judd miller

Many people may not know of Judd Miller by name, but they probably have heard his work. Judd has worked as a freelance musician since 1975 in Los Angeles. He has since played on hundreds of films and television shows in a wide variety of contexts. Judd is one of the leading exponents of the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument), invented by Nyle Steiner. His expertise on the instrument and his unique sound design has him as first call for film scores. He can be found around the world working on movies and recordings with top composers and orchestras in London, New York, Berlin, and of course Los Angeles. From playing the main title trumpet solo thru space echo and other ancient effects on one of James Horner's first soundtracks "Humanoids From The Deep" (1978), to playing shakuhachi solos for Bill Conti on "Karate Kid 2" (1986), and pan flute solos for John Williams on "Far and Away" (1991), to recently doing sound design and additional composition for Joel McNeely on James Cameron's "Dark Angel" (2001-2) and most recently ambient loop and rhythmic design for Bill Brown on CSI New York (2004-now), his musical plate has been full. Over the years, besides the composers mentioned above, he's worked on three dozen film projects with Maurice Jarre and two dozen film projects with Stewart Copeland, and on many other films with composers Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Dave Grusin, Trevor Jones, Miles Goodman, Aaron Zigman, Howard Shore, John Barry, Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini, Marc Shaiman, Lennie Niehaus and Clint Eastwood. Some of the well-known movie soundtracks would be "Ghost, Fatal Attraction, Jacob's Ladder, Gorillas In The Mist, Unforgiven, Mosquito Coast, Soldier, Holes, Flags Of Our Fathers, Spiderman 1 & 2, Hulk, No Way Out, Milagro Beanfield Wars, Waterworld, Last Of The Mohicans, A Few Good Men, Indian In The Cupboard and Planet Of The Apes." His playing and sound design skills are also well known in the jazz world including album collaborations with such artists as Michael Brecker (who is dearly missed, but always close), Vince Mendoza, Charlie Haden, Jimmy Haslip, Bob Mintzer, John Abercrombie, Peter Erskine, and John Patitucci. He's been involved in a ambient, mediatative project for the last few years with his yoga buddy Roger Swallow. He's also in collaboration with fellow composer Dana Kaproff. Also he's in a new collaborative effort with his good friends and partners in bleeding-edge technology - Steve Tavaglione, Peter Maunu, and John Von Seggern.