JOEL MILLER with RESONANCE NEW MUSIC

WHAT IF?

Resonance Records

Joel Miller, saxophone/composer/arranger; Andrew Reed Miller, acoustic bass; Joel Cormier, percussion; Silvio Pupa, piano; Dani Sametz, violin.

Based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, this respected musician on Montreal, Canada’s jazz scene, is an award-winning saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Joel Miller comes from a musical family.  His father was a classical composer and music professor.  As a child, Joel was encouraged to pursue music. By age ten, he showed great talent playing saxophone.  As a college student, he earned a Jazz Performance degree from McGill University.  He also studied under the watchful eyes of well-known artists like Chucho Valdés and Kenny Wheeler at the Banff Centre.  In 2012, after the release of five albums as a bandleader, he won his first Juno Award for ‘Best Contemporary Jazz Album.’

This recent release by Joel Miller is a surprising mixture of classical music, with contemporary jazz, and even a pinch of Avant-garde arrangements, with experimental improvisation blended into the mix. The album is titled, “What if?”  A composition he calls “This & That” opens the album. It begins with his Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone sending jazzy notes into space.  His tone is rich. Then he is joined by the violin of Dani Sametz. It’s more like an interlude than a composition, only a couple of minutes long with the saxophone and violin speaking to each other in musical phrases.

A tune titled “From This Lando” is more structured, with Andrew Reed Miller bowing his acoustic bass and the piece sounding quite classical.

Joel Miller explained his direction on this album: “I went back to my origins with my classical music dad and my jazz eclectic mom and fell into using musical languages as a way of understanding differences while seeing the beauty in ‘both ways.’  The album is my musical exploration and offering of how very different traditions and circumstances can have conversations that offer alternative ways of co-existing.”

Those familiar with Miller’s work know that he leans heavily towards chamber ensembles and orchestral settings.  He is quite prominent as an arranger for both large and small ensembles and even full orchestras.  However, his saxophone is always front and center in every genre-blending arrangement he writes. This production is no different. A special guest on this album is Cuban-born pianist, Silvio Pupo.

From compositions like “Dew Drop In” and “Nos étoiles” that are quite contemporary and easy-listening productions, Miller leaps into the familiar Debussy composition, “Clair de Lune,” that features the lovely violin of Sametz paired with Joel Miller’s saxophone. It’s arranged by Joel’s brother, Andrew Reed Miller. Andrew is the bassist and group leader of the Resonance New Music Ensemble. Joel credits his older brother for starting his journey into jazz.  When he was ten, Andrew gifted him with his first saxophone. Andrew has over twenty-five years of experience in orchestral, chamber and experimental music.

On a tune called “Wait for It” there is a bit of blues blended into the chamber-music style.

The Resonance New Music ensemble covers “What a Wonderful World.”  Once again, it is arranged very much like chamber music and sweet to the ears. I would call this “Symphonic Jazz from a small ensemble.”

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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