented by one or two horns, namely the gifted trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and the wonderful saxophonist Dayna Stephens.
Ambrose Akinmusire - trumpet (1 & 5)
Dayne Stephens - tenor saxophone (1, 2, 5 & 6)
Carmen Staaf - piano
Matt Penman - bass
Allison Miller - drums & percussion
1. What?! 08:18
2. Symmetry 07:37
3. Ready Steady 06:07
4. MLW 04:50
5. Weightless 10:08
6. Nobody's Human 06:01
7. West of the Moon 05:52
8. Skyway Intro 02:13
9. Skyway 04:03
Monday, August 20, 2018
Allison Miller & Carmen Staaf - Science Fair (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS September 21, 2018)
Scientists spend long hours investigating their passions, delving into the complex details of their research in pursuit of new knowledge. In a science fair, they demonstrate their findings, making them accessible and even fun. As a combustion reaction generates heat and light, a similar reaction happens between sound and movement. With the wonder of kids making a baking soda volcano, drummer Allison Miller and pianist Carmen Staaf combine bold musical concepts, tremendous collaborators, and a passion to challenge and explore into an eruption of energy on their fantastic new recording, Science Fair.
Miller is well-known in the jazz and pop worlds, having backed Natalie Merchant and Ani DiFranco, then going on to lead her own celebrated jazz ensembles, including Boom Tic Boom. Miller’s collaboration with Staaf began a few years ago. When Miller needed a piano substitute for the Reykjavik Jazz Festival in 2015, she called her friend, bassist Todd Sickafoose. He suggested Staaf, who had just finished her time at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, and had recently impressed Sickafoose on a performance at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles.
The connection was made and a three-show trial by fire ensued. The connection between the two musicians was immediate. They found a kindred spirit in each other, as their musical orientations are straight ahead, rhythmically minded, and open to suggestion. The most important element was the level of trust they quickly developed, thus freeing them to tap into their creativity more fully and spur their musical dialog.
Miller and Staaf began to meet regularly. Their rehearsals led to collaborations in new ensemble configurations and with dancers. Dance and music for dance has been important for each of them. Miller grew up in a family enamored with movement and immersed herself in the Washington, DC youth dance scene. She went on to become musical director for a number of choreographers. Though not a dancer herself, Staaf has been drawn to music made for dancing, including Afro-Cuban, salsa, West African, and Indian vocal percussive music.
Miller and Staaf’s experiments began to take shape as a recording project. They both began to bring tunes to their weekly rehearsals, and tinkered with arrangements and different ensemble lineups. They eventually picked bassist Matt Penman to round out their core trio. He proved to be of a similar mindset, fun-loving and open-minded, not to mention a highly swinging accompanist. For a number of pieces, the trio is augmented by one or two horns, namely the gifted trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and the wonderful saxophonist Dayna Stephens.
Assembling all of the pieces for Science Fair was akin to a science experiment. Miller and Staaf even had their own “mad scientist” in producer Ben Goldberg, who helped put the final pieces together. The two leaders wanted to insure that the compositions would be diverse yet balanced; there are four compositions from each composer, though they worked together to shape the final arrangements. Similarly, the leaders wanted to have a diverse ensemble representing a cosmopolitan mix of genders and races, but, most importantly, all sharing a passion for self and group expression
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Greg Cordez - Last Things Last (2018)
The second album and follow up to the acclaimed 'Paper Crane'. Recorded mid winter in Brooklyn, and featuring a stellar cast of improvising musicians. 'Last Things Last' explores the themes of coincidence, optimism, and the slow dissolution of a personal relationship.
1. Chekov's Gun 04:30
2. Cherry v Des Moines 04:28
3. Figlock 03:39
4. Last Things Last 05:33
5. Low Winter Sun 03:15
6. All That Is 04:46
7. Clementine 03:45
8. Junebug 02:43
Kirk Knuffke, cornet
Michael Blake, saxophones
Steve Cardenas, guitar
Greg Cordez, bass
Allison Miller, drums
Produced by Ben Allison
Engineered and Mixed at Bunker Studios with Aaron Nevezie
Mastered by Alex De Turk
Album Artwork and Design, Jamie Ellul
Front Cover Photo, Dare Dukes
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Shakers n' Bakers - Heart Love (February 14, 2018)
In 1968, after years of being one of the most charismatic and controversial characters in the free jazz movement of the 1960’s, the saxophonist Albert Ayler made a recording called “New Grass”, comprised of songs that he had created along with his musical and life partner Mary Maria Parks. These new songs spoke with the directness of the language of R n’ B and Soul music and were produced with a slick sound by Bob Thiele for the Impulse label. This music expresses Albert and Mary Maria’s beautiful vision of a world filled with happiness and universal love. While Albert’s own playing on the record shows the same fire and freedom he exhibited throughout his entire recording career, the album was a departure from the less structured sound of his previously recorded music. This music used the familiar forms of popular music forms to express an ecstatic millennial vision of Heaven on Earth.
