Steve Miller reworked his own catalogue and classic blues into a two-night jazz conversation at Jazz at Lincoln Center, with Joseph Wooten and a full horn and rhythm section sharing the Rose Theater stage.
Steve Miller has completed his tenth year of performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, presenting a set that moved freely between re-imagined Steve Miller Band material and a deep selection of blues and jazz standards.
The October 9 and 10 shows at the Frederick P. Rose Hall featured Miller on guitar, harmonica and vocals alongside long-serving Steve Miller Band members Gerald Johnson on bass, Kenny Lee Lewis on guitar and Joseph Wooten on keyboards. They were joined by Shelly Berg on piano, Herlin Riley on drums, Scott Colley on upright bass, Michael Rodriguez on trumpet, Patrick Bartley on alto saxophone, Craig Handy on tenor saxophone and Lauren Sevian on baritone saxophone.
Joseph Wooten’s presence connected the two musical worlds most clearly. He has been a member of the Steve Miller Band since 1993, more than three decades of shared stages and recordings. A three-time Grammy nominee and member of the Wooten Brothers with Victor, Regi and Roy Wooten, he brings a keyboard approach shaped by jazz, funk and improvisation into a band whose catalogue is more often heard in classic-rock contexts. His long tenure means he has lived inside both the hit songs and the deeper blues repertoire Miller continues to explore.
Noise11 Chief Operating Officer Nick Kontonicolas has maintained a close friendship with Joseph Wooten and the Wooten family for years.
“Seeing Joseph on that stage with Steve and that calibre of jazz players is something special,” Mr Kontonicolas said. “I’ve watched Joseph and his brothers for a long time. The respect he has inside the Steve Miller Band is obvious, and the respect this Lincoln Center program has for the same musical roots is just as clear. For music fans in the audience, watching those two histories meet in real time is a privilege.”
Joseph Wooten and Steve Miller Band 9 October 2026 Lincoln Center supplied
The setlist opened with a re-imagined “Living in the U.S.A.”, the 1968 track from the Sailor album that Miller has long described as a product of his early political and social observations. In this setting the song’s harmonica lines and rhythmic drive sat inside a looser jazz framework. “Fly Like an Eagle” followed, its familiar melody stretched by the expanded ensemble without losing its original character.
From there the night moved into blues territory that has always underpinned Miller’s work. Otis Rush’s “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)” and “Double Trouble” sat alongside Howlin’ Wolf’s “Who’s Been Talkin'” and the Junior Wells-associated “Messing With the Kid”. “I’m Tore Down”, associated with Freddie King, and Tampa Red’s “Love With a Feeling” further underlined the direct line Miller draws from postwar Chicago and Texas blues into his own writing.
Standards and hybrids filled the middle of the set. “All Blues” from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue was paired with “C.C. Rider”. “Lazy Afternoon” and “Blue Skies” allowed the horn section and Berg’s piano to take the foreground. Later, “Sister Lolly Lou” (drawn from T-Bone Walker’s “Lollie Lou”) and the medley “Caress Me Baby/Aw Shucks” kept the focus on the blues songbook before the night closed on “T-Bone Shuffle”.
The combination of personnel remains unique. The full ensemble treated both the Steve Miller Band songs and the older blues material as open forms, allowing the horns, upright bass and dual keyboards to reshape the arrangements night after night. These two Rose Theater evenings were a self-contained chapter in Miller’s ongoing relationship with Jazz at Lincoln Center.
For an audience more familiar with the radio versions of “Fly Like an Eagle” and “Take the Money and Run”, the shows offered a reminder that Miller’s writing has always drawn from the same well as the artists he covered. The setlist made that connection audible without forcing it.
Setlist (both nights)
Set 1
Living in the U.S.A. (re-imagined)
Fly Like an Eagle
All Your Love (I Miss Loving) (Otis Rush cover)
Who’s Been Talkin’ (Howlin’ Wolf cover)
Messing With the Kid (Mel London cover)
All Blues / C.C. Rider
Lazy Afternoon
Blue Skies
Set 2
Take the Money and Run
Double Trouble (Otis Rush cover)
Love With a Feeling (Tampa Red cover)
I’m Tore Down (Freddie King cover)
Sister Lolly Lou
Caress Me Baby / Aw Shucks
T-Bone Shuffle
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