Rivers in Our Veins

by Allison Miller

Overview

Drummer Allison Miller brings together a rustic Americana sound with her inventive modern jazz harmonies on her ambitious 2023 LP Rivers in Our Veins. Commissioned by the Mid-Atlantic Arts Organization and Lake Placid Center for the Arts, the album is a 12-song cycle inspired by the many rivers and watersheds of the United States, as well as the organizations devoted to protecting those vital resources. Integral to the work is Miller's ensemble, beginning with pianist Carmen Staaf, with whom she worked closely during the composition phase. Equally key is violinist Jenny Scheinman, a longtime associate who helped breathe yet more life into the folk-inflected songs at the core of Miller's vision. Rounding out Miller's group are Ben Goldberg on contra-alto and B-flat clarinets, trumpeter Jason Palmer, and bassist Todd Sickafoose. Initially conceived as a cross-disciplinary multimedia work, the album also features a cadre of tap dancers, including Claudia Rahardjanoto, Michelle Dorrance, Elizabeth Burke, Byron Tittle, and Orlando Hernandez. While the use of tap dancers in jazz is a long and storied tradition, the way Miller incorporates them so seamlessly into her music is notable. Often, their rhythmic shuffle, stomp, and click -- while distinctly recognizable as tap dance -- quickly becomes an added percussion instrument in itself. There is a sprawling sense of movement to many of Miller's songs, as in the opening "Of Two Rivers," whose two sections represent the Susquehanna River with its North Branch in New York and West Branch in Pennsylvania. The song starts with a rising orchestral feel, with Scheinman's violin rubbing against the reedy sigh of Goldberg's clarinet as Palmer adds a gurgling trumpet aside, all of which evoke the image of a great riverboat pushing off from shore and making its way down a river. From there, it glides into wide-swinging, gospel-inflected blues as Palmer shouts brassy choruses over Sickafoose's bowed, foghorn-like bass notes. Part two is more kinetic, as Staaf lays down glassy piano chords against a skittering chorus of tap-danced water droplets before Palmer swoops in with edgy trumpet lines like a heron diving for fish. Yet more evocative and cinematic songs follow, like "Hudson," where Miller lays down a steady groove that sounds like a train cutting a dusky shadow over Scheinman's long gray violin lines. In contrast, "For the Fishes" is all percolating tap dance rhythms over which Palmer and Goldberg leap and dance like a free jazz take on a 1930s cartoon soundtrack theme. There's also the crisp Latin chamber number "Wild Blue Indigo" and the Gulf Coast funk of "GO!." 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. ~ Matt Collar

Product Details

Release Date:	10/06/2023
Label:	The Royal Potato
UPC:	0020286242673
Rank:	37364

Tracks

1. Of Two Rivers, Pt. 1
2. Of Two Rivers, Pt. 2
3. Water
4. Hudson
5. Fierce
6. For the Fish
7. Blue Wild Indigo
8. Go!
9. Shipyards
10. Riparian Love
11. Potomac
12. The Dancing Tide

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Allison Miller   Primary Artist,Primary Artist,Vibraphone,Percussion,Drums
Carmen Staaf   Fender Rhodes,Accordion,Piano
Jason Palmer   Trumpet
Todd Sickafoose   Bass (Upright)
Jenny Scheinman   Violin
Ben Goldberg   Contra-Alto Clarinet,Clarinet

Technical Credits

Grady McFerrin   Cover Art
Gregory J. Del Deo   Design,Artwork
Byron Tittle   Tap Dancing
Claudia Rahardjanoto   Tap Dancing
Julie Wolf   Producer
Allison Miller   Producer,Composer,Arranger
Ken Rich   Engineer
Thomas Dimuzio   Mastering
Elizabeth Burke   Tap Dancing
Eli Crews   Engineer,Mixing
Michelle Dorrance   Tap Dancing
Orlando Hernandez   Tap Dancing