(Newswire.net — February 6, 2015) —
Aziza Miller, Jazz, R&B and Contemporary Singer and Pianist started playing piano at age 8 and augmented her piano with her vocals when she was 20.
A finalist in the 2015 “Best Black Keyboard/Pianist Of The Year” for “The Black Women In Jazz And Arts Awards”, Miller is ready to step up to wider recognition for her skills as pianist, singer, composer and arranger.
“Black Women In Jazz & The Arts” was created to assist in meeting the often overlooked needs of women in the jazz and art professionals. BWIJ was created to foster a greater awareness of Black Women’s contributions to all the arts, by specially honoring the many contributions of black female musicians and women in other artistic profession’s.
The voting takes place online with multiple categories to vote for including, best vocals, flute, guitar, drums, cello, clarinet, harp, dramatist, screenwriter, filmmaker, theatre production and many other art professions.
The gala and award presentations will take place on March 1, 2015 in College Park, Georgia, events start at 3pm. Pre Gala events start on February 27th, 2015. Tickets are available on the website: http://www.bwijawards.com/awards-gala-events.php
Recently honored for her video production of her song “The Subway” Ms. Miller has been playing for packed houses at Joe’s Pub, NYC and most recently sold out performances at Blues Alley in Washington, DC.
The award winning song “The Subway” was inspired by a mixture of good and bad emotions while riding home to Brooklyn, NY on the F train one day.
Fueled by both anger and frustration at first, the singer/pianist had a change of heart and began to compose “The Subway” as an opportunity to express both positivity and negativity.
The song’s lyrics express the emotional realities one might feel while experiencing the harshness and the beauty of people’s lives as they commute to and from work, home school and shopping on a daily basis.
The mix of humanity, both rich and poor, all coming together experiencing the same moment in time, feeling both the negative and the positive aspect of “survival”.
She says in the song: “You learn what survival means, riding on the subway.”
With 3 CD’s as a leader already recorded, Miller is poised to connect to a lot more people and get her music and message out in a big way. A composer who writes from personal experiences, emotions, conversations and topical issues of the day, Aziza Miller delivers an extraordinary show.
She cites as her influences, Horace Silver, Ahmad Jamal, Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, Tania Maria, Sly and The Family Stone and all the Motown artists for piano.
As a singer, her main influences and inspiration come from Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Chaka Kahn, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn among many others.
She describes her music as a combination of Street Jazz, Soul and Poetry. Miller sees this contest as an opportunity to put her music in front of a larger audience and invites everyone to check out her music and vote.
Ms. Miller came to prominence in the 70’s as one of the first female Musical Directors for major recording artists. From 1975 to 1980, Miller served as Musical Director, conductor and pianist for Natalie Cole.
The brilliant jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal was introduced to Aziza and recorded her composition “La Costa” which featured lyrics by Natalie Cole. Mr. Jamal then invited her to write lyrics for four of his original recorded compositions.
Ms. Miller received the Presidential Scholar Distinguished Teacher Award from President Bill Clinton, played in the orchestra for Oprah Winfrey’s “The Color Purple” and has authored a book called the “The Divanary:
A Dictionary For Diva’s”. The book was inspired by her interactive musical piece “Divas Don’t Apologize”.
Visit Aziza Miller here:
For a direct link to the voting page, please visit:
http://www.bwijawards.com/vote.php
For a Recent Review, please visit:
http://www.soultracks.com/aziza-miller-whats-on-your-mind-review
For more information on the Black Women In The Arts contact:
http://www.bwijawards.com/awards-gala-events.php
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White Diamond Media
Catherine Castle
201.723.4762
www.WhiteDiamondMedia.com