Ethnomusicologist and jazz maestro Lloyd Miller boasts one of the most unique careers in jazz. He plays almost every jazz instrument and dozens, if not hundreds, of traditional instruments from other countries. He’s a lover of life, a strict vegetarian for over 40 years and has more energy than most guys half his age. His revered mid-‘60s album, ‘Oriental Jazz’, has attracted vinyl collectors for years with its original mix of Persian and jazz elements.

Born in 1938, Dr. (Doc) Lloyd Miller began playing piano aged three. His father was a traditional jazz clarinet player who had worked his way through college playing with revered cornetist, Doc Evans. Miller’s mother also played piano and was also a skilled ballet dancer, having studied with Michael Mordkin, partner of Anna Pavlova. Music and dance have been a part of Lloyd’s life since birth.

By his early teens, Miller had learned to play piano by ‘experiment’ and by following the keys of the family player piano. Miller then discovered his mother’s old 1920s banjo (which he still owns) and C melody sax and he began fooling around with his Dad’s clarinet until he bacame quite skilled in the style of George Lewis, Johnny Dodds and, later, Jimmy Giuffre. He laid his hands on an old cornet and then a trombone, both of which he soon learned. Miller organised a New Orleans jazz band to play for the Flintridge Prep School Spring festival in California and was booked with his dance band Miller’s Men Of Music to play for the California Flower Show alongside US jazz favourites the Firehouse Five Plus Two. Later, at Todd School for Boys in Woodstock Illinois, Miller learned string bass to play in the Todd school band and continued to pick up various instruments. He teamed up with a banjo player to cut his first 78 of George Lewis clarinet styling.

In 1951, Miller’s father took him to New Orleans where he heard clarinettist Alphonse Picou live, playing his famous solo from the film ‘High Society’. Miller then spent three days hanging out with another legendary clarinetist George Lewis, including dinner at George’s home in Algiers across the river from New Orleans. Lewis commented positively on Millers first 78 record and inspired him to continue building his music career.

In 1957, Miller went with his family to Iran where he stayed for a year before leaving for Europe to find his fate as a jazzman. On their way from the USA to Iran, Miller and his parents travelled to many Asian countries where Lloyd purchased a number of traditional instruments and enjoyed meeting with musicians and learning some styling.

In 1958, Miller returned to Iran and then Beirut where he performed at hotels and arranged music for Lebanon’s leading jazz ensemble. He then travelled to Germany to perform at various jazz centres such as the Domicile du Jazz in Frankfurt with Peter Trunk and Albert Mangelsdorf, the Jazzkeller in Mainz with Don Ellis, Eddie Harris and Maffy Falay and at other towns across Germany.

Miller continued his travels. He moved to Geneva, Switzerland, to study Eastern languages and play at the Cave du Hot Club and other establishments. He journeyed to Sweden where the jazz scene was quite active. There, he played with Sweden’s top jazzmen such as Bernt Rosengren, Lars Farnlof (Färnlöf), Lennart Jansson and arranged music for several bands including Simor Ostervald’s band. In Brussels, Miller played at the famous Rose Noire off the Grand Place, where Guitarist Philippe Catherine sat in with IJQ and Belgium bassist Freddy Deronde joined the group. Miller also played at the Blue Note and in Liege with alto saxophonist Jaques Pelzer. He would return to Belgium in 1967 to play at the International Jazz Festival in Bilzen.

When Miller and the Swedish jazz greats Jansson and Lundin arrived in Paris in 1959, they were an immediate success. In Paris, Miller performed at all of the top jazz spots and other venues such as Salle Pleyel, Salle Wagram, Théatre de l’Etoile, l’Ecole Normale de Musique, Théatre du Vieux-Colombier and the Blue Note. At the Blue Note, Miller would be asked by jazz legend Bud Powell to sit in a set or two with jazz drumer Kenny Clark.

Eventually, Miller met up with the famous French jazz innovator, Jef Gilson, who was on the way to the top of the French jazz scene. With Miller as featured soloist on various instruments, Gilson’s group became the rage in the French jazz scene in the early 1960s. With Jef Gilson, Miller toured France for the French radio (ORTF) sponsored by respected jazz DJ Andre Fancis.

In 1967, Miller went to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to complete an MA in Middle East Studies in 1969 and enter a PhD program in Persian. By 1970, Miller was awarded a Fulbight Hays scholarship to research music for his dissertation in Iran. During the ensuing 7 years, Miller travelled throughout the Middle East from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Lebanon and Turkey, spending most of his time in Tehran. In Iran, Miller became a key arts writer for all of the English publications and was a key writer for the Middle East Sketch, an important magazine published in Beirut.

During the ‘70s Miller became a well-known TV personality hosting his own prime-time weekly jazz show, Kurosh Ali Khan va Dustan (meaning Kurosh Ali Khan and friends). Kurosh Ali Khan is the name by which many Iranians know him even today. As a journalist, Miller met with many important people in government and the arts. Among these was Her Majesty the Queen of Iran whom Miller met several times at various events like the Tehran International Film Festival, the Shiraz Arts Festival and the Historical Pageant of Women’s Dress in Iran.

In 1977 Miller returned from Iran after 7 highly successful years as a TV personality with his own prime time major network show and as a major arts writer in Tehran and Beirut. His work as public relations person for the Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Traditional Music and his near full time presence at the Center continued his study of Iranian traditional music that he began in Paris in the 1960s with master Daryush Safvat, the Director of the Center.
After returning to Utah, Miller was invited to countless events to perform Eastern music or jazz of various styles including an assembly in his home town in California at Glendale College. In 1991, Miller offered a paper on the roots of jazz at the International Jazz Educators convention in New Orleans. Because of his lifelong dedication to preservation of traditional old New Orleans jazz and instrumental / vocal skills, Miller was invited to sit in at Preservation Hall, one night on clarinet and one on piano when he played for legendary pianist Sadie, singing his version of Creole French song ‘Eh La Bas’.

In recent years, Miller’s mid-‘60s album ‘Oriental Jazz’ became a collector’s favourite and the UK’s Jazzman label featured a track from it, ‘Gol E Gan Dom’ on their excellent ‘Spiritual Jazz’ compilation from 2008. Since then, interest in Miller’s music and approach has grown – Jazzman have issued a compilation, ‘A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz’, covering work from across his career, and invited him to the UK to record new sessions with Nostalgia 77 and The Heliocentrics. The recordings from this first Heliocentrics session are now available on a Jazzman 12” EP. Miller returned to London during February 2010 to record a full collaboration album with The Heliocentrics for Strut, released in July 2010.