Natasha Miller: News

11/8/2004 - Magical House Concert
I'm just "recovering" from such a wonderful night at Bob Cowarts house. Perched in the Berkeley Hills, this lovely venue with a beautiful grand piano was host to me, Jon Evans (bass) and Josh Nelson (piano) and our music. It was in a word... magical. I will cherish that night forever!
It was wonderful seeing Robert Locke after about 18 years, and so many people that have supported me! I love house concerts more than anything, and cherish the opportunity! Thank you so much!
11/7/2004 - Natasha and Bobby featured on KRON 4 news!
Wow! A huge warm "thank you" to Noel Cisneros who came to my home to interview me and Bobby for such a lovely piece that aired THREE TIMES on KRON 4 news in the Bay Area. I'll have the piece on my web site soon!
11/1/2004 - Natasha is given award for Business and Professional Women's Achievement in the Arts
I accepted an award for outstanding women in the arts from this great and incredible organization. How humbled was I that I was honored by professional women and presented this award by Congressman Pete Stark! I also was given a proclimation by Wilma Chang and Barbara Lee! Thank you so much! At 33 years old, I can't believe I've done enough to warrant such honor, but I'm thankful!
10/21/2004 - Duet with Bobby Sharp in the works!
Oh my God, it's so beautiful! Bobby and I are working on a duet called "As The Years Come and Go" and it's so wonderful! Ellen Hoffman did the superb arrangement and even wrote a violin part for me! We'll certainly do it at our next Yoshi's gig which will probably be in February! It will certainly go on the next record. Hey, we should do a live @ Yoshi's recording, shouldn't we? I think I will.
That's that for now. Check the dates on this site to see me play live soon!
10/10/2004 - Back from the Ray Charles Tribute @ Staples Center in LA
Well, it was star-studded, and fantastic! I got to hang with the likes of Jamie Cullum , Al Green (who gave me plenty of warm sweet kisses and "I Love You's"), Billy Preston, Usher (his mom is so cool!), Ellen Degeneres, Morgan Freeman (who was singing "Unchain My Heart" out in the hallway), Bruce Willis, Jamie Foxx, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Regina King, Alfre Woodard, David "Fathead" Newman, and many more sparkling stars.
Everyone who performed that night including Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, and Norah Jones have the "I Had a Feelin'" songbook and CD! Jamie Cullum was going to go back to his hotel room to play through the charts. Maybe he'll perform "A Real Swingin' Affair"! Wouldn't that be great?
Photos will be up on the site soon, so check back!
Natasha
9/11/2004 - Santa Monica + the L.A. Times
I just returned from an exhilerating trip to Santa Monica with the great Bobby Sharp! We performed at this really lovely venue called the Vic for Jazz, which has got to be the most hip, "secret" private jazz club in existence! Ray Slayton is the mastermind behind this. (check www.thevicforjazz.com). Performing with me was the genious pianist Josh Nelson, and the tight duo of John Crooks/bass and Chris Wabich/drums. I was in heaven! Anyway, thanks to all who came, enjoyed, bought nearly ALL my CD's, and were part of yet another piece of my history. A warm thank you to the wonderful Don Heckman, whose story appeared in todays LA Times. You can read it in my "press" area. I also got to meet the legendary (and quite humorous) Bobby Colomby (think Blood Sweat and Tears and Jaco Pastorius). What a force!
9/2/2004 - New and Cool Website adjustment
I threw out the beautiful Flash-based site to make it easier on you! This one is so much more user friendly! If you want one of similar calibre and ease... check out somethumb.com. Scotty will fix you right up!
I'll be posting music soon... some you've heard, and some you'll want to hear!
Love, Natasha
9/1/2004 - Chattin' with Eric Cohen/WAER Syracuse
Bobby and I just enjoyed a great interview with the great Eric Cohen! He was fun to talk to, and asked all the right question, and made us both laugh! Thanks to him and the station for their support of the CD! Check them out at waer.org.

I've been enjoying a nearly full year break from performing and recording and will be back in action on December 19 at Yoshi's in San Francisco. If you live outside the area don't fret... we'll have a few tunes on YouTube shortly after. Tickets and info here http://www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco/jazzclub/artist/show/2277 See you there!

I've uploaded SpinVintage to Bandcamp.com which is really cool! AND I've made one of the tracks FREE! Please help yourself, and "share" with your friends, family, neighbors... 

Here's Blue Skies for you free of charge : )

Jesse Hamlin just wrote a great bio piece for the new release of SpinVintage! Read it in the bio section of the website.

