I Remember Mulgrew (part 2)

Last updated on June 09, 2019

This is the second part of my post I Remember Mulgrew

Mulgrew on Playing With Other Musicians

Mulgrew Miller was known for being the highly in-demand pianist for recordings and on-stage. One of the reasons for that was because he was such a great accompanist. His comping, chord voicings, swing and overall sound behind the soloists are so beautiful.

There are many beautiful recordings of Mulgrew playing behind the soloists.

Here is one of them. This is one of my personal favorites, a beautiful ballad For All We Know (by J. Fred Coots / Sam M. Lewis) by a great vocalist Dianne Reaves.

This was recorded on her album “I Remember”

Comping on “All The Things You Are”

One of my students asked Mulgrew to talk about accompanying a soloist and show some examples. Here is Mulgrew playing a few choruses of his comping on “All The Things You Are” by Jerome Kern:

Mulgrew Comping on Blues

This is a great video by Bret “Jazz Video Guy” Primak with Mulgrew speaking about comping.

Mulgrew plays some really nice couple of choruses demonstrating comping on Blues in F:

Mulgrew Miller & CJS Faculty – Nica’s Dream

Mulgrew Miller (piano) and The Center For Jazz Studies Tel Aviv Conservatory Faculty – Erez Barnoy (t.s.), Avishai Cohen (tr.), Yuval Cohen (s.s), Gilad Abro (b), Shail Zelman (dr) at Einav Center Tel Aviv June 9, 2012 Mulgrew Miller (August 13, 1955 – May 29, 2013) This video was taken on June 6, 2012, during Mulgrew Miller week at The Center For Jazz Studies, Israel Conservatory Tel Aviv.

Mulgrew Miller Tribute Article

Here is an interesting article on Mulgrew Miller by his friend Isabelle Leymarie written a day after he passed away. There is some selected discography of Mulgrew Miller at the end and even transcription of his version of Every Time We Say Goodbye: