Miller time: Busy cellist back ... with some surprises

Kristen Miller kicks off Women's History Month at the Actors Studio.

Been a busy time for Kristen Miller, even by the Georgetown cellist’s crazy standards, all quite possibly explained by her previously undisclosed and apparently unquenchable jones for tea, although, granted, she did hint about that as far back as 2003, on "Later that day," her debut album: The past two years have been steeped in creative work.  She's released two albums — “Walk,” a distinctive solo release that mixes world beat rhythms and Eastern melodies with a rock attitude and a beat sensibility, something she calls "cellobrew," and “Winter Loves Company,” a collaboration with Port sound guru Tom Eaton that mixes cello and piano with a Windham Hill sensibility. She’s also written soundtracks for three Maya Deren films, fascinating, mesmerizing silent films that are stubbornly interior, with little in the way of linear plot, and even toured with them. She's also created an original score for “No More Gloomy Sundays,” a short film by Robert Newton documenting the history of the WPA murals in Gloucester, and kept up her own busy performance  schedule. And toured with Ken Bonfield, a Gloucester-based multi-instrumentalist who, like Miller, has developed a style that's difficult to pin down, combining elements of folk, Celtic, classical and blues for acoustic guitar.  And, considering the creative workload, Miller has decided to take a short break from writing,  to catch her breath and regroup before the next big thing, whatever that might be — and if she knows, she’s not telling. But it will be only a break of a sort, seeing how she’s got session work lined up with Liz Mitchell, Conor O’Brien and What Time is it, Mr. Fox? And, before that happens, she’s got something else going on, something that incorporates all the disparate elements in her work, and throws a couple more into the creative stew, for the Actors Studio celebration of Women’s History Month, four weekend performances putting the spotlight on wimmins. And she’s happy to report that a few days ago, when she sat down for, errr, a cup of tea, she “realized how insane that is.” Which, of course, is the first step toward recovery.

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Miller, Bonfield and the sounds of the season

Kristen Miller and Ken Bonfield perform 'Soulful Strings' Dec. 4.

Kristen Miller is a cellist who has been turning the instrument on its head for years, mixing hypnotic African rhythms and Eastern melodies with rock attitude, vocabulary and gear. Ken Bonfield is a Gloucester-based multi-instrumentalist who has developed a style that's difficult to pin down, combining elements of folk, Celtic, classical and blues for acoustic guitar to create a mash he calls, for better or worse, fojazzical. They've both got Christmas albums out: Bonfield’s subdued, introspective “WinterNight,” coming out more than a decade ago, and Miller’s 2010 “Winter Loves Company,” a collaboration with sound guru Tom Eaton, a sweet mix of cello and piano with a Windham Hill sensibility. Both include fresh arrangements of traditional carols as well as original seasonal compositions. They'll be playing a holiday show together next week, but, given their idosyncatic musical histories, it is unlikely that their “Soulful Strings,” show at the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist  Church in Newburyport next week will be your traditional rum-pa-pa-pum kind of show, but it’s gonna be nice.

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Silent is golden: Miller unveils Deren scores

Kristen Miller’s new obsession started quietly — appropriate, considering the media — seven years ago, even though nothing really came of it until last year. She had been hanging out in Gloucester with Brian King, from the band What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?, a band rooted in folk and blues, but filtered through cabaret and alt-rock, and a frequent Miller collaborator, working on a project — a long-form experimental piece. They had been at it all morning and decided to take a break. King told Miller, an innovative cellist with three albums under her belt, that he wanted to show her something, so he fired up the DVD player and played “Meshes of the Afternoon,” a silent film by Maya Deren, who famously said she could make an entire movie for what Hollywood spends on lipstick. This film, of course, was not Hollywood by any stretch. It is stubbornly interior, a film that inhabits the world of dreams and myth, attempting to tell a life story in less than 15 minutes with little in the way of linear plot and without a word being spoken. It “reproduces the way in which the subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual incident into a critical emotional experience,” Deren said in her program notes for the film’s premiere in 1943.  The experience was a revelation for Miller. “I was speechless,” she says. 

