Allison Miller & One O'Clock Lab Band - Big & Lovely (2025)

Revered jazz drummer Allison Miller — celebrated for a series of critically acclaimed recordings with both her own band Boom Tic Boom, as well as the jazz supergroup Artemis — was invited in 2022 to guest with the multiple Grammy Award-nominated University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band, under the direc-tion of Alan Baylock. The performance was so successful that Allison and Alan decided to collaborate on an album project together, recording a selection of Allison’s compositions arranged for the One O’Clock Lab Band. With arrangement contributions from Noriko Ueda, Shamie Royston, Jeff Lederer, Sarah Chaksad, Alan Baylock, Ariel Glassman, Brian Lawrence and Dave Glenn, the resulting recordings comprise the al-bum, Big & Lovely. Dynamic, captivating and crackling with energy, highlights among its eight tracks in-clude new versions of Allison’s material like “Congratulations and Condolences,” “Fierce” and “Potomac.”

“At age 12, my drum teacher, Walter Salb, had me sit in with his pro big band, the Time Was Orchestra. By age 14 I became the regular drummer in that big band, eventually recording an album with them. There is nothing quite like swinging a big band from the drum throne and it’s the best way for a young jazz drummer to cut their teeth,” explains Allison. “Ever since then it’s been on my bucket list to make a big band album with my own compositions. Fast forward to today and it is finally happening with the release of Big & Lovely. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have collaborated with Alan Baylock and the prestigious One O’Clock Lab Band on this project. It just felt right from the very beginning and I am immensely grateful to the tal-ented students for their hard work, passionate energy, and exemplary performance on this album!”