Mulgrew Miller
FameRank: 4

"Mulgrew Miller" was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. As a child he played in churches and was influenced on piano by Ramsey Lewis and then Oscar Peterson. Aspects of their styles remained in his playing, but he added the greater harmonic freedom of McCoy Tyner and others in developing as a hard bop player and then in creating his own style, which influenced others from the 1980s on.

Miller's style evolved through playing with a series of major jazz figures. After leaving university he was pianist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for three years, then accompanied vocalist Betty Carter. Three-year stints with trumpeter Woody Shaw and with drummer Art Blakey's high profile Jazz Messengers followed, by the end of which Miller had formed his own bands and begun recording under his own name. He was then part of drummer Tony Williams (drummer)/Tony Williams' quintet from its foundation, while continuing to play and record with numerous other leaders, mostly in small group contexts. Miller was Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University from 2005, and continued to play and tour internationally with other high profile figures in the music until his death from a stroke at the age of 57.

More Mulgrew Miller on Wikipedia.

If you told me when I was in college that I would eventually work with Ron Carter and Tony Williams, I would have thought you were crazy, ... They were part of what shaped my direction in music. Today, whenever I'm working with Ron, it's like a culmination of something that's beyond a dream.

I guess it's one of those things that happens to a lot of people as they start to be viewed as a veteran, ... For some of us, that means they start getting more attention. Others get it early on. For me, it's taken a long time to get where I am now. But that's OK. My career has kept me honest.