Content tagged with: Reviews

Review of Charanga del Norte gig Wakefield Jazz Club

The Whitman Review: Charanga del Norte at Wakefield Jazz Club on 20 October 2023
“The tight interaction of the rhythm instruments—always percussion-rich but not percussion-heavy—is what drives the music forward. Sue Miller’s stamina was as remarkable as the quality of her flute-playing, since she was responsible for sustaining a clear and arresting melodic line above the sheer breadth and force of the rest of the band. Improvisationally, too, her flute playing was a wonderful demonstration of the possibilities that a truly creative player can open up.”

New Review of Improvising Sabor – Cuban Dance Music in New York

A new review by Professor Jairo Moreno of Sue Miller’s book Improvising Sabor – Cuban Dance Music in New York (University Press of Mississippi, 2021) https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/I/Improvising-Sabor

“This is strong historical work, joining a distinguished set of revisionary histories of New York City “Latin” music such as Salsa Rising (Juan Flores, 2016) and Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music (David Garcia, 2006)—research that offers a rich, inclusive, and diverse understanding of one of the great musical developments of twentieth-century American, Caribbean, and Latin American music.”

Editorial Board for Flute Journal

Dr Sue Miller is now on the editorial team for Flute Journal along with experts in the field of flute performance. Flute Journal Our goal at International Flute Journal is to bring together the finest performers and educators in the flute community worldwide. I have been thrilled by the encouragement and positive energy I have received from all […]

Leeds Arts Research Centre

The Leeds Arts Research Centre (LARC) brings together creative practitioners and academics across Leeds Beckett University whose research interests lie in the arts, whether that is music, film, fine art, design or performing arts.

LARC draws on staff from the School of Art, Architecture and Design and from the School of Film, Music and Performing Arts. It brings together cultural historians and theorists with arts practitioners at the cutting edge of practice as research. Providing a forum for debate, it is also a window on the exciting and innovate creative work going on across the two Schools. Here staff collaborate on new projects, showcase their research and build together the research culture

Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation and Improvisation review in Latin American Music Review Journal

Review by Sunni Witmer of ‘Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation and Improvisation’ by Sue Miller in Latin American Music Review, Volume 37, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2016, Published by University of Texas Press
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/619638

‘All in all, Miller’s book is a valuable contribution to the scant research on charanga, and it is especially informative for those interested in improvisation, performance practices, analysis of popular music, flute performance, and, of course, Cuban music.’

Review in Flute Journal

Book Review: Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation And Improvisation, By Sue Miller. Book Review by Jessica Valiente Cuban Flute Style: Interpretation and Improvisation, by Sue Miller (The Scarecrow Press, 2014), holds the distinction of being the only scholarly work published in English devoted exclusively to the study of the Cuban charanga. Read more here: Book Review in Flute Journal […]

‘Activating Improvisational Creativity in the Performance of “World” and “Popular” music’ has a new review in the Journal of Music, Technology & Education

Sue Miller’s chapter on improvisation in university music education has a review in the Journal of Music, Technology & Education:
‘As in Part 2, the arrangement of chapters in Part 3, Experiments in Teaching, brings out their thematic connections. Improvisation, composition and the experience of diverse musical cultures are prominent in this section. Sue Miller describes using her practice-led research in Latin improvisational styles to inform research-led teaching (Chapter 6, ‘Activating improvisational creativity in the performance of “World” and “Popular” music’). She argues for the positioning of improvisation at the centre of musical education, and against the cultural imperialism of most university music curricula.

Review in Ethnomusicology Forum Journal

Sue Miller’s monograph on Cuban flute style will be of interest to ethnomusicologists and flautists alike. It is a clearly written, highly musical book that serves as both a guide to performance practice and an academic text. Miller brings together performance as a research technique, interviews with musicians, lessons with renowned flautists, and detailed and extensive transcription and analysis of recordings to create a ‘musical archaeology’ (246) of creative processes, interpretation and improvisation in Cuban charanga flute performance.

New Review of Cuban Flute Style by John Robert Brown in Jazz Journal

Cuban Flute Style is thus a contextualised, analytical study, arising from a combination of Miller’s lessons from Egües, her research in Havana and New York, her subsequent experiences as a charanga bandleader, and the completion of a Leeds University PhD undertaken to study the processes involved in learning the charanga style of improvisation.

Review of Cuban Flute Style by Bill McBirnie

Let me begin by saying that Sue Miller’s Cuban Flute Style is an extraordinarily comprehensive oeuvre, with respect to both the history and the technique of charanga flute playing. In addition, her book is realized with a broad as well as a thoughtful understanding of the entire tradition on which this style of music is based.

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