Steve Miller will mark his 10th year at Jazz at Lincoln Center with an unusually assembled band that places veteran Steve Miller Band musicians alongside some of New York’s most accomplished jazz players.
by Paul Cashmere
Steve Miller is bringing together two very different musical worlds for a special two-night performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center on October 9 and 10, with long-serving members of the Steve Miller Band joining an ensemble of highly regarded jazz musicians for a rare collaboration at New York’s Rose Theater.
The performances mark Miller’s 10th year on the Rose Theater stage and feature Joseph Wooten, Kenny Lee Lewis and Gerald Johnson from the Steve Miller Band alongside jazz players including Shelly Berg, Herlin Riley, Michael Rodriguez, Patrick Bartley, Craig Handy, Scott Colley and Lauren Sevian.
For Noise11 Chief Operating Officer Nick Kontonicolas, the occasion has an additional personal significance. Kontonicolas has maintained a close friendship with Joseph Wooten and the Wooten family for years, and has regularly attended performances by Joseph and his brothers. He was also a guest of Wooten at a Steve Miller Band performance at Jones Beach in 2023.
Mr. Kontonicolas is particularly thrilled to see Wooten involved in a performance that brings the Steve Miller Band’s rock vocabulary into direct contact with a group of musicians steeped in jazz. Noise11 has followed Wooten’s work with both the Steve Miller Band and The Wooten Brothers for years, making this collaboration a natural intersection of two parts of the musical world that have long been part of the Noise11 story.
What makes the Lincoln Center performances unusual is the personnel. This is not simply Steve Miller with a guest saxophonist or a jazz musician sitting in for a song. The announced ensemble combines Miller’s established band sound with a full jazz rhythm and horn configuration.
Miller will perform on guitar, harmonica and vocals, with Kenny Lee Lewis on guitar, Gerald Johnson on bass and Joseph Wooten on keyboards. The jazz contingent adds Shelly Berg on piano, Scott Colley on upright bass, Herlin Riley on drums, Michael Rodriguez on trumpet, Patrick Bartley on alto saxophone, Craig Handy on tenor saxophone and Lauren Sevian on baritone saxophone.
There are some deep connections to Miller’s catalogue within that lineup. Johnson is associated with the original Steve Miller Band era and the bass playing heard on “The Joker”, while Lewis has been a member of the band since 1981. Wooten joined in 1993 and has remained one of Miller’s longest-serving collaborators.
Wooten’s own musical history gives the collaboration another dimension. A three-time Grammy nominee, he is also a member of the Wooten Brothers alongside Victor, Regi and Roy Wooten. His work with Steve Miller has placed his keyboard playing inside one of American rock’s most recognisable catalogues, while his family projects have kept him firmly connected to jazz, funk, soul and improvisational music.
The jazz musicians bring similarly broad credentials. Herlin Riley is closely associated with the New Orleans rhythmic tradition and has spent years performing with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Craig Handy has worked with Herbie Hancock, Roy Haynes and the Mingus Big Band, while Michael Rodriguez has performed with the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra and SFJAZZ Collective.
Patrick Bartley brings a contemporary perspective through his work as a saxophonist and arranger, while Lauren Sevian has established herself as a leading baritone saxophonist and bandleader. Berg, meanwhile, combines performance, composition and education and is Dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Jazz at Lincoln Center describes the October concerts as a milestone performance for Miller, who returns to the Rose Theater for the 10th consecutive year. The venue has placed the concerts within its 2026-27 “Come Home” season, a program celebrating music and artists connected to the organisation’s history and artistic legacy.
For Miller, the occasion connects a career built around blues, rock and improvisation with a room and ensemble deeply associated with American jazz. For the musicians around him, it creates an opportunity to explore what happens when those traditions occupy the same stage.
There is no indication that this exact combination of players will become a touring ensemble or recurring project. That makes the October 9 and 10 performances particularly notable: a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, three established Steve Miller Band players and a group of accomplished jazz musicians will share the Rose Theater stage for two nights, bringing together musical histories that rarely appear in precisely this configuration.
Steve Miller at the Lincoln Center
October 9 and 10, New York, Rose Theater
Tickets and further information are available through Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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