Vancouver Pianist Miles Black Trio

Based in Vancouver, BC, MILES BLACK a highly respected career musician bringing an enormous wealth of musical experience and expertise to most every facet of the music industry. 

Firstly known as one of Canada’s most accomplished jazz pianists, Miles is also highly acclaimed and sought after as an arranger, producer, composer, session musician, guitarist, vocalist, bassist, saxophonist, songwriter, and musical theatre director.  Addingto that, he has worked as a music therapist and collegiate music instructor. Especially in Vancouver, Miles Black is well known as the “first call’ when musicians are looking for top professional enhancements to their projects.

Just some of the artists and acts with whom Miles has worked with include Mark Murphy, Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, George Coleman, Scott Hamilton, Sheila Jordan, Chuck Israels, Dee Daniels, Paul Horn, Skywalk, Max Roach, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Maynard Ferguson, Lew Tabackin, Claudio Roditi, Ingrid Jensen, Houston Person, Johnny Frigo, Von Freeman, Fraser MacPherson, Jeff Hyslop, Paul Horn, Brad Turner, Shari Ulrich, Valdy and Rodney Whitaker among other notable musicians.

Always in high demand, Miles is currently involved in several high level projects at this time. At the present he is co-leading a modern jazz quartet with the aptly named “Altered Laws” group that also highlights saxophonist and flautist Tom Keenlyside.

As a prolific composer and writer, and with lyricist/vocalist Glenda Rae alone, Miles has over 400 written song credits.

Since 1993, Black has proudly been a member of the Oliver Gannon Quartet performing keyboard duties including the Hammond B3. Gannon is a JUNO award winning jazz guitarist with extensive performance experience around the globe.

Miles is currently working as pianist/composer with The Mike Allen Quartet. This group is also known as the “Faculty Jazz Collective” at Western Washington University, where they perform as musical mentors for the jazz students. 

Since 2009, Black has been a member of TRIOLOGY, which features Bill Coon on guitar and Jodi Proznick on bass. This group is fashioned after the great jazz trios of Oscar
Peterson and Nat King Cole. 

On the education front, Miles has been working for Victoria based PG Music since 1991. As a performer and teacher he has helped to produce countless music software programs for public consumption.  Just a few of these include “The Jazz Pianist 1&2″,”The New Age Pianist”, “The Children’s Pianist”, “The Modern Jazz Pianist”, “Jazz Piano Masterclass”, “Blues Piano Masterclass” and an Oscar Peterson CD Rom, complete with transcriptions. He has also written, produced and performed many add-ons for PG Music’s popular “Band-in-a-Box” programs.

KRISTIAN BRAATHEN has worked as a professional musician for more than twenty years. During his formative years, Kristian studied privately with Vancouver drummers and educators, Don Reid and Scott Robertson. Following a year living and performing in Mexico, Kristian attended Capilano University where he majored in music and earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in 2004. While at Capilano University, he studied with percussionists Ken Moore, Graham Boyle and Craig Scott as well as studying jazz drum set with Dave Robbins and Blaine Wikjord. Following his studies at Capilano University, in 2005 Kristian travelled to Los Angeles for a study intensive with world renowned jazz drummer, Jeff Hamilton (drummer with Oscar Peterson, Diana Krall). Between 2010-2015, Kristian studied with classical percussionist Aaron MacDonald (VSO) and in 2017 Kristian received a B.C. Arts Council Grant to travel to New York City to study with legendary Jazz drummer Kenny Washington (Tony Bennett, Bill Charlap).

During a hiatus from his studies at Capilano University, Kristian travelled the world with several cruise line companies from 1998 to 1999. In addition, he toured extensively in Canada and the United States with the Russell Jackson Band (former bassist with BB King) from 2000 to 2003. While on tour, he shared the stage with such names as renowned jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison (Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Terence Blanchard,) and Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy (The Blues Brothers.) Kristian also has extensive experience as a pit orchestra musician for several musicals, including ‘Avenue Q’ (Arts Club Theatre) and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. From 2008 to present, Kristian has led his own jazz trio, The Kristian Braathen Trio, which performs regularly in the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

In 2015, he released his debut CD, ‘Tempus Fugit’, which featured two of Canada’s finest jazz musicians, pianist Miles Black and bassist, Jodi Proznick. Kristian wrote all of the arrangements as well as composed new music for this debut recording. In addition to regularly performing with his own trio, he also performs regularly with many other musical ensembles in Vancouver in the styles of Jazz, Rock/Pop and Blues Music. As well as working as a performer and a studio musician, Kristian has worked as a private music instructor since 2000, specializing in snare drum, drum set, mallet percussion and music theory.