Primary Instrument: Saxophone
Joel Miller was born in Sackville, New Brunswick and picked up the saxophone at age 10. He moved to Montreal in 1988, graduating from McGill University's jazz program. He later studied with Dewey Redman, Kenny Wheeler, Chucho Valdés and Pat Labarbera. His first album, 1996's Find a Way (Page Music), prompted Globe and Mail critic Mark Miller to write: “His solos are supremely melodic- think of Stan Getz, or of John Coltrane at his most wistful... a terrific debut CD.” He won the Grand Jazz Award at the 1997 Montreal International Jazz Festival. Miller's discography includes Playgrounds (1998, Justin-Time Records), ... and then everything started to look different ... (2000, Effendi).
Over the years, Miller has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Ingrid Jensen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Monder, Brad Turner, and Steve Amirault. He has toured with jazz vocalists Denzal Sinclaire, Michael Buble and John Labelle. His long time collaboration with Latin-Jazz artist Joé Armando has led to opening concerts for Tito Puente, Ray Baretto, Yuli Bonaventura and Cuban Son master, Eliades Ochoa. Joel recently played with virtuoso Latin-jazz bassist Oscar Stagnaro and Mazambique musician Zé Maria.
Projects that Miller has taken part in include A.S.A.P (Christine Jensen, Miles Perkin, Thom Gossage), Montreal Saxophone Quartet (Chet Doxas, Remi Bolduc and Eric Hove), Sky Beneath My Feet (Nate Miller, Tommy Babin) Follow Follow (Rainer Wiens, Jean Derome), and The Motion Ensemble (Andrew Miller, Darcy Gray, Nadia Francavilla).
Along with winning the Opus award in 2005, Miller¹s fourth album Mandala made the All About Jazz Publisher picks and was chosen by La Presse critic Alain Brunet as one of the top five jazz albums of the year. He was also nominated for the ADISQ Awards (jazz album of the year), National Jazz Awards (best acoustic group) and the Canadian Independent Music Awards (Jazz Group of the Year).
In October 2006 Miller collaborated with Danish guitarist Torben Waldorff, Peter Nilsson on drums and bassist Mattias Welin, while touring Sweden and Denmark.
Awards:
2006 Joel Miller Mandala, Opus AwardConcert of the year (L'Off Festival July 2nd, 2005)
2005 Joel Miller Mandala, All About Jazz 2005 Publisher Picks
2005 Joel Miller Mandala, "Best of 2005" La Presse (Alain Brunet)
2005 Joel Miller Mandala, National Jazz Awards nomination
2005 Joel Miller Mandala, ADISC nomination
(Quebec Music Awards)
2005 Joel Miller, CMW (Canadian Music Week) Indie Awards, Jazz Group of the year nomination, Toronto, ON
2003 Joel Miller …and then everything started to look different…, East Coast Music Awards Nomination
2003 Joel Miller …and then everything started to look different…, Opus Award Nomination
1997 Joel Miller Quintet, duMaurier Grand Jazz Award, Montreal International Festival
Mandala (Effendi Records 2004)
And Then Everything Started to Look Different (Effendi Records 2000)
Playgrounds (Justin-Time 1998)
Find a Way (Isthmus/Unity 1996)
As A Side Musician
A Shorter Distance - Christine Jensen (Effendi Records 2002)
Collage - Christine Jensen (Effendi Records 2000)
Atmosphere - Brian Hurley (2000)
Acadian Folk Song - Greg Amirault (Effendi Records 1999)
Sky Beneath My Feet (L'institute Sexoacoustical 2003)
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