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Joel Miller

Winner of the 2013 Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Montreal saxophonist Joel Miller marries his awe-inspiring technique and boundless sense of musical adventure with a pop musician’s desire to make music that moves people.

His compositions are inspired by the melodic simplicity and emotional depth of American folk music, and they’ve been praised by Downbeat as “passionate and creative, melodic yet exploratory.” His free-spirited eclecticism has been equally lauded by the magazine for “illustrating the cross-pollination emblematic of the Montreal jazz community.” Dave Douglas calls Miller "a breath of fresh air and one of the great pleasures of the Montreal scene."

Miller’s recording, Swim, pushes the boundaries of the traditional jazz quartet with cinematic passages that evoke a shared universe of stars, a sudden drop-off at the bottom of a lake, and even a humourously dark scene from a Ben Stiller film. The album’s wistful sax lines and frenetic crescendos mark Miller’s first outing as a lone soloist, and they see him floating easily above the surface of his breathtaking acoustic scores. He is joined by his long-time Canadian rhythm section of Greg Ritchie on drums and Fraser Hollins on bass, along with American pianist Geoffrey Keezer.

His 2013 album Honeycomb explores a whole other side of Miller’s musical personality. Its breezy, Latin-inspired cadenzas draw inspiration from his time spent studying Afro-Peruvian rhythms in Lima, Peru in 2008. It is also inspired by his associations with Afro-Peruvian artist Oscar Stagnaro and Latin jazz musician Joé Armando. The moody electronics are an extension of his work with his award-wining jazz-electronic ensemble Mandala, and the additional nods to Latin American folklore derive from Miller’s other work with Haitian and Afro Colombian music.

Uniting all of Miller’s compositions are strong, accessible melodies, which evoke beautiful mental images and emotional states, and arrangements that blur beyond recognition the line between written notes and improvisation. All are born of Miller’s desire to speak to music lovers beyond jazz’s inner circle.

A graduate of McGill University’s jazz performance program and an alumnus of the Banff Centre jazz workshops – where he studied with Chucho Valdes and Kenny Wheeler, among others – Miller distinguished himself as a bandleader virtually from his debut, winning the Grand Prix Jazz Award at the 1997 Montreal International Jazz Festival and earning enthusiastic reviews for his debut album, Find a Way.

Since then he has continued to elevate his already-formidable playing and composing skills by seeking out cutting edge virtuosos such as Geoffrey Keezer, Ben Monder, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gary Versace and Ingrid Jensen as his regular collaborators. These players share Miller’s ceaseless drive for originality, and together they force each other toward captivating new frontiers.

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3
Album Review

Joel Miller: Unstoppable

Read "Unstoppable" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Montreal-based saxophonist / composer Joel Miller brings an impressive resume to bear on Unstoppable, a large-ensemble recording aptly described in an accompanying press release as “a 21st-Century chamber symphony." In a career spanning more than two decades, Miller has earned a number of high honors including a Grand Prix Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival for his debut album Find a Way (Ithmus, 1996), an East Coast Music Award for Dream Cassette (FamGroup, 2016) with vocalist Sienna Dahlen, and a ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Joel Miller, Markus Howell, Curtis Taylor and More

Read "Joel Miller, Markus Howell, Curtis Taylor and More" reviewed by Bob Osborne


This week we focus on the new albums by Joel Miller, Markus Howell and Curtis Taylor, three new releases from Leo Records and a selection of new and recent recordings from across the wide world of jazz... Playlist Joel Miller “Song Story 1 : Gyre" from Unstoppable (Joel Miller) 00:00 Markus Howell “Get Right" from Get Right! (Posi-tone) 04:51 Curtis Taylor “Bolivia" from Snapshot (Curtis Taylor Music) 10:29 Blazing Flame “Back into the High Tide We Go" from ...

5
Album Review

Joel Miller: Unstoppable

Read "Unstoppable" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Joel Miller makes an excellent case for continuing education. Twenty years after winning the career-boosting Gran Prix of the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1997, and releasing his debut album, Find A Way (Isthmus/Page Music) in the same year, the Montreal-based saxophonist returned to his alma mater, McGill University, to complete his studies for a Master's in Jazz Composition. The result of his return to school is Unstoppable, music from a twenty-first century chamber ensemble—an orchestra-recording without strings that earns Miller ...

