| Steve Miller's Piano Solos - 'See Hear' £12.99 | |
| Tracks: 1 Trailer Park Trash 2 Like Old Times 3 Tight Wire 4 See Hear 5 Let Slip 6 Just How Close 7 Green Lane |
Released - 090204 |
 These notes from: www.philmiller-incahoots.co.uk "In an unfiltered flow from mind to hand, Steve Miller made music at the speed of thought. To witness him at a piano keyboard was to be an onlooker at the process of unadulterated artistic creation, sound flowing from player and instrument in total symmetry. Whether solo or with others, he was often no more aware than his audience of what themes were likely to emerge next or of what the final effect would be..... He simply played. His spontaneous jazz explorations have an undeniable alchemy and cut through the routine tools of a listener's perceptions to paint large on the canvas of the mind's eye. After a lifetime honing his talents in the vanguard of Britain's experimental music, touring internationally, playing with some of the most highly regarded musicians and bands in the field and ranking among the country's foremost exponents of free jazz, Steve was content to retreat to a gothic church near the home he shared with his wife Miranda and daughter Stephanie. When he felt the urge, the St Johns Arts and Recreation Centre in nearby Harlow provided a perfect outlet for more public experimentation. Born on the Isle of Wight to musical parents, he encountered jazz through a Derbyshire prep school classics master who would occasionally commandeer the institution's piano for his own pleasure and, moving on to a London school, found himself gravitating towards a weekly jazz club in Ealing where he got a first taste of his musical potential one night when the band took a break “I dared to go up on the stage and started playing. The band left their beer and got back up and started playing with me. I realised they understood what I was doing. They were seasoned musicians and just knew how to fit in straight away, intuitively, with the ability to improvise.” With his brother Phil and drummer Pip Pyle, he formed his first band, Delivery, in 1966 and caught the ear of Alexis Korner after opening for him. Invited to support on further dates, Steve found himself doubling up in a duo with Korner, later touring Germany with him and Robert Plant, who went on to front Led Zeppelin. With Delivery on the back burner in 1971, he joined the widely regarded Caravan for a brief spell after keyboard/harmony vocalist Dave Sinclair left the quartet and put his mark on it so thoroughly that its direction all but changed, certainly during the period in which it produced the album “Waterloo Lily.” He left Caravan in 1972 and embarked on a number of partnerships, most notably the Steve Miller/Lol Coxhill Duo, the sprawling avant garde big band FF, which featured anything up to 18 musicians, the Steve Miller/Mark Hewins Duo in 1983 and eventually the Steve Miller Trio/Quartet, reflecting his desire to constantly explore new influences and resulting in the album “Millers Tale.” In the '90s he performed under a variety of guises including the Steve Miller Quartet, Steve Miller and Friends and, most recently, as the nucleus of K.Ostra, a more muscular experiment with local musicians also released on Voiceprint. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 1998, Steve brought to bear a quiet philosophical determination that it wouldn't get the better of him. It didn't and, even as it took its toll, he continued to work with the recordings for this collection with regular engineer Steve Lane and friend Hag. “In my music I have a sense that I’ve got something to say. I’m down at the piano with no idea of what I’m trying to do but a strong desire to do it anyway,” he said in his final interview in late Autumn of that year. “I might be rather Utopian and I do have an ideal which is rather pastoral; quite a lot of my music is like that - it's a dialogue with myself about the way things are. It sort of focuses the mind and changes the chemistry in your brain. Afew seconds before you start it really comes on strong. The first note comes out and that's the one I’m committed to. “Once you're up and started you can’t just bring it to a finish; you get a lot of energy from uncertainty and you have to play it to the end.” Steve Miller died on December 9th, 1998 at the age of 55." |
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Notes from Voiceprint.com) "Steve Miller first came to the notice of many people as the piano player on the stand out track from Free's debut album Tons Of Sobs in 1968 although Steve was also in demand as a session musician for many other acts including Daddy Longlegs, John Dummer and the legendary Alexis Korner. Steve played on the track that almost became the bands calling card 'The Hunter'. Following on from this, Steve poured all his energies into his own band Delivery alongside his brother Phil Miller on guitar and Pip Pyle on drums. Delivery made a number of albums but were sidelined however when Steve had the opportunity to replace Dave Sinclair in Canterbury stalwarts Caravan. Steve contributed to the album Waterloo Lily even contributing to the writing of the album and Waterloo Lily contains two of Steve's songs 'It's Coming Soon' and 'Songs And Signs' and as a result of his input the sound of the band changed noticeably. After recording just the one album with Caravan, Steve moved onto other projects both in a solo capacity and also collaborations, with musicians like Lol Coxhill and also contributed to the legendary Miniatures album put together by keyboard player Morgan Fisher although he did decline to rejoin a reformed Delivery alongside his brother Phil, Pip Pyle and Richard Sinclair. Subsequently this band, with Dave Stewart in tow on keyboards, became Hatfield and the North. Having turned down the opportunity to be a part of this legendary Canterbury band Steve preferred to work alongside Lol Coxhill and performed under various names such as Steve Miller and friends, the Steve Miller Quartet and K.Ostra. Sadly however in the summer of 1998 Steve Miller was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was an incredible amount of support for Steve and a benefit concert was arranged and Steve was able to perform at the gig alongside his brother Phil in a re-formed Delivery and the Steve Miller Jazz Quartet. Piano Solos was amongst the final recordings that Steve made; he started the recording for this album in the latter half of 1996 and it contains seven tracks of Steve's solo piano pieces each reflecting various moods. Sadly, despite a determined battle Steve died on December 9th 1998 at the age of 55" |