NYC-based drummer/composer/teacher Allison Miller engages her deep roots in

improvisation as a vehicle to explore all music. Described by Paste magazine as a

“Modern Jazz Icon in the Making,” Miller has released 16 albums as a leader or

co-leader and has collaborated with artists such as Myra Melford, Derrick Hodge,

Toshi Reagon, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Alan Baylock, Jenny Scheinman, Renee Rosnes,

Ingrid Jensen, Todd Sickafoose, Camille A. Brown, Natalie Merchant, Scott

Colley, Dayna Stephens, and Ani DiFranco.

The critics named Miller Rising Star Drummer in Downbeat magazine's 67th

Annual Critics Poll and Best Jazz Drummer in Jazz Times’s 2019 Critics Poll. Her

composition, “Otis Was a Polar Bear,” is included on NPR’s list of The 200

Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women+. She is also the first recipient of the

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Commissioning Grant. The product of this

commission is Miller’s immersive multi-media song cycle, Rivers In Our Veins,

dedicated to and celebrating America’s waterways. The studio version of Rivers

In Our Veins was released October 2023 and has received critical acclaim,

including NPR’s 50 Best Albums of 2023 and 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2023.

“Extraordinary composing, orchestrating, band-leading, and a sophisticated,

engaged and playful ensemble characterize Rivers in Our Veins, Allison Miller’s

ninth album. Also: Tap dancers.” - Downbeat

Miller, a three time Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department and

Monterey Jazz Festival Artist in Residence alumni, has also released five albums

with her longtime band, Boom Tic Boom. Named Jazz Journalist Association’s

Small Ensemble of the Year, the band has toured extensively throughout the US,

Europe and Asia as well as being featured on such programs as NPR’s Fresh Air

with Terry Gross, Tiny Desk with Bob Boilen, WNYC’s Soundcheck and New

Sounds with John Schaefer, and Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride.

While breaking from band-leading, Miller focuses on collaborations, co-directing

Lux Quartet with Myra Melford, and Bluenote recording supergroup Artemis.

Artemis was recently named Jazz Group of the Year in Downbeat’s 88th Annual

Reader’s Poll. Miller also composes for the gaming company Cloud Chamber/2K.

As a side-musician, Miller has been the rhythmic force behind such artists as Sara

Bareilles, Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, Brandi Carlile, Indigo Girls, Toshi

Reagon, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Patricia Barber, Marty Ehrlich, Ben Allison, and Late

Night with Seth Meyers.

Miller, Yamaha’s 2022 Educational Legacy Award recipient, teaches at Peabody

Conservatory, the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Stanford Jazz

Workshop, Centrum, Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz, and is the Artistic Director of

Jazz Camp West. She was the 2022 director for Jazz Educator’s Network Sisters

In Jazz program and a featured clinician at PASIC’s 2022 International

Convention. Miller is a contributor to the groundbreaking book, New Standards:

101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers, published by Berklee Press/Hal Leonard

and proudly endorses Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks, Evans

drumheads and Sunhouse percussion.

“Miller’s album is brilliant and thrilling. There are no arid stretches on this

recording. It’s inventively through-comped and played by musicians up to the

task.” - NYC Jazz Record

“Rivers In Our Veins’ reflect[s] grand concepts played out through connected

musical pieces...the music seems to move like, well, a river, through all sorts of

terrain, following its own logic...Ms.Miller, lean[s] in and out of rhythms with

both ingenuity and economy..." -Wall Street Journal

“Miller and Bloom guide and prod each other into consistently interesting sound

patterns. They do not sound like anyone else.” -Jazz Record

"...Glitter Wolf is undeniably accessible, gloriously melodic and funky as hell."

-New York City Jazz Record

“...Miller's craftiness as a percussionist is met by her ingenuity as a composer and

group conceptualist.” -The New Yorker.

“Ms. Miller is a drummer, bandleader and composer with an aesthetic of limber

poise, drawn at once to brisk maneuvers and deep grooves.” –The New York

Times

“Ten years into the band’s existence, these musicians are firing on all cylinders...

Glitter Wolf sounds like an album by Boom Tic Boom-and no one else.”

-Downbeat

“...the album defies expectations with a mix of head-bobbing grooves and rich

melodies...”

-The Los Angeles Times

Camellia “Cami” Akhamie Kies served in the United States Navy for six years as a full time musician. She is a military veteran, professional drummer, percussionist, music producer, drum instructor, social media influencer, and full time mom. Born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1989, Cami expressed deep interest in drums and percussion from a very young age. In 2009 she began her professional music career with the United States Navy’s Seventh Fleet Band in Yokosuka, Japan. During her military service she traveled to 20 countries in SouthEast Asia perform-ing and representing America as a musical ambassador.

In 2014 Cami was honorably discharged from the military, and shortly after leaving the US Navy, Cami graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor’s of Science in Digital Media & Web Technology.

Cami gave birth to her son in 2019, and two months after his arrival she went on a World Tour with Latin Grammy Winner, Buika.

Cami is well known on social media for her tiny creative percussion setups and her unique African infused rhythms. Cami released her first album in 2020 titled “| Choose Love” featuring US Navy veteran vocalist Sarah Reasner.

Cami plays all styles and genres of music and she proudly endorses Meinl Percussion, Tama Drums & Hardware, Meinl Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Promark Sticks, and GEWA Digital drums.