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Run, don't 'Walk' for Miller's latest

This strange dissociative thing comes over me when I listen to "Walk," Byfield cellist Kristen Miller's new album. It's like she's whispering in my ear, reminding me of things we have always known, hard-learned lessons that have been all but lost in the maddening rush the present, the incessant tedium of life's details. It's like catching up with an old friend in a way. But, somehow, it feels wrong, like I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be — lurking in the shadows, ear cocked toward the confessional, eavesdropping. Not that any great secrets are being betrayed. The stories are lyrical studies in contrast and paradox, seemingly small, but significant situations that are closely observed, unfolding in front of you, the details emerging in relief. It's poetry that feels like prose. Songs about longing, love, and loss. Urgent fictions, mostly, situations that ring true, that have a terrible sense of immediacy, familiarity. You know these people, even if you've never met them, even though their stories are not completely drawn. Miller sketches, drops a few hints and lets the listeners fill in the details. 

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Kristen Miller in Actors Studio benefit

Kristen Miller has been turning the cello on its head for years, mixing hypnotic African rhythms and Eastern melodies with rock attitude, vocabulary and gear — like a vintage Tube Screamer distortion box and a battery of effects pedals. But these days Mama's got a brand new bag. The Byfield cellist, who drastically cut back her performance schedule after her son Lucas was born four years ago, has this jazz thing going on as she returns to Thomas Eaton Recording at the Tannery to work on her follow-up to 2006’s “Strange Little Valentine.”

Not that listeners will be able to peg the music as hard-bop or post-bop. It’s more about attitude than definition. It’s jazz that “comes out sideways,” says Miller. She’s going into these sessions with some ideas, not songs ready for the can. “It’s a much looser approach than I had with ‘Valentine,'” she says. “I don’t have a plan. I’m going by intuition. I start playing and find out what song wants to be recorded now. We’ll see what we have at the end.”

But, this being the always-elusive (musically, at least) Miller, who cites everybody from Bartok to Zeppelin as an influence, you know the new album is not going to sit still stylistically. The still-untitled album, which she hopes to release in early 2010, will include instrumentals and spoken word, tunes with a worldbeat vibe and rock — including a cover of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams,” which was “a little bit of a gimme since it has such a great string arrangement to begin with.”

You can get a taste of what the cellist has been up to this weekend, when she joins the Powow River Poets in a benefit for the Actors Studio at the Tannery. It will be one of her last shows of the year, as she settles back into the academic life at The Governor’s Academy, the former Governor Dummer Academy — or what the cool kids are calling “the Gov's,” avoiding the whole issue.

The Govs is where the whole jazz thing got started. Miller, who grew up in New Jersey, plays a handcrafted turn-of-the-last-century Leon Bernardel cello. She learned the “right” way to play the instrument at the University of Connecticut. She did what was expected, performing standard repertoire in trios and quartets — and teaching — to pay the bills. She moved to Byfield — just around the corner from the Gov's — about 12 years ago.. That's where she developed "cellobrew," which is what Miller calls the unique east-meets-west, classical-meets-rock musical hybrid that flowered on 2003's "Later that Day" and, three years later, "Strange Little Valentine."

After her son was born, Miller started looking for a more dependable gig, and and landed a position as orchestra director at Governor's Academy. That went so well that they offered her the chance to lead the school’s jazz ensemble. She told them that jazz was just a little bit outside her comfort zone, but they were impressed with her teaching chops and said, essentially, that’s cool — and packed her off to a weekend seminar with jazz educator and author Jamey Aembersold, then followed that up wih a weeklong seminar with NEA jazz master David Baker. The seminars clicked, generating a lot of new ideas that are coming to fruition on the new, still-untitled album.

In the schedule-busting mix of dayjob, mommyland and creative imperative, something has to give, and for Miller that has been performance — at least during the academic year. “I have to make time for the cello," she says. She’s also making time for session work, playing on “Some Assembly Required,” the new album by roots-rockers Assembly of Dust — a disc that included such high-profile players like Richie Havens, Bela Fleck and John Scofield. She also played on Irma Thomas' “Simply Grand,” which grabbed a Grammy nomination for best contemporary blues album early this year. She is part of a string quartet on “What Can I Do?,” a tune Burt Bachrach wrote specifically for the album. She got a call from Rounder Records asking if she could play the session “and I said ‘Yeah, I think I can make that happen,’” she says. "I tried to play it cool. I don't think I succeeded."

JUST THE FACTS, MAN: Cellist Kristen Miller will perform with the Powow River Poets at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at a benefit for the Actors Studio of Newburyport at the Tannery. There will be a reception in the concourse of Mill #1 after the program. Tickets are $45. All proceeds benefit the Actors Studio. For information or reservations call 978-465-1229. For more info, log onto http://www.newburyportacting.org.