Despite having dedicated most of his 72 years to the intricacies and nuances of jazz and middle-eastern music, Dr Lloyd Miller is an incredibly talented yet little-known genius who is still criminally unheard of in music circles. So when I heard he was coming to town, I jumped at the chance of getting him in the recording studio. Having only just released 'A Lifetime in Oriental Jazz' on Jazzman (now sold out!), it seemed to me to be a great opportunity to offer the world more incredible music as created by this most remarkable and interesting man.

For a date of this importance some proficient and capable sidemen were required, so I called drummer extraordinaire Malcolm Catto and Jake Ferguson of the Heliocentrics, both of whom have just achieved 'Album of the Year' with Mulatu at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide awards. The results were astounding. In just two hours, with Miller never having met the duo before, several tracks were cut, all with the intensity of a meeting of great minds with great artistic vision. Lloyd worked with astonishing energy and focus and with an unrivalled technique that only great experience can bring. Performed on a variety of exotic instruments from around the world, Miller's music is a unique blend of jazz with the modal and spiritual sounds of traditional Asian and Middle Eastern music. Malcolm and Jake, far from just being along for the ride, gave their utmost, so much so in fact, that Lloyd was impressed with them enough to come back for another date this year. But that's another story!

"The big thing now is to see if this whole spiritual, peaceful and sensitive music becomes the next stage of the world's musical awareness or if it just sits there as a niche item among the intelligentsia and cool people while the infernal meaningless thumping we have been subject to for 50 years continues to torment the world forever." Lloyd Miller