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Stories   >   Alison Miller, Jane Ira Bloom Tues Days is a musical duet saturated in a kaleidoscope of color / 91.1WTJU

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Alison Miller, Jane Ira Bloom Tues Days is a musical duet saturated in a kaleidoscope of color / 91.1WTJU

Posted: October 12, 2021 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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In March and April of 2021 soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and drummer Allison Miller came together on five Tuesdays to record some improvised duets to see what might happen. They didn't set out to make an album - they just wanted to play because they needed to improvise any way that they could. They played with complete abandon, performing remotely from their home studios in New York City in the 2021 reality of the world. Tues Days is the result of those recordings that now appear on Bloom's Outline label and are available through Miller's Bandcamp site, mixed and mastered by bassist Mark Helias with breathtaking fidelity. It's a musical duet saturated in a kaleidoscope of color. The music is spontaneous composition at its best by two masterful improvisers – energetic, tactile, and alive. Miller's multi-colored array of percussion augments her drumset in exquisite counterpoint to Bloom's signature tone on the soprano sax. The music is both rhythmic and deeply lyrical - drum and sax dancing around one another until their song is sung. The compositions are Bloom and Miller making-it-up live and in the moment, taking you on a wild ride through their musical universe.  From the adventurous journey of "The Wild Frontier" to the unpredictable "A & J's Test Kitchen," get ready for Tues Days - a story for your ears that will have your head spinning in wonder.

"Playing with Allison on these sessions was like a dance that took me completely away. We didn't ever talk about what to do, we just played and it felt like pure motion. There was so much to move to and it occurred to me that playing together this way was like entering into a dance that elevated off the floor into space."  - Jane Ira Bloom

"While improvising with Jane during our Tues-Day sessions I experienced an absolute feeling of being present and in the NOW…a feeling I had not felt in quite some time.  All past and future worries slipped away.  These sessions birthed new discoveries.  Responding to Jane's sense of musical flow, space, and motivic development birthed an exciting percussive world and, at times, I felt like I was not in charge of my own limbs.  They were moving whimsically and gloriously on their own, picking up percussion instruments that had been hiding away in the corners of my studio for years.  It was as if Jane's lyrical tone guided my every movement."  - Allison Miller 

91.1WTJU writes…. It’s a musical duet saturated in a kaleidoscope of color. The music is spontaneous composition at its best by two masterful improvisers – energetic, tactile, and alive. Miller’s multi-colored array of percussion augments her drumset in exquisite counterpoint to Bloom’s signature tone on the soprano sax. The music is both rhythmic and deeply lyrical – drum and sax dancing around one another until their song is sung. The compositions are Bloom and Miller making-it-up live and in the moment, taking you on a wild ride through their musical universe. From the adventurous journey of “The Wild Frontier” to the unpredictable “A & J’s Test Kitchen,” get ready for Tues Days – a story for your ears that will have your head spinning in wonder.”   

Alison Miller & Jane Ira Bloom – Tues Days makes the 91.1WTJU: Charlottesville VA ‘New Jazz & Blues.'  READ THE REVIEW