Research interests « CharangaSue.com

Conference – Broadening Music Performance in Higher Education 26 &27 June CfP

This conference aims to address three overarching but inter-related questions:

How can we broaden the nature and scope of music performance (of any genre) in meaningful, inclusive and caring ways?
How can we strengthen community and belonging through music performance, in the face of adversity and unpredictability in higher education?
How can the provision of music performance within HE, or other settings relevant for performers’ training, adapt and respond to some of today’s complex challenges?
This event is open to audiences both within and outside of higher education or academia. From the higher education sector, participants may include music educators, instrumental/vocal tutors (engaged within HE) and researchers at any stage in their career.

Sue Miller Digital Portfolio

I am known as both an academic and as a professional flute improviser and musical director of ‘Charanga del Norte,’ a band I formed in 1998.

I am many things – an academic, a writer, a professional musician, a linguist (French, Spanish, Hindi, Linguistics) and a teacher; I combine my professional work as a performer with my academic career.

Inaugural Professorial Lecture by Professor Sue Miller

Hiding in plain sight, Latin influence is everywhere in jazz and popular music forms today and often goes unacknowledged. In her Inaugural lecture Professor Sue Miller demonstrates how these Latin styles evolved historically and shows, through musical examples, how many aspects of these performance practices are embedded in a variety of vernacular dance music forms past and present.

New Charanga del Norte Animation ‘Atilana’

Animation by Ged Haney of Charanga del Norte’s track ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ based on research by Prof. Sue Miller, Dr Sarah Bowen and Cuban dancer Guillermo Davis on the televised version of ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ by Orquesta Aragón in 1965. The flute solo by Sue Miller is a development of the solo by flute player Richard Egües which was danced by Rafael Bacallao. The animated Rafael here reflects the dance moves and musical gestures of Egües and Bacallao with a few new references and dance moves included for good measure!

Review of Improvising Sabor – Cuban Dance Music in New York

A review of Sue Miller’s book Improvising Sabor – Cuban Dance Music in New York by Sara McGuinness has been published in Ethnomusicology Forum journal and is available online here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17411912.2021.1989174

A musico-choreographic analysis of a Cuban dance routine: a performance-informed approach

The research is based on the analysis of a live performance on Cuban television of ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ by Orquesta Aragón in the early 1960s, where musical gestures are shown to be embodied in the flute and dance solo ‘duet’ performed by Cuban flautist Richard Egües and dancer Rafael Bacallao, revealing the shared memories of a community bound by common cultural experience. Interdisciplinary in nature, analysis is undertaken by a musician-scholar, a film scholar-practitioner and a professional Cuban dancer-animator in order to unearth details of this embodied repertoire, thus translating and making overt culturally implicit knowledge for those outside of the artistic community of practice, and, in some cases, within it.

A Musico-Choreographic Analysis of a Cuban Dance Routine – Animation Demonstrations

This practice research by Prof. Sue Miller, Guillermo Davis and Dr Sarah Bowen is based on the analysis of a live performance on Cuban television of ‘Los Problemas de Atilana’ by Orquesta Aragón in the early 1960s, where musical gestures are shown to be embodied in the flute and dance solo ‘duet’ performed by Cuban flautist Richard Egües and dancer Rafael Bacallao. Through re-performance and re-presentation in the form of a recording and short animations, the many meanings embodied in the original performance are examined through analytical text, musical notation, visuals, recordings and animation film. The article will be published soon in the British Forum for Ethnomusicology Journal and below are some of the animations made to go with this article. Animations are by Cuban dancer-animator Guillermo Davis and the music is recorded by Sue Miller (flute) and her band Charanga del Norte.

NEW BOOK – Improvising Sabor – Cuban Dance Music in New York

Improvising Sabor: Cuban Dance Music in New York begins in 1960s New York and examines in rich detail the playing styles and international influence of important figures in US Latin music. Such innovators as José Fajardo, Johnny Pacheco, George Castro, and Eddy Zervigón dazzled the Palladium ballroom and other Latin music venues in those crucible years. Author Sue Miller focuses on the Cuban flute style in light of its transformations in the US after the 1959 revolution and within the vibrant context of 1960s New York.

Sue Miller features on the Radio programme Tropicana Musical in Brazil

Sue Miller was interviewed on the radio programme Tropicana Musical in Brazil by ethnomusicologist and broadcaster Edwin Pitre and is now available as a podcast.The interview on the history of Cuban charanga is mostly in Spanish and features music from Orquesta Tata Peireira, Arcano y sus Maravillas, Fajardo y sus Estrellas, Orquesta Aragon, Orquesta Belisario Lopez, Orquesta Broadway, Charlie Palmieri y su Charanga Duboney, Johnny Pacheco y su Charanga, Estrellas Cubanas, Orquesta Sublime and Charanga Rubalcaba.

New book Improvising Sabor pre-order half price in the 2021 special offer

You can get my new book Improvising Sabor: Cuban Dance Music in New York for only $20.21 until December 15th 2020 if ordered online which is a bargain especially for the hardback version.

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