Major Talent: Tim Miller

One thing I have noticed about musicians
when I have a chance to talk to them about material.

They are generally a poor judge as to the quality, often
times consigning something I find amazing to the rubbish bin.


So...how did I get to that statement...Hmmm.
we're talking about guitarist Tim Miller, a recent discovery (for me)
and a major talent to be reconded with. (I will show you who's he's hooked up with)


Anyway, I heard a Tim Miller cut at a friends house and I
thought...Cool, Allan's (Holdsworth) playing nylon again!
Ah, but it was not holdsworth, it was Tim Miller.
In fact by the end of the piece I was listening to, it was
pretty clear that this was NOT holds, It was of VERY high
quality but, obviously the player had ideas of his own.

As I turned out, the CD was Miller's "trio 2" release.
and I could'nt tell you the exact cut.
Suffice to say, Miller's got the legato "sheets of sound" (I forget if
this originated from John Coltrane or maybe..John Klemmer!)
He's been listening to Reed players as much as other guitarist's.


So, I've found some reviews and grouped them up, also some links for
you to check Miller out in action.


Here's a quick breakdown:


TimMiller@timmillermusic.com



2008 Live at the 55 Bar - Janek Gwizdala

When I spoke (e-mailed Miller) talking about some of his music,
I asked for recommendations. He left this out. Hmmmm.

well, I think it was just an oversight, Gwizdala is a GREAT bassist!
and Miller burns on this!

2008 Chasing Shadows - Tony Grey
Another bassist here, the session also feature
the FUZE on guitar. But, this did not grab me.



2001 Blown Fuse - Steve Hunt

JUST KILLER..buy it now.I love steve Hunt anyway.
(he was the keyboard player in Allan Holdsworths
band for some of what is my favorite Holdsworth)

Hunt clearly is using Miller as a holdsworth "proxy" here
but the results are amazing.





1998 Corners - Aldo Romano

This is my favorite Non-Miller self release. I mean,Aldo Romano!
The guys a effin genius. Miller is utelized very, very well here.

and he shines!

and these:

Tim Miller Trio 2




Tim Miller
Trio Vol. 2
Avenir Records
2008

Very few guitarists have digested, head-on, the daunting influence of Alan Holdsworth, and then assimilated it into their own playing. Fewer still have combined Holdsworth's no-longer-futuristic linearity with the science of melodic chord permutation, as promulgated by the likes of George Van Eps, Ted Green and Mick Goodrick. Even fewer are in their thirties, like Tim Miller.

These qualities alone would make Miller's current release—the second with his trio including acoustic bassist Dr. Joshua Davis and drummer Take Toriyama—auspicious, but there is much more to consider here. Miller has taken his game up—way up—in terms of the sound he's achieving on record, to the point where his work advancing the breadth of the tone palette alone can now be compared to those at guitardom's highest levels.

Miller's approach is deceptively simple. Driven by his belief that the electric guitar is too midrange-heavy to "work" with acoustic instruments, he chased down the high end by isolating himself in a room with a guitar and a microphone and placing his amplifier in another room. Both acoustic and electric outputs were recorded, and are capable of being blended at will throughout. From a technical recording standpoint, then, the degree of innovation here appears relatively modest.

Aesthetically, though, there is a level of shimmering discernment and detail at play here that pushes the elusive annals of tone. A dazzling bounty of tonal delights—from vintage dreadnought to fat bop, steely Strat to Texas Tele—emerge, played at breakneck speed and sometimes changing from measure to measure. Miller's blistering legato technique is more percussive than Holdsworth's—his chord work even more modern and complex, yet always musical, never guitaristic. Steve Hunt recorded and engineered this outing, making it special by bringing all his previous experience with Holdsworth to bear.

The opening track, "Electric," features an airy acoustic head, pulsed by a chord ostinato and propulsed by a beaten snare that sounds copped from rag-tag street kit by Toriyama. Miller begins his solo with a gorgeously sustained single tone. From there he builds, in seconds, two complex, rhapsodic figures that collapse on themselves, all the while adding echo, subtracting sustain, metering metal and pumping air into the tone. He then combines the discerning changes in tonal detail with improvisational detail, repeating a 32nd note motif that subtly changes from measure to measure, developing into its own intervallic song. Toriyama does not keep pulse, challenging Miller at every turn, the clatter abetting what up to that moment, is Miller's (and band's) finest hour.

That five minutes alone anoints Miller as the jazz world's guitar Superboy. The next 40 minutes only get more momentous, with Miller out-playing and out-tone-meistering himself from one tune to the next. He takes respite only to issue a definitive solo spot that sounds like his personal revel to the "Night Sky." Miller also gives composition a twist by intermingling motifs, statements and devices from each of the tunes, to the degree that the recording becomes one labyrinthine compositional whole. Yet many, like "Trace," can stand on their own, as catchy gems chock full of hummable melodies, with flashes of energetic soloing.