The album’s utopian vision and millennial fervor resonate deeply and I have felt for a long time that my group Shakers n’ Bakers was the perfect ensemble to re-visit the rarely heard songs on this recording. In addition to these joyful and visionary songs you will hear some traditional Spiritual songs included here that Albert had previously recorded as well. I have made my case for the connections between the “Vision Songs” of the Shaker religious sect and the music of Albert Ayler in the previous two Shakers n’ Bakers recordings - here I focus only on the second part of that equation, although in the opening recitation you will hear a Shaker text that I uncovered in original manuscript form while doing research in 2013 as a NEH “Summer Scholar” at the NY State Archives in Albany. The opening words of this recording have not been uttered since the mid-19th Century and speak to the power of revelation of the divine through human expression that connects the Shakers and Albert.
1. Message from Mother Ann
2. Everybody's Movin'
3. Oh Love of Life!
4. Deep River
5. Music is the Healing Force of the Universe
6. A Man is Like a Tree
7. Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
8. New Generation
9. Swing Low Sweet Chariot
10. Goin' Home
11. Heart Love 05:08
Shakers n’ Bakers:
Mary LaRose / Miles Griffith – vocals
Jeff Lederer – Tenor Saxophone, flute
Jamie Saft – piano, organ, Baldwin electric harpsichord
Chris Lightcap – bass
Allison Miller – drums
With:
Steven Bernstein – trumpet, slide trumpet
Kirk Knuffke – cornet
Joe Fiedler – trombone
Lisa Parrott – baritone saxophone
Special guest on #7 and #9
Matt Wilson – drums
And the “Heart Love Singers”:
Amy Cervini, Mary LaRose, Melissa Stylliano, Toni Seawright, Chelsea McClauren.
All arrangements by Jeff Lederer ç ledrose music (bmi)
Recorded May 1 and 2 at Systems Two, Brooklyn NY
Engineered by Mike Marciano
Mixed by Jamie Saft at Potterville International Sound.
Mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Sound.
Shaker “Gift Hearts” created by the women of the Shakers community graciously provided by the Hancock Shaker Village.
Designed by Guillermo Prado, Eight Point Two studio.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Jerome Sabbagh / Simon Jermyn / Allison Miller - Lean (2016)
Jermyn composed the title track, “Lean,” and his remarks could serve as something of a credo for the band: “I like words that can have more than one meaning depending on the context. As titles of tunes, the only context is the music itself. I also like when music can be heard different ways in terms of the feelings it might convey, rather than being really explicit. I was going for something like that with this tune.” Toward the end, an ethereal sound emerges in the background — it’s the melody, Jermyn explains, played backwards and up an octave through a looping pedal.
The leadoff track, Miller’s “Spotswood Drive,” first appeared on the 2013 release "No Morphine No Lilies" by her outstanding quartet Boom Tic Boom. That version featured violin and piano; here the piece takes on another character. Sabbagh starts and remains on a long tenor sax drone, in essence anchoring the bass, while Jermyn plays the main melodic role, filling out the harmony in his inimitable way with deft intervallic movement. The roles switch as Sabbagh begins to blow and Miller brings her abstract textural musings to the foreground. “The song means a lot because I wrote it for my first teacher,” Miller shares. “When we started playing it Simon would just take the melody sometimes, and I thought that was gorgeous, the way he loops — his sound on the electric bass is so beautiful. This song just floated in a natural way so I thought it would be great for the band.”
“Electric Sun,” by Sabbagh, is more immediately beat-driven, a clear and singable piece that first appeared on the saxophonist’s 2014 quartet outing "The Turn" (with Ben Monder on guitar). Jermyn’s warm and harmonically savvy approach to the tune highlights how he can enfold bass and guitar sensibilities into one. “I was going for a faster, meaner version of the song,” Sabbagh says. “The quartet version is pretty contemplative and after recording it I started playing the song faster in general.”
“Olney 60/30,” named for Miller’s Maryland hometown, was written around the time of the drummer’s 30th and her mother’s 60th birthdays. “Our birthdays are a day apart,” Miller says. The song first appeared on "Steampunk Serenade" (2011) by Miller’s Honey Ear Trio. “I’ve always wanted this song played with electric bass, and when this trio formed, I thought, ‘Well, here we go.’ We approached it in a fresh way, with some duo moments and other things. It ended up being very different than the original recording.”
Out of several purely free improvisations ventured on the date, “Bunker” and “Ghost” were the two that the trio decided to include. “We just tried to keep an open mind and play,” says Sabbagh. “We may have started with a sonic direction: maybe Simon’s loop pedal, maybe Allison’s ‘bike and effects’ rig.”
About that rig, which also crops up on “Spotswood Drive”: it’s an experimental instrument invented by Seattle’s Sean Lane — a stripped-down bike frame outfitted with various percussive instruments and a single electric bass string, as well as pickups and contact microphones, running a signal to a preamp and then out to an amplifier. “Because of the way Simon plays and the way he uses looping,” says Miller, “it really seemed natural to bring the bike into the recording. A lot of times I would bow that bass string and then run it through a whole system of pedals I use.”
