Artist Profile:

“Phil Miller would rather play a wrong note than a note that somebody else had ever played.” (Robert Wyatt)

If you had to choose just one guitarist to represent the Canterbury scene it would have to be Phil Miller.  But he’s more than just a legend of this renowned British sphere. Miller is a thoroughly modernistic composer/performer who will appeal to any fan of contemporary jazz that challenges the head as much as the heart.

A forty-year veteran of that British scene, Miller got his start with Delivery, a group that also included drummer Pip Pyle, with whom he’d form a lasting musical relationship.  Miller was also a charter member of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Robert Wyatt’s post-Soft Machine group, Matching Mole.  Wyatt once described Miller as an artist who ”would rather play a wrong note than a note somebody else had played.” It’s a fitting description of Miller, who created a personal and unmistakably distinctive style from the very start by combining an abstruse yet thematically rich harmonic language with a harder rock edge.  Jazz fusion, done Canterbury style.

For most of the 1970s Miller belonged to two definitive Canterbury bands: Hatfield and the North and National Health.  While not commercially successful at the time, Hatfield’s two releases (1974’s eponymous debut and 1975’s The Rotter’s Club) continue to be reference points for younger generations of progressive music fans.  Both groups were perfect forums for the evolving Miller, his oftentimes quirky but ever-focused melodism always managing to wind its way through compositions characterized by complex changes and knotty, long-form themes. The more overtly jazz-centric nature of Miller’s writing for these groups was a distinguishing characteristic that continues to develop to this day.

Miller has participated in other projects, releasing 1991’s Digging In and 1992’s Double Up, but has focused most of his energies on his In Cahoots band, which first formed in 1982.  The ever-changing line-up of In Cahoots has been featured in part or exclusively on nine albums since 1987.  Miller’s singular focus has thread a definitive line through albums including 1991’s Live 86-89, 1995’s Recent Discoveries, 1996’s Parallels and 2003’s All That, but each album has its own unique complexion and represents ongoing growth for Miller and the group.

Always looking for a diverse mix of players with multifaceted backgrounds, the current In Cahoots line-up features versatile keyboardist Peter Lemer, who has been a member almost since inception, and virtuosic bassist Fred T. Baker, who joined in 1992.  In 2003 Miller brought Mark Fletcher into the fold, a drummer with serious mainstream jazz credentials.  The group’s most recent recruits are saxophonist Simon Picard, with a background in free jazz, and trumpeter Simon Finch, best known on the electronica scene.  Each player brings a particular musical personality to In Cahoots, but what’s most remarkable is Miller’s ability to retain a specific identity for In Cahoots through definitive writing, open-ended improvisational contexts and gentle direction.

The group’s latest disc, 2007’s Conspiracy Theories, features Miller’s most ambitious writing to date, and ensembles ranging in size from quintet to sextet, septet and octet; even an eleven-piece ensemble.  Miller welcomes back some old mates including Dave Stewart (tuned percussion), Richard Sinclair (bass), Barbara Gaskin (vocals), Doug Boyle (guitar) and Didier Malherbe (woodwinds), while introducing a new musical friend, Annie Whitehead (trombone).

Miller has also been participating, on an occasional basis, in a reformed Hatfield and the North, and can be heard on two releases of archival Hatfield recordings, 2005’s Hatwise Choice and 2006’s Hattitude.

Regardless of other pursuits, it’s In Cahoots that’s the clearest representation of Miller the guitarist, composer and bandleader. With earlier out-of-print albums soon to be re-released in remastered form, Miller is poised for increased visibility beyond ardent Canterbury followers. Nobody sounds quite like Miller and, as he heads into his fifth decade as a working musician, it’s high time that jazz fans unaware of this Canterbury legend discover what they’ve been missing.

Phil Miller’s website

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Reviews:

“Eminent British Canterbury progressive-rock guitarist Phil Miller always plays the right notes. He doesn’t dazzle you with supersonic and heavily distorted riffs. On the contrary Miller sports a markedly distinctive style amidst his all-encompassing jazz, rock and jazz-rock vernaculars. Revered for his participation in seminal prog bands such as National Health, Matching Mole and other projects too numerous to cite here, Miller is a consummate director of musical affairs. His discriminating integrations of whimsical, Canterbury rock era-like thematic forays bestow one of many compelling attributes. The chemistry behind this band’s presence on Conspiracy Theories is firmly rooted within sinuously enacted unison lines, featuring horns, keys and Miller’s resonating single note licks. Longtime band-mates Pete Lemer and Fred Baker, on keyboard and bass respectively, help provide a fertile undercurrent for the addition of several highly respected British hornists, who expand the group’s overall design. Yet the gist behind this outing resides within the layered horns and off-kilter shifts in strategy, where dynamics and heated improvisational exercises project a cohesive maxim. Lyrically rich solos by trombonist Annie Whitehead and tenor saxophonist Simon Picard often complement the band’s surging opuses as melody plays an important role in Miller’s compositional guiding principles. Baker’s “End Of The Line” merges a dream-laden soundscape with Didier Malherbe’s (of Gong) ethereal lines, zealously counterbalanced by Lemer’s fuzz-toned electric piano phrasings and Miller’s gliding, sustain-drenched notes. It’s a ballad augmented by an ominous disposition and lucid imagery-perhaps a dad teaching his sibling about the rigors of youth and learning comes to mind. On “Orinaca (anagram for Ocarina),” Malherbe renders a poignant ocarina motif, contrasted by Miller’s low-key and bluesy progressions, which segue into a catchy, world-music vibe. Ultimately, Miller’s notable sense of diversity is uncannily cycled into a singular group sound that melds the fabled hierarchy of 1970s Canterbury stylizations with a modernist groove. And that alone speaks massive volumes. With his latest incarnation of In Cahoots, Miller furthers the scope and sound of the preexisting factors that have placed this unit at the pinnacle of the jazz-rock realm. No doubt, this album should find its way onto upcoming top ten lists for 2007. Miller glowingly separates the listless wannabes and copycats from the proven warriors, largely transmitted with fluid power and a thrusting impetus”.
— Glenn Astarita, AllAboutJazz.com

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