During his career, New York bassist and composer Robert Miller has been creating jazz music with a lot of different musicians for several decades. He started with solo projects and formed bands like "The Robert Miller Group" and "Project Grand Slam" with some of the best musicians of the genre. Several Grammy-nominations and Top 20 Jazz-Radio-Hits were the result of that creative process. For his new Album TWENTY, Miller has chosen sixteen tracks from his huge oeuvre, mostly taken from the two releases "Play" (2007) and "Spring Dance" (2012) together with some older songs of Miller's solo work. The whole album describes the unique career of Robert Miller and is -at the same time- like a journey through the different styles of Jazz Music of the last twenty years. The first track STUDIO 1 taken from the album "Play" is a straight smooth jazz song, with a nice Saxophone-line, comparable to the early "Spyro Gyra", definitely a good opener for the album, while SPRING DANCE, the title track of the 2012 - album is a joyful up-beat number. This song earned him a Top 20 Jazz Radio Hit. CAKEWALK FOR DEBRA, a groovy song with an extended Jazz-Piano solo completes the first part of the record. BECAUSE SHE SAID SO is a lyrical ballad with an elegiac Saxophone on Solo, followed by the fusion-like FIVE TO SIX with tricky rhythms and an excellent bass-line, building the ground for a rocking keyboard solo. Also Robert Miller shows here his outstanding ability on his bass. The second part of the recording is completed by the bluesy ODE TO JERRY. MA PETITE FLEUR (My little flower) is a wonderful jazz waltz with a soft Saxophone and a cheerful piano solo, while RIDING THE BERKS and HEAT bring us back to the solid ground of fusion jazz. CATCH YOU LATER comes along with a fat Brass section, Latin percussion, Hammond-Organ and a playful Fender Rhodes Piano, while the more exotic OUT OF TAHINI is another song with a complicated rhythm-line and an expressive saxophone in the foreground. STINGER, the longest track on the album, with its reggae-like rhythms and Fender-Rhodes-solos is the most contemporary track on the album. It contains -once again- a brilliant bass solo by Robert Miller. HEAT 2007 is a short reprise of Track 9 in a more stylish and modern arrangement. The dreamy and balladic RETURN VOYAGE features a soft Saxophone accompanied by the bass with a flange effect and a gentle grand piano. The groovy FLAT-BUSTED with a joyful Fender Rhodes Solo completes the third part of the recording. The Album ends with the powerful CANNONBALL, which sounds like a reminiscence of the old times of "Weather Report" with Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius. TWENTY is an excellent résumé of twenty years of Robert Miller's musical career. He and his brilliant musical companions have co-created twenty years in jazz history and hopefully they will go on for the next twenty years! © Markus Michel 2014 Robert Miller - Twenty Release Date: 2014 Label: Cakewalk Records (888295069120) Tracklist: 01. Studio One 02. Spring Dance 03. Cakewalk for Debra 04. Because She Said So 05. Five to Six 06. Ode to Jerry 07. Ma Petite Fleur 08. Riding the Berks 09. Heat 10. Catch You Later 11. Out of Tahini 12. Stinger 13. Heat 2007 14. Return Voyage 15. Flat Busted 16. Cannonball