Cercie Miller
Coordinator of Jazz & World Music Program and Director of Wellesley BlueJazz and Senior Music Performance Faculty in Jazz Saxaphone
Jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. Teacher of jazz improvisation, saxophone and ensemble technique, jazz theory and history of jazz.
My teaching has been focused on three main areas: The first is instrumental technique for saxophone including sound production, extended performance practices such as altissimo and overtones, and mastery of dynamics and fingerings. Secondly, theory and pedagogy of jazz including scales, modes, chords, and harmony. I am an Associate Professor in Ear Training at Berklee College of Music. Teaching jazz performance practice and ensemble techniques has also been a focus. Finally, I taught survey courses in jazz history at Northeastern University and Wellesley College and assisted in core curriculum jazz history courses at Harvard University.
I am an active jazz musician, composer, and sideman, performing with many groups and leading my own quartet, The Cercie Miller Quartet (CMQ). I am a co-founding member of Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet, an avant-garde sax quartet, and was a member of Girls' Night Out, a headlining pop-rock band. I have recorded with numerous artists including Patty Larkin, Didi Stewart, and Lisa Thorson, and Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet and I produced two CDs with my own group the CMQ. I received an NEA study grant to explore improvisation and composition with Jerry Bergonzi and David Liebman.
Outside of music, I enjoy hiking and back-packing, visiting national parks, and going to NYC to hear great jazz and go to museums and art galleries. I am also politically active when I can find the time!
Current and upcoming courses
This course is based on an immersion approach, exploring the language of jazz and contemporary music, and fostering a close connection between theory and practice. Learn the basics: scales and modes, chords, forms, rhythmic structures, and jazz styles. You will learn how to listen to jazz and contemporary music, and define and describe what you hear. You will practice improvisation techniques in class. Ear training is a key component: singing bass lines and jazz solos, and practicing harmonic dictation, learning to “hear the changes”. We explore the fundamentals of jazz and popular music harmony, including tune analysis, the II-V progression, secondary dominants, re-harmonization, and jazz piano voicings. We also put these concepts into practice, completing jazz compositions and transcriptions, and using music software to publish assignments. Musicianship lab supplements the class meeting.