Sarah Whitaker has familial roots originating in Detroit, Michigan, with an upbringing and education in East Lansing, Michigan. Ms. Whitaker is a jazz drummer whose influences include Max Roach, Thelonious Monk, and many other rhythm masters. She recently earned a Bachelor of Arts at Michigan State University's College of Music, studying under jazz master Randy Gilespie. In the fall she will be returning to MSU to start her Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies. She’s been privileged to accompany and be mentored by seasoned and contemporary professionals alike, such as Rodney Whitaker, Ramona Collins, Vincent Chandler, Carmen Bradford, Stefon Harris, Walter Blanding, Rockelle Whitaker, and Anthony Stanco. Through her membership of small and large ensembles, such as the Gathering Orchestra, she is acquiring the understanding of the role of a jazz drummer, the ability to lead, support and discern.

School of Rock is the world's largest and most trusted multi-location music school with tens of thousands of musicians going through our classes, workshops, camps and performance programs every day. Founded as a single school in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1998, School of Rock now has over 365 locations in 16 different countries, helping aspiring musicians master skills, unleash creativity, and develop tools they need to thrive in life. Our leadership team members combine business savvy, a passion for music and a drive to help children succeed.

TéMaTé Institute for Black Dance and Culture is a social justice organization engaging in the vital work of cultivating dancers and culture keepers to create networks of people, places, and histories toward cultural equity.

Mission: To embody a more culturally just and equitable world by celebrating the contributions of the African diaspora.

Vision: To ignite a critical mass of partners and cultural stewards that preserve, progress, and pass afro-rooted traditions.

Our Land Statement: TeMaTe Institute for Black Dance and Culture exists as a dance justice and cultural equity organization. Our name is inspired by the Temate dance of the Yacouba and Whêbe people in what we now call the Ivory Coast, a joyful dance inspired by the land and our relationship with it. We acknowledge that we are gathering on lands that are contemporarily the indigenous homelands of the Anishinaabe people and have historically been the homelands of the Huron, Wendat, Kickapoo, and others. We honor the past, present, and future stewardship of these lands and stand in solidarity with native people/indigenous people, and honor Detroit as the largest majority Black city in the United States with a long history of African Diasporic contributions to dance and culture of Detroit and beyond.

Out of Detroit's lively jazz scene, which has produced some of the best musicians in the world, comes the groundbreaking all-female jazz group, Straight Ahead. A group of strong, inventive instrumentalists and vocalists, they have shown themselves to be powerful and imaginative composers and arrangers... Widely recognized for their eclectic and soulful approach to creating music, the Straight Ahead sound ranges comfortably from mainstream jazz R&B ballads, and avant-garde to Brazilian funk. Their live performances are a dynamic celebration of power and joy. The ladies delight in changing textures, moods, and tempos and love to throw in the occasional musical joke! Introduced in 1989 as a product of their hometown's lively jazz scene, Straight Ahead was named the finalist in that year's "Sony Innovators" competition. The new decade saw the ladies receive their first international exposure when they were invited to open for the legendary Nina Somone at the Montreaux-Switzerland Jazz Festival.

In 1990, the group recorded the first album for Atlantic Jazz, "Look Straight Ahead", which made the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart "Top 20". They followed that up with "Body and Soul" and in 1995 with their third album "Dance Of the Forest Rain", which received rave reviews that include Branford Marsalis, who called the group "a monster outfit that truly swings!" These Grammy-nominated Atlantic Jazz recording artists have traveled extensively in the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe, garnering rave reviews.

Recent appearances include a concert at the prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., where Ms. Sorab Modi, a reviewer for "JazzIz" Magazine wrote that the band was"particularly impressive." (JazzIz, August 1997); and the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, where "This tight, dynamic, outfit stole the show with it's high-energy tour-de-force of musical styles." (Kansas City Star, July 21, 1997). Recent awards include The Motor City Music Awards HALL OF FAME and Talent Deserving Wider Recognition (Downbeat Magazine, April 1997) Joy, Power, Love, Wisdom...Magic! This is the sound of what is to come. This is Straight Ahead !! Each individual member of Straight Ahead is an accomplished musician in her own right.

Together they bring a unique musical personality to the group. Straight Ahead's founding members, the "Rhythm Sister" - Marion Hayden on bass, Alina Moore on piano, Ingrid Racine on trumpet, and Gayelynn McKinney on drums are joined by an exciting line-up, which features the dynamic Kymberli Wright on vocals.

Love Williams, aka, “Ms. Love,” has been singing since she was a child. She grew up in a home filled with music. Both her mother and father were singers and sang as a duet for many years. Ms. Love and her siblings were taught the fundamentals of musical harmony and vocal toning. As a native Detroiter, the sounds of Motown permeated her youth and influenced her musical taste. The vocal stylings of Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Chaka Kahn and Roberta Flack, made a huge impact on Love, which are evident in her sultry and soulful performances.

In 2007, Love moved to Atlanta and became the lead singer of The Groove Factor Band. For two years they took to the road performing in southern states such as, Georgia, Alabama, New Orleans and Texas. From 2009-2016, Ms. Love went International, traveling overseas performing in Nagoya, Tokyo, and Yokohama, Japan for six months at a time, each year.

In November 2015, Love joined Producer DJ Huss and “The Love Project,” and released their first EP. The title song’s video, “All We Need Is Love,” reached 11,000 views and counting. In 2021, her latest video, “Mommy,” which she wrote and produced to honor her mother, has so far garnered 22,000 views.

2019 - Current Ms. Love has headlined with the band, JHits, at Trust Night Club, Grown Folks Night Club and the Historical Bakers Keyboard Lounge.

In 2024 Ms. Love will debut her new single “Can I” written by Love Williams, produced by Corey Ward, and arranged by Gayelynn McKinney, Twon Green and Brandon Williams