Last October I was fortunately in New York during pianist Fred Hersch’s residency at Jazz Standard. During his week-long engagement, Hersch appeared with a different guest artist each night, allowing for a lot of varied exploration, great music, and fun. Now Mulgrew Miller, hot off the release of highly successful, back-to-back trio recordings (Live at Yoshi’s 1& 2, MaxJazz), settles in for a celebratory week of his own (August 16-21). Marking his 50^th birthday, this monster pianist will perform in diverse settings, with his trio and guests (including vibist Steve Nelson and sax legend Joe Lovano), in duo with Kenny Barron, and with his sextet Wingspan.

Mulgrew Miller has enjoyed a thirty-year career atop the pool of pianists influenced by legendary Oscar Peterson and the great but under-rated Phineas Newborn. Growing up in Greenwood, Mississippi, young Miller was immersed in gospel and blues, playing gospel at church and blues and R&B for dance bands. He also studied classical piano and formed a trio while in high school, but did not really appreciate jazz until he saw Oscar Peterson perform on television. Said Miller in an interview with All About Jazz, “When I saw him, I realized there was a way to do something with music -- and do it with integrity and in a way that demanded virtuosity but wasn't classically oriented.” Pivotal to Miller’s transition to jazz was his studies at Memphis State University with Donald Brown and James Williams, pianists who would later work with Miller in the late 80s-early 90s as part of the Contemporary Piano Ensemble (along with a very young Geoff Keezer and Harold Mabern), dedicated to the music of Memphis’ native son Phineas Newborn. With Williams and Brown, Miller often caught Newborn’s sets at the Gemini in Memphis. “So that's where I really began to seriously learn jazz,” he notes.

Derrick Hodge, Photo by Andrea Canter

One of Mulgrew Miller’s earliest jobs was as pianist for the Mercer Ellington Orchestra. Then Cedar Walton introduced Miller to Betty Carter, and he moved to New York, spending the next 8 months with the great vocalist/educator. Following his tenure with Carter, Miller performed with Woody Shaw, Johnny Griffin, Art Blakey, and 7 years with Tony Williams. “From the Ellington band through Tony Williams, I was literally in a band every single day for 16 years.” Miller also was a frequent collaborator with Joe Lovano in the late 80s, turning his priorities to his own trio and other ensembles in the 90s while still performing or recording with such artists as Diane Reeves, Rene Marie, Steve Turre, Kenny Garrett, Joe Lovano, and Gary Burton. He also collaborated with the late Niels Henning Orstad Pedersen on a recording and series of performances in tribute to the great piano/bass duos of Ellington and Blanton.

But Miller’s focus lately has been his trio with Derrick Hodge and Rodney Holmes, as well as the quintet Wingspan. When asked how his approach to his small ensembles differs from his soloing, Miller noted, “In a trio or quintet, I sometimes tend to become more focused on melodic improvising. And especially in a quintet, I'll have a more concise approach to playing. But as a solo performer, I try to be more orchestral and use more of the entire instrument. After all, it's just you, so you need to come up with different things to make the music more interesting. In essence, I do things that are more pianistic.”

Miller has released a number of recordings as leader for Landmark, Criss Cross, Verve and most recently, the two trio volumes, Live at Yoshi’s on MaxJazz. Noted Time Out New York, “True to his blues-tinged upbringing, he's a bop intellectual with an unabashed gift for populism. That explains both the thundering jabs in his sparkling runs and the sleekness in his writing and arranging."

Miller’s bassist on both Live at Yoshi’s volumes, and for the Jazz Standard gig, is young Derrick Hodge, who has also worked with Terrell Stafford, Clark Terry and Terence Blanchard. A graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, he was named outstanding soloist for Temple’s top-rated collegiate big band at the 2001 Villanova Jazz Festival. Rounding out the core trio is multi-Grammy award-winner, drummer Rodney Holmes. Behind the trapset since his 4^th grade junior band in Westchester, NY, Holmes has worked with Clyde Criner, Special EFX, the Zawinul Syndicate, Carlos Santana (including the 1993 tour with Bob Dylan), the Brecker Brothers, Wayne Shorter, Larry Coryell, and more.

