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Dan Miller

Dan Miller was born in Waukegan, Illinois on May 31,1969 to John and Virginia Miller. He began playing the trumpet in grade school with the encouragement of his father (his brother David plays the trombone). Growing up, he would listen to records with his father (including Miles, Dizzy, Chet, Maynard, Basie and Sinatra) which helped him form the idea of what jazz trumpet should sound like.

Dan relates, "Chicago in the 1970's and 1980's had an incredibly vibrant jazz scene. There was Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase that had Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Max Roach, Horace Silver, Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Phil Woods with Tom Harrell, The Jazztet, The Timeless All Stars with Bobby Hutcheson, Curtis Fuller and Harold Land, Ira Sullivan and Red Rodney, Dexter and Johnny Griffin, etc. When a artist was working as a single they would often be backed by the classic Delmark rhythm section of Jodie Christian, Donald Garrett and Wilbur Campbell. There was Rick's Cafe American that had all of the Norman Granz acts like Dizzy, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Zoot Sims, etc. Mr.Ricky's had all of the organ greats like Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff. Von Freeman ran the Tuesday night session at the New Apartment Lounge down on 77th Street. Brad Goode started playing with Lin Halliday everywhere, then Eric Alexander moved to town. Bob Koester owned the Jazz Record Mart (the best jazz record store in the world) and used LP's were cheap. Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman or Maynard's Band was always coming to town. There was always something swinging happening and fortunately for my brother and I, my dad took us to hear music all the time."

He studied with Nick Drozdoff and Gary Slavo while growing up in Chicago, but points to two specific events which helped him to pursue jazz trumpet. First, he met Bobby Shew in Chicago in 1984, who would become a life long teacher, mentor and friend. "Hearing Bobby was a revelation to me. He blew sensational bebop and such swinging lead trumpet, that I felt that here was a musician that can do it all. Bobby is also one the finest teachers in the world. His down to earth approach puts the student at ease, and allows them to quickly grasp his innovative ideas." Second, was a meeting the same year with Tom Harrell at a Jamey Aeborsold jazz clinic. Harrell was just there for one day, but "he came into the trumpet master class with Hal Galper and proceeded to tear through Cherokee, rhythm changes and the blues in all 12 keys. I sat five feet away from the front of his bell, enamored by that big, burnished sound and thought that this is what I wanted to do."

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Album Review

The Jazz Professors: Blues and Cubes

Read "Blues and Cubes" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Yes, the Florida-based Jazz Professors, as befits the name, are smart—but don't let that throw you. They also swing in the best jazz tradition, even though their fourth album, Blues and Cubes, was inspired by the art of Pablo Picasso. Unlike Picasso's works, however, there is scant abstraction here; the Professors embody far more bop than bemusement, more Blue Note than bohemian. As for day gigs, the Professors maintain theirs at the University of Central Florida in ...

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Event

A Misty Night for Dan Miller

A Misty Night for Dan Miller

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Musician friends, family and friends, and students from near and far packed The Barrel Room at Twisted Vine Bistro in downtown Fort Myers on Thursday night, September 1, for a jazz night unlike any other the venue has seen. They were all there, standing room only through the first set, to celebrate the musical legacy of trumpeter and educator Dan Miller, who died unexpectedly on August 19 at age 53. The Barrel Room has been the Thursday night home for ...

3

Obituary

Dan Miller: A Life Well-Lived, And Then Some....

Dan Miller: A Life Well-Lived, And Then Some....

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Someone's impact on others is a more meaningful measure of a life well-lived than the number of years they spend on the planet. That notion was reinforced today when we received word that Dan Miller died unexpectedly yesterday (Friday, August 19). He was just 53. Dan was passionate about a lot of things—auto racing and other sports, fine food, and his family. Most of us knew him best through his many contributions to the world of jazz. He was a ...

Performance / Tour

Swinging jazz, no holds barred

Swinging jazz, no holds barred

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

The Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto quartet's weekly gig at the Barrel Room in downtown Fort Myers FL always has a surprise or two, and the Thursday, May 26 edition was no exception. Drummer Jim White, a close friend and occasional band-mate of trumpeter Miller's since 1987 when they were freshmen at the University of North Texas (then known as North Texas State), was a special guest, joining bassist Don Mopsick in the piano-less rhythm section. White is a powerful, hard-swinging ...

1

Performance / Tour

The joy and legacy of the Duke Ellington songbook

The joy and legacy of the Duke Ellington songbook

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Duke Ellington's impact on jazz seems beyond measure, no matter how you count it. He wrote, co-wrote or took credit for writing more than 1,000 compositions over a 50-year span. According to one family bio, it was more than 3,000 songs. The numbers really don't matter as much as the imprint Duke left on the music. That's what the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto sextet celebrated in their Charlotte County Jazz Society concert appearance on Monday, January 10. They dug into ...

2

Interview

A trumpeter’s legacy of paying it forward

A trumpeter’s legacy of paying it forward

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

The fine trumpeter Bobby Shew, now one of the horn’s elder statesmen, gave Dan Miller an unforgettable present on his protégé’s 30th birthday. As Miller recalls 22 years later, those sage words of wisdom went like this: “You don’t want to be a sideman all your life. You’re going to turn 50 years old and the phone is going to stop ringing. It is not because you can’t play well, it’s because there are two younger generations of players who ...

Performance / Tour

Updating a classic format

Updating a classic format

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Trumpeter Dan Miller and tenor saxophonist Lew Del Gatto usually perform in a quartet format at their weekly Thursday night gigs at The Barrel Room at Twisted Vine Bistro in downtown Fort Myers, FL. But the bandstand was a bit more crowded on Thursday, February 28. Delightfully so. Besides regular drummer Tony Vigilante and St. Petersburg bassist Joe Porter, subbing for a couple of weeks for Brandon Robertson, they were joined by tenor saxophonist Gerald Augustin and alto saxophonist Bob ...

1

Performance / Tour

Honoring the creativity and spirit of a key jazz era

Honoring the creativity and spirit of a key jazz era

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

The late 1950s and the 1960s were fertile years in the development of the hard-bop style. That incubation was so dominated by the players of one jazz record label that it has become known as The Blue Note Era because the Blue Note label’s bands and future bandleaders had an indelible impact on modern jazz. Trumpeter Dan Miller and tenor saxophonist Lew Del Gatto celebrated that style and spirit on Monday, December 10, performing with their rock-solid quintet for the ...

Performance / Tour

Honoring Art Blakey's multi-faceted jazz legacy

Honoring Art Blakey's multi-faceted jazz legacy

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Drummer Art Blakey had a profound impact on jazz that has stretched from the 1940s, through bebop's 1950s and '60s heyday, right up to the present. The music associated with his Jazz Messengers band and his legacy as a bandleader were celebrated by the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto quintet on Sunday, November 11, in Naples FL. And what a grand legacy it is. Blakey, who passed away in 1990, was without a doubt the finest molder of other future bandleaders ...

1

Performance / Tour

Always a night with musical surprises

Always a night with musical surprises

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

You never know just what's in store when the Dan Miller Quartet performs on Tuesday nights at the Roadhouse Cafe in Fort Myers FL. There are always musical surprises, and that's a good thing in this case. That's just what happened on April 17 when the Tuesday night series concluded its season-long run. (The Roadhouse will be closed on Tuesdays from now through the summer). But back to last night. Trumpeter Miller has been working steadily for several years with ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Blues and Cubes

Flying Horse Records
2022

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