ONE ON ONE: Allison Miller & Carmen Staaf May 2nd, 2021 Eastside Sound Studios New York FULL SESSION
ALLISON MILLER

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Allison Miller & Carmen Staaf sits down for a One On One Session at Eastside Sound Studios in New York on May 2nd, 2021. For more info visit: https://allisonmiller.com & https://www.carmenstaaf.com
Video by: Ehud Lazin

This coming July longtime collaborators, Carmen Staaf and Allison Miller, will release their second album together. Nearness, released on Sunnyside records, marks the culmination of two full studio days recording in a duo setting. No words were exchanged in regards to set list. Carmen and Allison would simply sit down at their instruments, give each other the “I’m ready” nod, and one or the other would start playing. Sometimes they would perform one song to completion, other times inspiration would spawn segue after segue reaching into the depths of their extensive repertoire. The result is a rich and bold album of ten compositions that palpably unveils their musical chemistry, rhythmic lock, and willingness to explore vulnerability and intimacy in times of uncertainty

NYC-based drummer/composer/teacher Allison Miller engages her deep roots in improvisation as a vehicle to explore all music. Described by critics as a Modern Jazz Icon in the Making, Miller won Downbeat magazine’s 67th Annual Critics Poll “Rising Star Drummer” and JazzTimes magazine’s Critics Poll. Her composition, “Otis Was a Polar Bear”, is included on NPR’s list of The 200 Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women+. She is also the first recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Commissioning Grant. In January 2020 Miller along with her band, Boom Tic Boom, tap dancer-Claudia Rahardjanoto, and video designer-Todd Winkler premiered this new multimedia suite, In Our Veins, with a seven show tour sponsored by Jazz Touring Network and Mid Atlantic Arts. The project explores multimedia performance as a vital form of knowledge production through the poetic interpretation of historical events and their association with the geography, ecology and flow of specific rivers.

Miller, a three time Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, was Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2019 Artist in Residence, alongside bassist/producer Derrick Hodge. Simultaneously her band, Boom Tic Boom, celebrated it’s 10th anniversary with the release of their 5th album, Glitter Wolf, which was included in many “Best Jazz Of 2019” lists, including NPR, Rolling Stone, Paste, Jazz Times, and Bandcamp. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead says, “All the parts fit together like clockwork on Allison Miller’s new album.” The band has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe and Asia as well as being featured on such programs as NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Tiny Desk with Bob Boilen, WNYC’s Soundcheck and New Sounds with John Schaefer, and Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride.

Pianist/composer Carmen Staaf is a rising force in the NYC and global music scenes. She has performed and recorded with some of the most influential and important musicians of our era. Currently, she is the pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater. Her past major performances have included the Playboy Jazz Festival in a two-piano setting with the legendary Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center alongside Kenny Barron and Fred Hersch. She has been heard at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, SFJazz and major jazz festivals around the world including the Newport, Monterey, Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals, among many others.

Carmen graduated with a double degree from Tufts University (Anthropology) and the New England Conservatory (Jazz Performance), and immediately thereafter became one of the youngest faculty members ever hired by Berklee College of Music, joining their piano department in 2005. After spending some years touring and recording while based in New York (including winning the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Pianist competition), she was accepted to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, where she was mentored by the most important living jazz musicians.