The full line-up for Mulgrew Miller’s birthday week:

August 16, Trio with Steve Nelson. Veteran vibes master Steve Nelson played with Grant Green as a teenager and went on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees at Rutgers. He has performed and/or recorded with many top jazz artists, including Kenny Barron, Bobby Watson, David Fathead Newman, Johnny Griffin, and Jackie McLean; current collaborations include Dave Holland (Quintet and Big Band), Mulgrew Miller's Wingspan, and the Lewis Nash Trio. The Pittsburgh native is also a noted composer and educator.

Kenny Barron

August 17-18, Duets with Kenny Barron. Early in his career, Phildelphian Kenny Barron played at New York’s Five Spot with James Moody. In the 1960s, Barron toured with Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, and Freddie Hubbard, then with with Yusef Lateef, Buddy Rich, and Ron Carter in the 1970s. In the early 1980s he founded Sphere with Charlie Rouse before developing his own trio and quintet. He also served as Stan Getz’ last pianist. Currently working with his newest ensemble, Canta Brasil, Barron also has been devoted to teaching, serving on the Rutgers faculty from 1973-2000. Going strong through the 1990s and into the new century, the Los Angeles Times named him "one of the top jazz pianists in the world" and Jazz Weekly called him "The most lyrical piano player of our time." The recipient of 9 Grammy nominations since 1992 on Verve, Barron was named Best Pianist by the Jazz Journalists Association for four consecutive years and runner up for 2001 Jazzpar International Jazz Prize. Zan Stewart (Newark Star-Ledger) noted, “Melodically gifted, he offers sumptuous thoughts as well as those that are stark. He delivers alternately open and dense harmonies that buoy his music; his sure-footed rippling rhythms make everything flow.”

Joe Lovano, Photo by Andrea Canter

August 19-20, Trio with Steve Nelson and Joe Lovano. Joining the Mulgrew Miller Trio and vibist Steve Nelson is one of the foremost tenor saxophonists of our time. Growing up in Cleveland, Joe Lovano studied with his father (tenor saxophonist Tony “Big T” Lovano) and absorbed the influences of Sonny Stitt, James Moody, Gene Ammons, Rashaan Roland Kirk, Dizzy Gillespie, and later the experimental work of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Jimmy Giuffre. After attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Lovano made his recording debut with organ master Lonnie Smith and worked with Jack McDuff before joining Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd. He went on to perform with top big bands and touring artists, releasing a series of acclaimed recordings that garnered many Grammy nominations, winning the 2000 award for Best Large Ensemble recording, 52nd Street Themes. He heads the Caramoor Jazz Festival in upstate New York and holds the first Gary Burton Chair for Jazz Performance at Berklee.

Steve WIlson, Photo by Andrea Canter

August 21, Mulgrew Miller and Wingspan. Miller closes out his birthday week with his acclaimed sextet, Wingspan. The core trio of Miller, Hodge and Holmes is augmented by Steve Nelson, alto saxman Steve Wilson, and trumpeter Duane Eubanks. The ensemble’s 2002 recording The Sequel (MaxJazz) topped the radio charts shortly after its release, and prompted C. Michael Bailey (All About Jazz) to write, “The music swings with a wholesome, well-behaved lilt. The solos are all informative and the band composition perfect. Duane Eubanks (brother of Kevin and Robin) provides an absolutely beautiful open-bell trumpet tone, while Steve Wilson’s reeds are sensitive and rhythmic. Steve Nelson provides the vibe for the band, performing with an anti-Milt Jackson tone that is entirely his own.” Miller formed Wingspan in the late 1980s, but only Steve Nelson returns from the original group; and since the 2002 recording, Holmes has replaced Karreim Riggins on drums and Hodge has replaced Richie Goods on bass. Wingspan will feature original compositions from Mulgrew Miller and dynamic interplay among the six musicians.

Mulgrew Miller is one of the most acclaimed pianists on this or any other planet, and his 50^th birthday celebration at Jazz Standard will give New York audiences a chance to see this monster performer in outstanding company, from duo to sextet. Fifty never sounded better.

“…No pianist of Miller’s generation brings such a wide a stylistic palette to the table.” –Down Beat