I've been taking a bit of a sabbatical to concentrate on my booking agency Entire Productions http://www.entireproductions.com and haven't been performing as much lately. I have 5 new dates on the calendar starting this summer! Hope to see you there!

Check out the newly recorded song http://natashamillerweb.com/music-173.html that Natasha wrote for Music in Schools Today mustcreate.org

You can bid on a featured performance by Natasha Miller from the Head-Royce School's auction website. Good cause... use it for a house concert party, or a non-profit event! http://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/item/Item.action?browse=&id=105581641

I just uploaded my new song "Looks Like Christmas" for you to listen during this holiday season. The fully produced version will be available after Thanksgiving in 2010! Enjoy! http://www.natashamillerweb.com/music-172.html

Natasha will be performing her annual Christmas Concert at Yoshi's in San Francisco this year! Check the calendar for details, and buy tickets here: http://sfyoshis2.inticketing.com/events/57963/NATASHA-MILLER-W-JAZZ-MAFIA-HORNS--8PM

We've held off on properly releasing this album until the fall and will let you know when we have dates! Thanks for your patience!

Hi everyone- I just got a last-minute date at Yoshi's San Francisco that I just couldn't turn down! I'll be there on Tue/April 28 at 8p and 10p. I hope to see you there! Can't wait for you to hear the new trax! http://sfyoshis2.inticketing.com/evlist.php?events=search&searchstr=natasha+miller&smonth=0&sday=0&syear=0&vstate=0

Hi there- Sorry about the delay in the release of this fantastic CD. Look for news about a summer date... Thanks!

Hey Everyone- Wow! What a great holiday season this has been for me! I did not catch a cold. This is an historic event... has never happened before. Had a great show at yoshi's, and am recovering nicely.

Here are some links to check out. Also, most "news" can be found on my links page in my archived newsletter.

Natasha

KGO interview: http://www.kgoam810.com/sectional.asp?id=18170#
Wonderful video from Yoshi's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec9z611736I

The years have passed, and people have healed. But there shouldn't be a day go by that we forget.

This is how I remember. The download is free.

http://www.natashamillerweb.com/audio/NATASHA_MILLER-Eleventh_of_2-3.mp3

By Gloria Steinem

September 4, 2008
Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does.

To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."
This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.

Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."

She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.

So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.
Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.

Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

This could be huge.

Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.

Seriously. I'm involved in a project called "Book of Blood". It's a feature film that my version of "Unchain My Heart" will be in. It's a horror film. I probably won't even be able to watch it! But it's helping to pay my daughter's tuition to school!!! Gotta love that!

Today we wrapped up the tracking for the new CD. The super musical, super-talented Rich Armstrong played trumpet, Flugel, and piccolo trumpet. Sheldon Brown was in with ALL of his reed instruments! Adam Theis was killin' it with his arrangements!
Soon...

It was such a beautiful nostalgic scent... the first spring rain.

Finished up adding a KILLER horn section to the new songs. Brilliance is being born! I'll let you know soon when you can listen.

About to start my day. Hope everyone has a really good one!

Natasha

Well, today was Day#1 in the studio. What a blast! It was like hanging out with friends all day, except that we recorded 5 KILLER tunes! Matt Clark, John Shifflett, Jeff Marrs, and Adam Theis. This is the power-team! Stay tuned for more info on this. Not sure when it will release.

Have a good week. Do a good deed!

OK, not "me" exactly, but my voice/song... "The Bank Job" opens this Friday March 7, and my version of Bobby Sharp's song "Unchain My Heart" is in it!

If you want to hear the song, go to www.cdbaby.com/nmiller3. More about the movie here www.thebankjobmovie.com
How cool is that?

I'll be back in the studio in late March to begin working on a new CD. This one will be standards-centered, and will have hot new arrangements by Adam Theis of the Jazz Mafia!

Hi everyone-

Last year was pretty good. I enjoyed an incredible success with my Christmas CD, and thank you to all who have it or came to the parties and concert!

I'll be working on a new standards CD, and I'm in the beginning stages of planning my entire year of performances and special projects!

Keep doing what you love, or start doing what you love! Either way, don't waste any time.

Happy New Year!

Natasha

I've made my "White Christmas" a free mp3 download from now until Christmas day. Enjoy! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Season's Greetings! Bah Humbug... whatever makes you smile!

I'm off to freezing, snow-covered Des Moines, IA for a few days. I hope to come back without strep throat! Wish me luck!

Natasha

Click Here to get the song!

http://natashamillerweb.com/music.html

It's after Thanksgiving. Time to start playing that Christmas music! Get "The Season" here http://cdbaby.com/cd/nmiller5 !

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings!!!