caption associated_acts death_date death_place years_active birth_place label background birth_date instrument genre image article_title name occupation
miller in 2004 art blakey , woody shaw , tony williams 29 may 2013 allentown , pennsylvania , u.s. 1970s -- 2013 greenwood , mississippi , u.s. landmark , novus , maxjazz non_vocal_instrumentalist august 13 , 1955 piano jazz mulgrew_miller . jpg mulgrew miller
 mulgrew miller musician , composer , educator
mulgrew miller

mulgrew miller -lrb- august 13 , 1955 -- may 29 , 2013 -rrb- was an american jazz pianist , composer , and educator .
as a child he played in churches and was influenced on piano by ramsey lewis and then oscar peterson .
aspects of their styles remained in his playing , but he added the greater harmonic freedom of mccoy tyner and others in developing as a hard bop player and then in creating his own style , which influenced others from the 1980s on .
miller 's style evolved through playing with a series of major jazz figures .
after leaving university he was pianist with the duke ellington orchestra for three years , then accompanied vocalist betty carter .
three-year stints with trumpeter woody shaw and with drummer art blakey 's high profile jazz messengers followed , by the end of which miller had formed his own bands and begun recording under his own name .
he was then part of drummer tony williams ' quintet from its foundation , while continuing to play and record with numerous other leaders , mostly in small groups .
miller was director of jazz studies at william paterson university from 2005 , and continued to play and tour internationally with other high profile figures in the music until his death from a stroke at the age of 57 .
