Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Glenn Siegel, 413-320-1089 [email protected] Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares presents: Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares continues with a performance by Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom , on Sunday, May 8, at 7:30pm at the Institute for the Musical Arts , 165 Cape St. (Rt. 112), Goshen, MA. Boom Tic Boom features Jenny Scheinman , violin, Kirk Knuffke , cornet, Ben Goldberg , clarinet, Myra Melford , piano and Todd Sickafoose , bass. Single tickets ($15) available at www.jazzshares.org and at the door. The most poignant music is often inspired by watershed events in an artist’s life, and few occasions are more transformative than the arrival of one’s first child. For Allison Miller, the extraordinary drummer, composer and leader of her band Boom Tic Boom, that life-affirming experience provided the seed that led to the creation of her new full-length studio album, Otis Was a Polar Bear (The Royal Potato Family: April 8, 2016). The album is Miller’s latest collection of 10 original compositions following her 2013 critically acclaimed No Morphine, No Lilies, which Downbeat Magazine said “reveals her exemplary chops and stylistic breadth.” The birth of Miller’s (and partner Rachel’s) daughter Josie found the NYC-based drummer reordering her priorities and the very way in which she approached her art. Miller, praised by the All Music Guide as “one of the finest drummers on the scene, but also one of the most innovative compositional voices,” began writing Otis Was a Polar Bear during the summer of 2014 while touring with lauded singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant. Over the past few years, she has also been involved with Toshi Reagon and Dorrance Dance’s “The Blues Project,” which features many of the world’s finest tap dancers. “The Blues Project” reinvigorated her approach to the drum kit to be more akin with the movements of a dancer and renewed her connection to danceable grooves. Following the recording sessions for Otis Was A Polar Bear at Fantasy Studios (Berkeley, California) with producer Hans Wendl (Tin Hat Trio), she returned to New York City to work as the drummer for the national TV program, The Meredith Vieira Show. Winning a 2014 “Presenter Consortium for Jazz Grant” from Chamber Music America enabled her to fully realize her latest works through repeated performances and workshops prior to the recording sessions. Once in the studio, with guidance from producer Hans Wendl, Miller allowed the compositions to come alive with each musician’s intuitive feel and improvisational mastery at the forefront. “Each member of Boom Tic Boom is an incredible bandleader in their own right. They’ve all influenced me tremendously. While recording, I began asking myself what special qualities do they bring? Why am I so drawn to them? I really wanted the band to come away from the recording and say, ‘Wow! We really just made something special.’ I wanted them to feel like each of their unique styles were fully represented.” Miller breaks it down, “Boom Tic Boom is really a group of friends and we’ve been playing as a band for eight years.” She continues, “We love each other, trust each other and are true collaborators. It’s been such a time of crazy change and deeply letting go, so I intentionally decided to have that approach in the studio too. I wanted it to be playful, with lots of experimentation, and to approach it with a beginner’s mind.” Every track on Otis Was a Polar Bear tells a compelling story. The opener “Fuster” was written for Miller’s daughter, Josie, and influenced by the Cuban artist José Fuster. It started as a silly made-up melody sung to Josie in the first weeks of her life, but coalesced into a full-fledged piece after a few months of not being able to shake it from the drummer’s head. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, “Staten Island” was inspired by the senseless and tragic killing of Eric Garner by the hands of the Staten Island police. “I sat down at the piano feeling hopeless and filled with rage. This is what came out,” Miller says. “There are a lot of quick changes and energetic shifts, and the song never resolves.” Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares concerts are produced by a group of music lovers who have purchased jazz shares. Like farm shares, where stakeholders ensure the success of the farm by pre-paying for food, Pioneer Valley Jazz Share members purchase jazz shares to provide the capital needed to produce concerts with minimal institutional support. Operating under the fiscal sponsorship of The Northampton Center for the Arts, we are a grassroots, all-volunteer organization dedicated to the continued vitality of the music. Thanks to our business sponsors: Davis Financial Group, Florence Savings Bank, UMass Fine Arts Center, Downtown Sounds, Carol Abbe Smith Delap Real Estate, River Valley Co-op, Simmer Music, Bueno y Sano, Tony Margherita Management, Haydenville Woodworking & Design, Artisan Gallery, Amanouz Café, Clarion Hotel, Barbara Ween: Visage, Hampshire College and Dean’s Beans. .

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