Buckley mills biography

Buckley Mills takes a dozen well-known jazz and popular pieces with a jazz feel and translates that to the violin on this newly released CD. I do want to qualify this review by saying that jazz is not my typical listening genre -- I tend more toward classical, pop and symphonic rock -- but I do enjoy smooth jazz at times. That said, I accepted the offer of a free copy of this CD because I recognized most of the tunes, and because I was once a violinist.

Improvisation is an integral part of jazz, and I can appreciate it when done well. If you look at the track list, you can see where Mills uses improvisation more just by the length of the track. "I'm in the Mood for Love" is a great example where he uses it well. He takes a relatively simple melody and gracefully embellishes it to over seven minutes without ever losing the heart of the piece or making it unrecognizable. It is still, most definitely, that melody, but it is also the Buckley Mills variation of it.

With some tunes, he improvises without extending the piece much. A good example is "Ain't Misbehavin'." At just over four-and-a-half minutes, there is not much extension, but the sound is definitely not typical, with the violin holding court and the accompanying drums (Chris Brown), piano, and guitar (Pat Bergeson), and bass (Roger Spencer).

Mills does a nice job of consistently holding the original mood of a piece. If you listened to his rendition of "Sentimental Journey" and then to a more traditional version, like that of Doris Day, the emotional atmosphere created is the same.

If you read Mills' biography, you'd see that "Sweet Georgia Brown" holds a special place in his heart as it was the first piece he mastered, at the ripe old age of 3. You can tell, on this CD, that he is very comfortable with the piece, and it comes out very happy and lively.

My second most favorite, though, is the long, soulful "Georgia on My Mind." I have always liked t

BUCKLEY MILLS: Piano Sonata in C Major; Symphony No.1; Piano Lullaby – Steve Kummer, p./ Nashville String Machine /Chris McDonald – BYM Music Phoenix Classical PHX84061, 34:07 – [Distr. by Phoenix Records, Canada]**:

Looking up Buckley Mills on the Internet, it appears that he is a rather shameless self-promoter. To quote his biography: “From child prodigy to mainstream jazz violinist, Buckley Mills is quickly raising the already high standards set by such legends as Joe Venuti and Stephane Grapelli.”

According to the Internet literature, Mills has perfect pitch, became the youngest member of the Sioux City Symphony at the age of 14 (he was raised in Sioux City), played violin with bands of all genres—from country and rock to classical and jazz, performed with or on the same bill as Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell, among others, and collects vintage Fender guitars.

Reasonably well recorded, Mills’ own music is something else. The two piano pieces are of minor interest. The symphony has a lot of strings sawing away on a bunch of musical cliches from the last four centuries. Initially, I was not sure whether this was a parody as in P.D.Q. Bach. Apparently not.  I would skip this effort.

—Zan Furtwangler

I wanted to let the forum know that, after five years of research and writing, my R.E.M. biography, titled Maps and Legends, is available on Apple Books today. I asked Ethan for permission to post this announcement here on Murmurs, and he told me it was OK to do so. I will not be spamming the forum with further posts about this book, and I very much appreciate Ethan giving me permission to mention this book once here on his forum.

To give a bit of background about myself, I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1968, and, from a young age, was a huge music fan. Around the time I turned 16, I begin sneaking into local clubs in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, among them the Brewery and the Cat’s Cradle, to see bands such as Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, the dB’s, Let’s Active, and the Connells. On September 26, 1984, I saw R.E.M. for the first time, at Duke University’s Page Auditorium, with the dB’s opening up for them. Like most people on this forum, I suspect, from the first time I saw them, I was hooked. My best friend in Raleigh was considering going to the University of Georgia because his father had gone there, so I tagged along with him when he went to Athens to visit the school, and I also ended up at UGA, where I studied English from 1986 to 1991, and also played guitar in a now-forgotten band and witnessed a little bit of what was going on in Athens during that time.

For years, I have thought about writing a book about R.E.M., and starting in 2017, I finally stopped thinking about it and started doing it. In the summer of 2018, I visited Athens and Atlanta, where I interviewed Jonny Hibbert, John Keane, Jeff Walls, and other early eyewitnesses. Sadly, not long after I interviewed Jeff, he tragically passed away far too soon. I’m grateful I got the chance to speak to him when I did. Getting to meet him and talk to him was the greatest thing that came out of this project for me. I also interviewed Kathleen

From child prodigy to mainstream jazz violinist, Buckley Mills is quickly raising the already high jazz standards set by such legends as Joe Venuti and Stephane Grappelli.

At the age of three, Buckley, yearning for his father’s attention, ran into his office, but his father, a professional musician, was tutoring a student. Young Buckley listened intently for a moment, then high-tailed it into the next room. He picked up a violin and quickly learned to pluck the notes he had just heard. After mastering the song, he proudly walked back into the other youth’s music lesson, and distinctly played “Sweet Georgia Brown” for his father. In that instant, a violin virtuoso was born.

Under the tutelage of his father, Buckley’s talent continued to emerge. At fourteen, Buckley became the youngest member of the Sioux City Symphony, with his Dad as his stand partner. Unfortunately, the pairing was short-lived. His father was diagnosed with cancer, and Buckley had to proceed alone.

And proceed he did, playing with bands of all genres, from country and rock to classical and jazz. Buckley traveled throughout the United States playing for up to twenty-thousand people and performed with or on the same bill as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Dr. John, Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, and countless others.

His propensity for “perfect pitch,” (confirmed by the University of California at San Francisco and documented by the media worldwide in 2007 including Reuters, Yahoo, and ABC News) only enhances the perfection of his performance.

In 2002, seeking inspiration and new challenges, Buckley relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. Although he was born in Illinois and raised in Iowa, he comments, “I didn’t move here, I just came back home.” Being surrounded by the creative energy of other musicians, singers, songwriters and entertainers, has stimulated Buckley’s own artistry, as evidenced by his debut CD, “VIOLIN ON FIRE.”

For this release on Chacra Music, Buckley selected twelve w