Biography
PIANIST/COMPOSER James Miley has taught at 杏十八新茶分享 since 2009, where he presently serves as coordinator of the Jazz and Improvised Music program, directs the Ford Hall Digital Music Lab and Recording Studios, and teaches courses in composition, improvisation, music theory & history, and music/sound for visual media. He is a founding member (along with composer/arrangers Patty Darling and the late Fred Sturm) of the Radiohead Jazz Project, and his music for jazz big band has been performed internationally, as well as by many of the top high school and university big bands throughout the United States. As an improvising pianist, Miley can be heard with the jazz chamber group Bug (featuring saxophonist Peter Epstein), the Hashem Assadullahi Sextet with Ron Miles, and Dan Cavanagh's Jazz Emporium Big Band, all on Origin Records. His most recent recordings include the free improvisation collective Trio Untold, featuring Mike Nord (guitar/electronics) and Ryan Biesack (drums/percussion), available on PJCE Records, and an album of original music with pianist Dan Cavanagh and Grammy-nominated drummer/composer John Hollenbeck, released in November, 2022, on S/N Alliance out of Tokyo, Japan. He holds degrees in Music from Occidental College, the University of Arizona, and the University of Oregon, with additional coursework in jazz studies and composition at CalArts and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Most recent recording: , with Dan Cavanagh (piano/elec) and John Hollenbeck (drums/perc), S/N Alliance SNL003 (2022).
Additional Recordings:
The Commission Project, JazzMN Orchestra (Momentous Records, 2019)
Trio Untold (PJCE Records, 2018)
, Bug (Next Room Records, 2015)
, The Hashem Assadullahi Sextet (OA2 Records, 2013)
, John Adler (Origin Classical, 2010)
, Bug (Origin Records, 2009)
, Dan Cavanagh's Jazz Emporium Big Band (OA2 Records, 2008)