Allison Miller Rivers in Our Veins LP

A lauded drummer who's mastered a vast array of musical settings—from guesting on late night TV, keeping time for some of today's most beloved singer-songwriters, and being a renowned bandleader/composer in her own right—Allison Miller is always at the heart of the music. Her 2023 album, Rivers in Our Veins, is a song cycle embracing the concept of flow and renewal, and dedicated to the United State's crucial rivers, watersheds and the organizations devoted to reviving and protecting them.

Her band features a deeply telepathic cast of improvisers, including violinist Jenny Scheinman, Ben Goldberg on contra-alto and Bb clarinets, pianist Carmen Staaf, trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Todd Sickafoose, and tap dancers Claudia Rahardjanoto, Michelle Dorrance, Elizabeth Burke, Byron Tittle, and Orlando Hernández.

Rivers in Our Veins was commissioned by the Lake Placid Center for the Arts with support from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's Jazz Touring Network, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional consortium partners: Ars Nova Workshop, Light Up the Queen Foundation, Modlin Center for the Arts, and Weis Center for the Arts.

Allison Miller has recorded six albums as a leader — 5 AM Stroll, Boom Tic Boom, No Morphine-No Lilies, Live at Willisau, Otis Was a Polar Bear, and Glitter Wolf — as well as working as a session musician. Her work with bands has included forming the band Honey Ear Trio with Rene Hart and Erik Lawrence, Holler and Bam with Toshi Reagon, and her own band, Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom. She is also a member of the jazz supergroup ARTEMIS.

Miller has performed with songwriting vocalists Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, and Erin McKeown, and toured with avant-garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, organist Doctor Lonnie Smith and folk-rock singer Brandi Carlile.

Allison Miller writes catchy, poppy melodies but doesn't stop there. Pieces can slalom through a few textures or episodes...Miller's big-beat drumming is as close to rock as to jazz, adding to the hybrid mix.

As we enter a new decade, there is no more important figure in jazz than Allison Miller.

…Miller's craftiness as a percussionist is met by her ingenuity as a composer and group conceptualist.

Ms. Miller is a drummer, bandleader and composer with an aesthetic of limber poise, drawn at once to brisk maneuvers and deep grooves.

With Rivers in Our Veins, Miller and her band have crafted a heartfelt tonal map of the nation's waterways, one that pulls you deep within the swell of its musical tide.