Clarence Horatius Miller

Clarence Horatius "Big" Miller ( born December 18, 1922 in Sioux City, Iowa, USA, † June 9, 1992 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ) was an American blues and jazz singer. He also played trombone and joined in several films as an actor in appearance.

Miller began his career as a blues singer in Kansas City, where he performed with pianist Jay McShann among others and in the orchestra of Duke Ellington.

In the 1960s, Miller sang in the Jon Hendricks revue "The Evolution of the Blues", and he got a record deal with Columbia Records. He made more recordings for Savoy Records, partly accompanied by Clifford Curry and the Clovers.

In addition to his musical activities, Miller also tried as a film actor. He had a cameo in the star filled Hollywood comedy A totally, totally crazy world ( It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 1963). In 1982, he played a major role as a murderer in the surrealist film The Big Meat Eater by Chris Windsor.

In the 1970s, Miller moved to Edmonton in Canada, where he now lived. He celebrated in the local music scene successes, including Tommy Banks, with whom he recorded several albums and 1978 occurred at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Miller became involved in the newly formed Edmonton Jazz Society and as a jazz teacher at the Banff Centre for Fine Arts. 1987 turned the National Film Board of Canada, a documentary about him.

Miller died in 1992 in Edmonton. Some of his fellow musicians dedicated to him shots, so Jay McShann The Big Miller 's Blues and the Canadian Shuffle Demons the piece Never Be the Same: Big Miller Blues.