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Album Review

Joel Miller: Tantramar

Read "Tantramar" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Listening to Tantramar by saxophonist Joel Miller keeps reminding me of the lyrics to “Life is Grand" by the rock band Camper Van Beethoven: “And life is grand, And I will say this at the risk of falling from favor, With those of you who have appointed yourselves, To expect us to say something darker."

You see, Miller and company play such bright, life-affirming music, there is little room to say (or think) something darker.

Perhaps ...

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Album Review

Joel Miller: Mandala

Read "Mandala" reviewed by John Kelman


Psychology icon Carl Jung believed that the Buddhist Mandala--a circle enclosing a square with a deity on each side--was representative of the “nuclear atom" of the human psyche, the unknown essence of the soul. Ever-pervasive in dreams, children's drawings and more, he felt this simple representation depicted humanity's way of forming a harmonious relationship with the self, a means of reconciling with the tenebrous core of the soul to encourage healing.

For Canadian saxophonist Joel Miller the concept of the ...

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Album Review

Joel Miller: Mandala

Read "Mandala" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


Canadian saxophonist Joel Miller experienced an epiphany in 2002 that affected his musical direction. The title of this album dates back to Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, and has been used in a number of ways including, in this case, achieving wholeness and forming a harmonious relationship with one's self. Coincident to this important change, Miller ventured from Montreal to New York, where he heard Kurt Rosenwinkel and convinced the guitarist to join him in Montreal for some club ...

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Video / DVD

Joel Miller: Jazz in Montreal, Baby

Joel Miller: Jazz in Montreal, Baby

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey


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Performance / Tour

Joel Miller New Gig Dates!

Joel Miller New Gig Dates!

Source: All About Jazz

6/16/08 8:00pm With Torben Waldorff 55 Bar New York, NY 6/24/08 8:30pm With Torben Waldorff Dieze Onze Montreal, QC 6/25/08 8:00pm With Karl Schwonik Calgary Jazz Festival Calgary, Canada 6/28/08 6:00pm Ottawa Jazz Festival Great Canadian Jazz Stage Ottawa, Canada Joel Miller was born in Sackville, New Brunswick ...

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Performance / Tour

Joel Miller Gigs in Montreal

Joel Miller Gigs in Montreal

Source: All About Jazz

Joel is performing in Montreal.

WHEN: Wednesday May 14th, 2008 @8:00PM

WHERE: Sala Rossa 4848 La Sala Rossa Montreal Special guest: Ardesco

WHEN: Friday May 16th, 2008 @8:30PM

WHERE: Dieze Onze 4115-A, St. Denis Montreal, Canada Perforomers: Joel Miller, Fraser Hollins, Martin Auguste

WHEN: Sunday May 18th, 2008 @8:00PM

WHERE: Upstairs Jazz ...

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Performance / Tour

Saxophonist Joel Miller to Appear at The Rex Hotel and Jazz Blues Bar in Toronto

Saxophonist Joel Miller to Appear at The Rex Hotel and Jazz Blues Bar in Toronto

Source: All About Jazz

Montreal-based jazz label Effendi Records released a new CD Mandala by jazz saxophonist/composer Joel Miller featuring Verve recording artist/guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. Joel will be in Toronto at the Rex Hotel on Monday, September 27 to perform works from his latest CD and joining him on stage will be his Montreal compatriots Thom Gossage (drums), Bill Mahar (trumpet), Bruno Lamarche (saxophones, clarinet, flute) and Fraser Hollins (bass).

Joel Miller is considered one of Canada's most forward looking, refined young jazz musicians. ...

"Passionate and creative, melodic yet exploratory" Downbeat Magazine

"positively engaging" The New York City Jazz Record

"What is doubtless one of the most creative jazz productions to come out of Canada." - Juan Rodriguez Montreal Gazette

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Unstoppable

Multiple Chord Music (MCM)
2019

buy

Tantramar

ArtistShare
2008

buy

Mandala

Effendi Records
2005

buy

Mandala

Effendi Records
2004

buy

Swim

Origin Records
0

buy

Teeter Totter

From: Swim
By Joel Miller

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