“Comptine” first appeared on "I Will Follow You", Sabbagh’s evocative 2010 trio date with Ben Monder and drum veteran Daniel Humair. The version in question was just once through the melody and out, though the trio would always expand on it when playing it live. That process of expansion continues on "Lean". Miller’s colorful brushwork, Jermyn’s eerie water-like sounds, Sabbagh’s tenor lyricism and legato expression: it all grows out of the simplest of ideas, the “comptine” or French nursery rhyme.
“Fast Fish,” by Jermyn, takes inspiration from a passage in Moby Dick. According to the unwritten law by which a whaling ship can claim possession of a dead whale, the whale must be “fast” to the ship, bound by “a mast, an oar, a nine-inch cable, a telegraph wire, or a strand of cobweb, it is all the same.” Jermyn liked the image and its logic of firm and flimsy attachments being given equal weight. Otherwise, Melville’s prose has no direct bearing on the tune, which is slinky and polyrhythmically funky, a true rhythm section workout and a strong Sabbagh tenor feature as well.
“I really enjoy the variety of what this band can do,” Sabbagh offers in conclusion. “We go in and out of chords, grooves and textures but somehow it feels whole and connected. I think all three of us try to be in the moment and not prejudge or preconceive things. We trust each other enough to go on an adventure together. That’s what makes this band special to me and also enables us to play so many different kinds of material and still sound like a band.”
Recorded at The Bunker, Brooklyn on April 2 and 3, 2014 by Jacob Bergson
Mixed by Pete Rende
Mastered by Nate Wood at Kerseboom Mastering
Cover painting "Triangulations" by Kimberly Rowe
Design and layout by Gregory J. Del Deo
Friday, May 27, 2016
Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom - Otis Was a Polar Bear (2016)
The most poignant music is often inspired by watershed events in an artist’s life, and few occasions are more transformative than the arrival of one’s first child. For Allison Miller, the extraordinary drummer, composer, and leader of her band Boom Tic Boom, that life-affirming experience provided the seed that led to the creation of her latest full-length studio album, Otis Was a Polar Bear.
The album, with violinist Jenny Scheinman, cornet player Kirk Knuffke, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, upright bassist Todd Sickafoose, pianist Myra Melford, and Miller on drums, is Miller s latest collection of 10 original compositions following her critically acclaimed No Morphine, No Lilies, which Downbeat Magazine said reveals her exemplary chops and stylistic breadth. The birth of Miller’s (and partner Rachel’s) daughter Josie found the NYC-based drummer reordering her priorities and the very way in which she approached her art.
Drummer and composer Allison Miller plays with joy and fire. She powers bands with a sense of life and momentum that leaps from the bandstand right into your ears and feet. Under her hands, the trap kit dances and talks—sometimes in a whisper but usually with a blend of shout and laughter. To my ears, she plays in the same line as Art Blakey and Ralph Peterson, Jr. She is a natural bandleader because she is such a superb collaborator.
Her latest recording, Otis Was a Polar Bear, features her Boom Tic Boom jazz group with the killer line-up of clarinetist Ben Goldberg, Kirk Knuffke on cornet, violinist Jenny Scheinman, and rhythm section-mates Todd Sickafoose on bass and Myra Melford on piano. It’s an unusual sextet, but Miller has arranged the ten songs on this collection so that her band seems more like an orchestra… or maybe a circus… of different sounds and combinations. Each song is written as a tiny, coherent suite in which the voices jump forward, come together, fall away and leap back into conversation. As a result, there is a furious fun to Otis that runs directly counter to the classic jazz stereotype of MELODY-SOLOS-MELODY.
Listen to “Hoarding the Pod” and you’ll hear: (1) a unison written melody for cornet and clarinet, accompanied by thrashing-free piano trio, (2) a dancing syncopated figure for piano/bass unison, eventually in counterpoint with another melody for cornet and violin, (3) a violin improvisation over the rhythm (a bit funkier though) and harmonies from section two, (4) a new melody for cornet and clarinet that creeps in beneath the violin solo, (5) which blends into a free-wheeling “free” solo for cornet accompanied by an increasingly frenzied Miller on drums, with atonal interjections by piano and then a two-note figure for clarinet and violin, (6) a return to the melody of section one over even more frenzied work by the trio with violin glissandi around the edges, and (7) a return to the piano figure from section two, this time with clarinet improvising at the same time, soon joined by the cornet/violin melody from before.
Whew! But wow! The music is intricate but logical, fun and free but also structured. Read more...
01. Fuster
02. High T
03. Slow Jam
04. Staten Island
05. Shimmer
06. The Listener (For Josh Cantor)
07. Hoarding the Pod
08. Otis Was a Polar Bear
09. Pig in a Sidecar
10. Lullaby for Cookie
Boom Tic Boom is:
Allison Miller, drums and composition
Myra Melford, piano
Jenny Scheinman, violin
Kirk Knuffke, cornet
Ben Goldberg, clarinet and contra alto
Todd Sickafoose, bass
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