Artist: Mulgrew miller

Mulgrew Miller was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator.

After leaving university, he was a pianist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for three years, then accompanied vocalist Betty Carter. Three-year stints with trumpeter  Woody Shaw and with drummer Art Blakey's high-profile Jazz Messengers followed, by the end of which Miller had formed his own bands and begun recording under his own name.

Miller enrolled at Memphis State University in 1973 on a band scholarship. He played euphonium, but, during his two years at the university, Miller met pianists Donald Brown and James Williams, who introduced him to the music of players such as Wynton Kelly, Bud Powell, and McCoy Tyner. Still at Memphis State, Miller attended a jazz workshop, where one of the tutors was his future bandleader, Woody Shaw. 

After leaving university in 1975, Miller took lessons privately in Boston with Madame Margaret Chaloff, who had taught many of the pianists that Miller admired. He later commented: "I should have stayed with her longer, but at that time I was so restless, constantly on the move." 

Towards the end of 1976, Miller was invited to substitute for the regular pianist in the Duke Ellington Orchestra (by then led by Mercer Ellington), and stayed with them for three years. He then toured with Betty Carter for eight months, and then joined Woody Shaw's band from 1981 to 1983. 

Miller was recommended for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers by Blakey members Terence Blanchard  and Donald Harrison,  and he joined the drummer's band in 1983. His presence in the Jazz Messengers cemented his reputation within jazz.

In the mid-2000s, Miller joined bassist Dave Holland's band, changing it from a quintet to a sextet, and adding gospel and soul elements to the group's sound. Around this time, Miller had two regular bands of his own: a piano trio, and a quintet featuring saxophone and vibraphone.