Jim Miller
I've been involved in the professional music business since 1970, but incredibly, still enjoy playing the drums anyway. I consider it very fortunate that my Indianapolis grade school had a full band program and indoor plumbing as well. At age 12 the music nun yanked me from piano lessons to play drums in the orchestra because no one else had exhibited any natural proclivity toward becoming the scapegoat in the school's traditional losses at district band contests. Falling in love with the drums immediately, I demonstrated my interest and gratitude by ripping off drumsticks from the school, using them at home to break the heads on a pair of Emenee bongos.
In order to protect the windowsills and tabletops, a drumset was soon provided and in no time, I was auditioning for my first band (Do you know the beat to 'Wipe Out'? Yeah. OK, you're in.). Starting with youth centers and community pools, moving up to after-game dances and drunken frat-house affairs, I paid my dues to reach the top in Naptown: VFW halls, Moose Lodges, mall openings, sets between films at drive-ins, and occasional Union jobs at the Women's Prison. I once found myself playing along with the jukebox at a country joint too cheap to hire a whole group; realizing something was missing, I decided to devote myself to bands inexplicably working on unique, original material no one wanted to hear.
By this point I was gaining notoriety as a drummer who would show up for the gig, but I needed more...so, after finally perceiving that further artistic growth could not occur in an area with such a dearth of seedy dives, I moved to Philadelphia
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Record Label Profile
Take Five With...
Album Review
- A Brief History of (Jim) Miller Time by Victor L. Schermer
- If It's Not One Thing... by John Kelman
September 23, 2019
The Dreambox Concerts: An Ongoing Series In Honor Of Social-Justice...
October 19, 2016
Philadelphia Jazz Label Dreambox Media To Celebrate Thirtieth...
March 31, 2015
Jim Miller & Friends At Rowan Planetarium On April 8
June 13, 2014
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jim Miller
June 13, 2013
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jim Miller
April 02, 2013
Jim Miller Honored as "Jazz Hero" on April 15th at LaRose Jazz...
June 13, 2012
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jim Miller
March 15, 2012
Jazz Bridge presents Miller Time special Jazz Appreciation Month...
June 13, 2011
Jazz Musician of the Day: Jim Miller
June 13, 2010
With his characteristic flexibility, one that makes it sometime seem as if he's physically steering the band around the turns of whatever tune is rolling past (-Cadence)
...the orchestrational drummer of choice (-Jazz Player magazine)
...unbelievably difficult to listen to... (-AllAbout Jazz.com)
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