Max Miller

Max Miller (Chicago, November 17, 1911 – d. Shawnee, Oklahoma, November 13, 1985) – Multi-instrumentalist (eventually specializing on Piano and vibraphone), and composer. Max Miller grew up in East Chicago, Indiana, and played banjo in a high school band there. At age sixteen, he started gigging around the Indiana/Michigan area and made a switch to guitar at about the same time. Roughly from 1930 to 1970, Miller was a mainstay on the Chicago jazz scene. Although he played guitar, drums and bass with bands early on in Chicago, he eventually focused his work on piano and vibraphone. Throughout the years, he played with several of the greatest groups around, including the Benny Goodman band and the Dizzy Gillespie quintet. He also played several hitches with and made recordings with Sidney Bechet in the 1940s and 1950s. In addition, he is credited for launching the career of Anita O’ Day because he hired her to play her first professional gig at Chicago’s Offbeat Club in 1939. As a recording artist, he released several singles on Life Records and a complete album called Piano Moods on Columbia in 1951. Strongly influenced by modern composers such as Stravinsky, Bartok, and Hindemith, Miller became the first jazz musician to headline at Chicago’s Orchestral Hall, where he first appeared in 1945. Because of his great reputation as a performer, he appeared for several years on top ten lists of jazz musicians in Downbeat and Esquire.