Festival International de Jazz de Montréal - édition 1997

du Maurier Jazz Award and the SOCAN bursary

Joel Miller wins jazz fest competition
By Jim Little

(Joel Miller photo Copyright 1997 © Diane Dulude)

Congratulations to 27-year-old Sackville, New Brunswick-born tenor saxophonist Joel Miller, who won the Prix de Jazz du Maurier in this year's jazz festival, beating out nine other groups. Miller's debut CD, Find A Way (Isthmus), released late last year, has garnered critical praise from all quarters. Mark Miller of The Globe and Mail called it "terrific," Peter Hadekel of The Gazette described it as "remarkable" and Katie Malloch of the CBC radio programme Jazz Beat named it one of the best discs of the year.

Miller led a quintet at the jazz fest rounded out by bassist Brian Hurley, pianist Tilden Webb, drummer Kevin Coady, and trumpet and flugelhorn player Joe Sullivan, who recently released his second CD, Rumours From the Soul, on the new Montreal label Nu-Jazz. In addition to their July 1 outdoor gig, the Joel Miller Quintet opened for pianist Oliver Jones at the gala closing concert at Place des Arts and performed a second free outdoor concert on July 5.

The prize carries a bursary of $5,000, gigs at next year¹s jazz fest (which runs from July 1 to 12, 1998) and at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, 40 hours of free recording time at Karisma Studios and a record deal with Justin Time.

.Hopefully, Miller will record his extended composition, Conversations, an ambitious project in which the concept is to fuse together elements of 19th century dramatic composers (such as Wagner) with the rhythmic concepts of 20th century jazz and rock music. The instrumentation includes a jazz rhythm section (piano, guitar, bass and drums), together with a more traditional jazz frontline horn section (tenor saxophone, alto saxophone and trumpet). With the addition of voice, these same instruments represent a rock lineup, while serious music instrumentation is reflected in the addition of string and woodwind sections. The entire piece is a 65-minute suite, which weaves together many contrasting moods and textures into one organic whole.

The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) bursary, worth $1,000, goes to pianist Dinah Vero for her composition La Rubia.

More about: Dinah Vero; Joel Miller