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Natasha Miller

Once again, spunky vocalist Natasha Miller teams up with 83-year-old songwriter Bobby Sharp (Unchain My Heart, Don't Set Me Free), and this time, she’s got an album of destined- to-be jazz standards that outdoes everything she's produced to date.

The new CD Don't Move features 11 songs written by Sharp, most of which have never been recorded before. That makes this album something of an historic event in its own right. What makes it a musical event of the first order is Sharp’s songwriting, Natasha’s gift for flawless phrasing, and stunning arrangements penned by a group of musicians whose roots go deep and whose talents run to the top of their class pianists Bill Bell (Duke Ellington, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson), Larry Dunlap (Cleo Lane, Mark Murphy), Ellen Hoffman (Oakland East Bay Symphony, Linda Ronstadt), and Josh Nelson (Peter Erskine, Ernie Watts). Some of the arrangements call for a 3-piece horn section and a string ensemble to augment Natasha’s jazz trio. “It’s only a 9-piece band, Miller says, “but the arrangements are so full and the band so tight, I sometimes think I’ve got The Stan Kenton Orchestra or Nelson Riddle and his strings behind me.”

As she has in all her previous work, both live and recorded, Miller again demonstrates she can sing anything put in front of her (possibly even the phone book). Her voice harbors a rich palette of colors, sometimes sassy and insistent (“Don’t Set Me Free,” “Don’t Move”), sometimes sultry and ironic (”At Midnight,” “You Don’t Have to Learn How to Sing the Blues”), and sometimes wistful and longing, as in the haunting “Snow Covers the Valley,” with its hint of the tragic realities found in old Irish ballads. But even when she’s “A Prisoner of the Blues,” there’s no crying in her beer here. These are songs for grown-ups rendered by a 34-year-old artist who knows that even though fate may often deprive us from what we want, we keep on going anyway. What Natasha does is to bring these qualities together with finesse and power, delivering each song to the listener’s doorstep, where they don’t beg for entry, they come as familiar guests. Put all this together vocal color, a tone that runs from hushed to fills- up-your-heart, a touch of attitude, range and power with Natasha’s natural gift for just the right lyrical timing and you wonder how these songs could be sung any other way.

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219
Album Review

Natasha Miller: I Had A Feelin'

Read "I Had A Feelin'" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


For her third album, Bay Area singer Natasha Miller devotes the eleven tracks to the songs of Bobby Sharp. The songwriter achieved his most notable success with “Unchain My Heart," popularized by Ray Charles in 1961 and later by Joe Cocker. Sharp was a New York songwriter who composed from 1946 through 1978. After having recovered from a drug addiction problem, Sharp relocated to San Francisco where he spent eight years as a drug counselor. Upon hearing Miller sing, Sharp ...

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220

Recording

San Francisco-Based Jazz Vocalist Natasha Miller to Release New CD on 9/14

San Francisco-Based Jazz Vocalist Natasha Miller to Release New CD on 9/14

Source: Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations

Sooner or later, most singers get the urge to make a standards record. “And they always try to make it different," says Natasha Miller, the sterling Bay Area-based jazz singer prized for her rich sound, streamlined phrasing and unforced feeling. “I wanted to make a standards album that was different different." Miller pulls that off brilliantly on her new CD, SpinVintage, a collection of classic songs that sound anything but standard. She puts a bracing and ironic spin on some ...

143

Recording

Natasha Miller Releases First Holiday Recording, the Season, on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007

Natasha Miller Releases First Holiday Recording, the Season, on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007

Source: Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations

Poignant Records recording artist Natasha Miller will release her first holiday recording, The Season, on Tuesday, November 20, 2007. The Season is vocalist Natasha Miller's first album of holiday music. Recorded live at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA, with additional studio tracks, it features both Christmas “standards," as well as non-holiday-specific songs that fit “the season." Natasha says, “I wanted to pull together a fun, unique, and beautifully arranged collection of songs for people to enjoy, not only during the holidays, ...

151

Performance / Tour

Bay Area Vocalist Natasha Miller Sings the Bobby Sharp Songbook at Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz 3/8/07

Bay Area Vocalist Natasha Miller Sings the Bobby Sharp Songbook at Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz 3/8/07

Source: Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations

BAY AREA VOCALIST NATASHA MILLER PLAYS KUUMBWA MARCH 8 (Oakland, CA) - Bay Area jazz vocalist Natasha Miller performs at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, CA on Thursday, March 8 at 7:00pm. Miller will perform material from her two CDs devoted to the songbook of 83-year-old Bobby Sharp plus new originals penned by Miller. The group includes Josh Nelson on piano, Dan Feiszli on bass, Jeff Marrs on drums, and Adam Theis on trombone. Miller's latest CD, Don't Move, ...

"Miller sang the engaging material with sensitivity and insight, her cool musicality and clear articulation illuminating the unfamiliar pieces." --Don Heckman, L.A. Times

"rich, supple voice...A first-class production all the way..." --Andy Gilbert, Contra Costa Times

"...beautifully arranged and performed set..." --Jonathan Takiff, Philadelphia Daily News

Primary Instrument

Vocals

Credentials/Background

Marketing and Production.

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Don't Move

Poignant Records
2006

buy

I Had A Feelin'

Poignant Records
2004

buy

Don't Set Me Free

From: Don't Move
By Natasha Miller

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