Joshua Davis' sense of time is solid—at times locking with the bass portions of Miller's chord voicings—and (thanks to some crafty recording) sounds electrifying yet woody, as on "Trace." Toriyama logs one of his greatest recorded performances ever, benefited by the best recording of it, as evidenced in the turn-on-a dime ride swing melded to crushing jazz-rock stylings slammed against each other in "Thread." Miller dedicated the recording to Toriyama but it's the drummer himself who provides the only tribute needed. Whoever hears this recording will know that during his all-too-short stint here, Toriyama thoroughly mastered the drum kit, fearlessly incorporating some sounds that, previous to his work, seemed not to belong. And whoever hears some of his other work will know he did the same over the complete range of musical idioms.

Miller believes that this is his most personal recording to date, on which the sound he has imagined for so long has finally made it onto record. That's just one reason why Mr. Miller was recently cited by no less than Alan Holdsworth, in the most recent issue of Guitar Player Magazine, as one of two current guitar players to watch.


Tracks: Electric; By The Sea; Elements; Flying; Night Sky; Arc; Thread; Grey To Blue; Trace; Drop of Ink; Recall; Open.

Personnel: Tim Miller: guitar; Joshua Davis: bass; Take Toriyama: drums.



Tim Miller Trio

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18917



Tim Miller's third indie effort stands out by manifesting his influences as an aural whole. Compositionally, the freedom and openness in the music reflects the deep influence of Keith Jarrett, while sonically, the air-infused yet electric guitar sound dances with bass and drums mixed in a pastoral acoustic style. Even with headphones, the listener hears the trio of instruments entwined in the air, coupled by intense playing and musicianship.

From the perspective of guitar-related influences we hear the chordal inspiration of a fellow Bostonian, voicing-god Mick Goodrick. Linearity is Miller's calling card, seamlessly melding Allan Holdsworth's 21st Century legato technique with a non-guitar-centric, truly jazz vocabulary and phraseology, with notes percussing from the fretboard in pianistic fashion.

Another facet that takes Trio up a notch is the particular attention paid to tone and articulation on the high end. Miller devoted requisite consideration and time to sonics, and the dividends are sumptuous. An advocate of the ergonomically correct Klein axes, Miller's performance on "Untied sounds as if he's playing two of them at once, electric for the atmospheric chords of the intro and acoustic for the quick sixteenth-note turn-backs found on high, doubled by the drums. Take Toriyama's tone is apart from the more athletic norms of the "fusion realm, with more of the room than the kit in the mix. His use of slackened snare, coupled with bassist Josh Davis' booming upright sound, is especially effective on this track.

Miller employs a super-thick tone for his solo, alternating bop-legato mastery with sax-like repeated figures that belie the layout of the fretboard. Miller can lay into a rock'n'roll repeating hyperspeed four-note figure akin to traditional Hendrix or Page twelfth-fret pentatonics, but in the middle of the neck, using four notes at spread intervals of the harmony-of-the moment, something more out of Mike Brecker's vocabulary.

While the recording weighs in at the forty-minute mark, there's much to be said for concentration and self-editing. "Sparkle is ninety seconds of inspired melodic riffing against Toriyama's percussion arsenal and will alone reward consecutive listening surpassing the total of the disc's real time. It would be an interesting musical exercise to map out here where each of Miller's melodic phrases begins or ends, or to pick the midpoint of each. I am sure each roadmap would in turn comprise alternate songs. Similarly, the three minutes of "MG, dedicated to mentor and Berklee fellowman Goodrick, forge a successful marriage of modern rock balladry with jazz.

"Straight Lines is the composition of the set, a mid-tempo cut smoldering with the passion and memorable melody usually reserved for ballads, especially in Miller's opening solo salvo. The two "Density compositions, using minimal themes fashioned from rhythmic chordal materials growing out of and into weaving strands of single-note improvisation, reveal substantial rewards unearthed by exploring repetition as a means of mining new melodic and improvisational territory.

Nothing should stand between this one getting heard and Miller's justifiably meteoric ascension on the worldwide guitar-watchers org-chart.



Track listing: Intro; Untied; Shift; Paris; Sparkle; Straight Lines; The Trees the Sun; Density One; TR; Two View; Density Two; MG.

Personnel: Tim Miller: guitar; Joshua Davis: bass; Take Toriyama: drums.



Tim Miller Trio Sides This apparently is the CD that Mr. Miller considers his "debut".
Its a bit "fuller" than the next two, with the addition of a reed player. I know Mr.
Miller will likely cringe at the Holdsworth compairisons...(I'm sorry,
its apt). But..I always enjoyied Allans work with Gordon Beck (jazz) and Pat Smyth.
He can be a hell of a jazz player.
Here, I get a simelar "legato" playing jazz.



But, I can't find this:


1997 With The Distance




some vids......



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4ow7HgUbA0





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0b0YQAD_zU





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcb5ptVgXYk