Steve Million

Biography
Articles

Steve Million: What I Meant to Say

Read "What I Meant to Say" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
December 24, 2021

Steve Million, thoughtful, well established, and prolific, has recorded another elegant outing to complement his Jazz Words (Origin, 2021). No vocalist this time, but some old friends from his Kansas City days who combine to produce a wonderfully reflective entry. Million's compositions--and they are all his--are stylish and distinctive. “Open the Book" is an appropriate title for a sonorous and thoughtful entrance, although named for his daughter Peige, at the time of writing, a year old, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Slide Hampton & Steve Million

by Joe Dimino
December 5, 2021

The 728th Episode of Neon Jazz begins with veteran Chicago by way of Kansas City-based pianist Steve Million. He's had a busy 2021 slate of releases and discusses his activity. From there, we hear a strings infused tune from the always talented Cory Weeds. Our hour continues with music from modern artists like Miquel de Armas, Zacc Harris and Jared Schonig. Finally, we say good-bye to the master trombonist Slide Hampton. Playlist Steve Million “Blue Lizard" What I ...

Album Review

Steve Million featuring Sarah Marie Young: Jazz Words

Read "Jazz Words" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
October 13, 2021

Evocative. Soulful. Regretful. Plaintive. But in no sense downbeat. Oddly edifying, joyful in places. Steve Million's compositions and Sarah Marie Young's voice were plainly intended to blend. And they do so in an emotionally stirring landscape of the heart which is powerfully affecting. You find yourself conjuring up quiet journeys, emotional and otherwise, from the past. Wintry, yes, but hopeful too. This is music of the heart, by and for the heart. Starting out with “Heavens to ...

Album Review

Steve Million: What I Meant to Say

Read "What I Meant to Say" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 29, 2021

A word that springs to mind when listening to pianist Steve Million's quartet is “tasteful." If the music sounds congenial as well, that is probably because “four friends" are performing it. Two of them (guitarist Steve Cardenas, drummer Ron Vincent) were among the Kansas City-based friends who comprised Million's quartet in that city before he moved to New York in 1981; the “new friend" is bassist John Sims who started gigging with the group shortly before What I Meant to ...

Album Review

Steve Million: Truth Is...

by C. Michael Bailey
September 1, 1999

In A Monkish Mood. Chicago-area pianist Steve Million sends his third Palmetto release our way. Bubbling under the surface of true stardom, Million plays a no-nonsense brand of Hard Bop reflected off the mirror of the turn of the century. Roaming the halls of this music is the spirit of Thelonious Monk. Million’s opening original, “Right Place, Wrong Key” smacks of the Master and he closes the disc with a dusty solo passage through Monk’s “Gallop’s Gallop”. In between is ...

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Album Review

Steve Million: Truth Is...

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 1999

I love the opening of pianist Steve Million’s new CD, wherein Steve and his sidemen seem to be searching for the “lost chord.” Oh, yes, they find it, and a number of others too in a session that is quirky, almost Monkish at times, but always melodious and consistently rewarding. The album’s title seems to imply that Truth Is . . . whatever one perceives it to be. In other words, the music that Million’s group chooses to play is ...