Oriental Jazz originator Dr. Lloyd Miller, who plays 100 instruments in 15 genres, was the first to put East and West together as a perfect ensemble and was working with Eastern music as far back as 1950. In 1957 he went to Iran with his parents and began his long study of Persian then Afghan, Vietnamese, Indonesian & other Far Eastern, East Indian, Turkish, Arab plus other ethnic music systems added to his full knowledge of New Orleans, Chicago, and early Modern jazz. After 5 years as a successful jazzman in Europe from 1958 to 1963 and a total of 7 year in Iran and neighboring areas up to 1976, Miller developed his Oriental Jazz, which is not blending or sacrificing either system, but placing appropriate types of each side by side. His 1968 LP Vinyl Oriental Jazz, now released on CD, a few years ago became a hit with one rare copy selling for over $600. Miller was discovered by UK DJ Giles Peterson, after which UK Jazzman Gerald Short re-released some of Miller’s original tracks on a CD called A Lifetime in Oriental Jazz. Miller is still active and about a year ago released a demo CD called Oriental Jazz Too, more fully demonstrating the Oriental Jazz concept. Oriental Jazz has been used as a title for other attempts at blending; but those have mostly either been tainted with the obnoxious rock movement which destroyed true jazz and which Miller despises or attempts have been commercialized or fumbled by ‘musicians’ who didn’t pay the decades of dues through long rigorous study of Eastern music systems. Still, now and then, a few artists show some possible skills and hopefully sincere musicians who have become dedicated masters in both traditions can continue Miller’s work. Other great artists such as Tony Scott and Brubeck who worked with Japanese music and Abdul Malek who accessed Middle Eastern music have done some nice things.

[via Simon John Fisher Turner]