LP Review; under the radar sophistication, with Mulgrew Miller – Keys To The City (1965)
Landmark Records, 1985 Japan re-issue VIJ-28055
Artist
You have jazz royalty, Miles Davis and Oscar Peterson for example, you have jazz A-listers, like Grant Green and McCoy Tyner, and you have other well known jazz artists like Horace Silver or Wes Montgomery and folks like Monty Alexander or Scott Hamilton. And then you have Mulgrew Miller.
That sounds a bit harsh I know but my point is simply that I do not think many people have heard of him. I have a fairly extensive jazz collection and only of the albums has Milgrew as a band member (a Hubbard/Shaw album called Double Take). So, that was an inspired pick, RAW team ! And what a pleasure to put a spotlight on Mulgrew Miller, a wonderful piano player.
Miller played on 500 albums. He was born in 1955 in Greenwood, Missisippi and played the piano since age 6. He studied in Boston and spent the next two decades as a full-time touring professional. He worked with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, singer Betty Carter, trumpeter Woody Shaw, drummers Tony Williams and Art Blakey. Though Miller recorded much more as a sideman than a bandleader, he left behind an high quality solo discography of 19 albums. He released his debut recording in 1965 and this is the album we are going to review here, it’s titled Keys To The City.
Label
Landmark Records was not a very big label, it did a couple of hundred records I think and it did not last very long (about 8 years). It was founded in 1985 in Berkeley, California, by Orrin Keepnews a jazz record producer of some fame 🙂 – he co-founded Riverside, which was only one of the most important independent jazz labels of the 50’s and early 60’s ! Keepnews was also famous for his work with Thelonius Monk. Here is a link to a February 1985 New York Times article containing an interview with Orrin Keepnews.
This album comes in a very nice matte sleeve with a neat Obi strip and a single page insert (in Japanese). In the eighties these records were marketed at an audiophile audience.
The Obi strip proudly displays the SJ Approved seal of approval. SJ stood for Swing Journal, a Japanese jazz magazine that was published from 1947 to 2010.
Music
Mulgrew Miller was only in his early twenties when he got to put his name on his first album as a leader. Half of the tunes are written by himself and the other half are interpretations of well known tunes like Inner Urge by saxophonist Joe Henderson (a famous and excellent Blue Note album btw), Milestones by Miles Davis, Warm Valley by Duke Ellington and Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye by Cole Porter.
One could be forgiven for thinking that a pianist in his early twenties is still looking to create his own signature sound. I hear nothing of that here. I hear a self-assured sophistication in his playing, which swings and is full of interesting melodic lines. Even his own tunes stand tall next to the ones of his far more famous and experienced colleagues. In fact, the whole band hangs together very well as a unit. It’s a pretty good album.
Youtube does not have the full album posted, but a few of the tunes are, so here is ‘Inner Urge’ for you to listen to. It’s really good and gets you the vibe.
RAW Store
You have to ask for this record in the store as RAW does not have this album on the website. It’s 120 AED and it’s in great shape, with Obi and insert. It has English liner notes on the back. As far as I can judge this thing looks unplayed !
Recording notes
The Obi strip displays in capital letters that this is a DIGITAL recording. Remember at the time we were witnessing the meteoric rise of the Compact Disc and vinyl was supposed to be ‘improved’ by sounding just like a CD :-). The jacket has lots of interesting information on it. It’s a nice package overall.
Mulgrew Miller plays a 1978, 9-foot concert grand Steinway ‘D’ piano.
The album was recorded directly to two track Mitsubishi digital tape using a Mitsubishi X-80 Digital tape recorder.
Tracks
- Song For Darnell 6:33
- Inner Urge 3:51
- Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye 6:22
- Promethean 3:23
- Milestones 4:20
- Portrait Of A Mountain 8:03
- Saud’s Run 5:46
- Warm Valley 3:39
Personell
- Bass – Ira Coleman
- Drums – Marvin “Smitty” Smith
- Piano – Mulgrew Miller