MAKING TRACKS: John Miller

John Miller is best known in the music and theater worlds as a freelance bassist (having laid down rhythms for everyone from Frank Sinatra to Madonna) and as a musical coordinator for Broadway shows—the musical equivalent of a casting agent.

After decades of working behind the scenes, the sixty-three-year-old Miller—who has periodically escaped the Great White Way to his home in Mount Washington, Massachusetts, for nearly a quarter century—has finally opted for his moment in the spotlight with his first recording, Stage Door Johnny: John Miller Takes on Broadway, featuring a dozen interpretations of classic show tunes.

With his laid-back, folksy vocals, bass playing, and acoustic guitar picking, Miller makes familiar material his own, including a cabaret version of “Real Live Girl” by Cy Coleman, from Little Me; a funky “I Won’t Grow Up” from Peter Pan; a cosmopolitan-country arrangement of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” from Oklahoma!; and a very James Taylor-like rendition of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” from My Fair Lady.

As expected, Miller surrounds himself with first-call musicians and backup vocalists; if anyone knows the power of great accompaniment, it’s Miller. But in the end, Stage Door Johnny is a long overdue debut by a stellar interpreter of Broadway. In fact, it might even please those who have an aversion to show tunes. (JUNE 2009)
 

THE GOODS

John Miller
Stage Door Johnny: John Miller Takes on Broadway
PS Classics
www.psclassics.com