Allison Miller

NYC-based drummer/composer/teacher Allison Miller engages her deep roots in improvisation as a vehicle to explore all music. Described by critics as a "charismatic and rhythmically propulsive drummer with melodic sensibility", Miller, a three time Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, has been named “Top 20 Jazz Drummers” in Downbeat Magazine. Her band, Boom Tic Boom, is a recipient of Chamber Music America’s “Presenter Consortium for Jazz Grant” and Boom Tic Boom’s 4th release, Otis was a Polar Bear, was chosen for NPR’s Jazz Critics Poll (2016) and the title track is included in NPR’s 2018 “The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women” publication. This year Boom Tic Boom celebrates it’s 10th anniversary. The band has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Their 5th album, Glitter Wolf, comes out January of 2019.

As a side-musician, Miller has been the rhythmic force behind such artists as Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, Brandi Carlile, Toshi Reagon, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Patricia Barber, Marty Ehrlich, Ben Allison, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Meredith Vieira Show. She is the musical director of Camille A Brown’s Ink, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards’ And Still You Must Swing, Rachna Nivas’ Speak, and co-leads Parlour Game with Jenny Scheinman and Holler and Bam with Toshi Reagon.

Allison teaches at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC, Stanford Jazz Workshop, and is the Artistic Director of Jazz Camp West in La Honda, CA. She has been appointed Arts Envoy to Thailand for her work with Jazz Education Abroad. Allison endorses Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth heads, and Evans drumheads.

“...Miller's craftiness as a percussionist is met by her ingenuity as acomposer and group conceptualist.” — The New Yorker

“Ms. Miller is a drummer, band leader and composer with an aesthetic of limber poise, drawn at once to brisk maneuvers and deep grooves.” — Nate Chinen, The New York Times