feature photo: Jason Rosewarne
Unify isn’t the first album by Newcastle, Australia’s Adam Miller, but it does represent a new beginning for him. Recently moving halfway around the world to Los Angeles, California, Miller quickly embedding himself within that lively contemporary jazz music scene. There, he encountered the likes of Charlie Hunter, Adam Levy and a bevy of other musicians in the LA area who are incredibly talented but also incredibly open-minded.
Less than a year after making the move in January, 2019, Miller had enough songs inspired by his experience to head down to a local studio and record Unify with drummer Justin Glasco and bassist Joel Gottschalk after honing their chemistry in clubs around Los Angeles. The music they ended up with is uncluttered and unpretentious. Unify is what is called “fusion jazz” only by default, because it’s really a guy making instrumental rock or folk-based tunes that has a strong beat, well-defined bass lines, and a guitar that splits the down the middle the chore of making his melodies resonate and spicing them up with single line chops.
“The Good List” was undoubtedly a product to steady exposure to Hunter — even the bass line simulates what Hunter plays on his Novax 8-string guitar — and he makes the most of a two-chord vamp. Employing a warm, slightly-vibrating tone, Miller arcs his solo turn like an old pro. “Adam Levy” continues the same, slow-going groove from “The Good List” and that agreeable tone carries over as well, but takes on a different melody that flows casually with no sharp edges. “Jungle Jungle” is even more explicitly like Hunter, and in all the best ways, bolstered by Glasco’s dynamic tom-tom rhythms. And “West Hollywood” has that same groove as Hunter’s funky soul-jazz remake of his song “Dersu” on Hunter’s self-titled album.
But Miller isn’t making a straight-up Charlie Hunter record, even though there wouldn’t be anything wrong with that. Miller lets his arpeggiated chords vibrate on the folk-country-ish “Leaving” and using a no-nonsense, earthbound approach perfected by Bill Frisell, Miller makes it both clean and tasty. The subtle use of spectral loops makes “Shipping” Frisell-like in a different way, and if you listen closely, you’ll hear Miller tactfully employ that effect on other tracks.
Echoes of John Scofield and his RnB influenced jazz attack often pops up in Miller’s own tone and phrasing. “Overuse” is most like when Scofield is in a funk mood, only missing John Medeski’s keys to make this a leftover track from A Go-Go. Possibly the best selection on here is “Hustle,” which is grounded on a sturdy groove anyone would like and Miller cozily churning out a catchy melody, effectively blurring rhythm chords with lead lines.
So Adam Miller has soaked in the styles of plenty of progressive jazz guitarists before him that are often readily apparent on Unify. At the same time, he’s distilled those styles into something refreshingly direct, melodic and consistently satisfying. Unify should put him on any guitar enthusiast’s radar screen.
The self-released Unify is now out, and you can grab it from Bandcamp.
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