Sing Miller

A fixture in New Orleans for decades, Sing Miller was a minor but very competent performer. Early on he sang with the Harmonizing Browns Quartet and played banjo before switching to piano in the late '20s. Miller spent most of his career freelancing around town, sometimes in bands (including with Percy Humphrey as early as the 1930s) and sometimes as a soloist. After a stint in the military (1942-1945), Miller was a member of drummer Earl Foster's group for quite a few years (1945-1961). In the 1960s he began playing at Preservation Hall and with such New Orleans all-stars as Kid Thomas Valentine, Kid Sheik Colar, the Humphrey brothers, Jim Robinson, and Polo Barnes. Although never a famous name, Sing Miller toured Europe as a soloist in 1979 and 1981, and recorded as a leader for Dixie (1972) and Smoky Mary (1978).