Third World

Dominic Millers new Solo-album Third World

This Man is really productive. Just finished the third solo album, jammed together with Pat Metheny, and picked the strings for his main-employer, he has now finished his fourth album Third World, which has recently been released in Germany. In January he presented the album to an enthusiastic audience in Cologne, before going on Tour with Sting again.

To understand the development of this album, it's necessary to go back a little. It was on Sting's Brand New Day tour, when Miller received a book from Sting with Bach partitas. Instead of knocking around with his friends at every party, Miller went with Sting to his hotel room and learned the Bach pieces. He became obsessed with this work and the result was his last album Shapes. Miller has always had a love for classical concert-guitar-sounds, which he evidenced with Shape of my Heart on Sting's Ten Summoners Tales album. But with Shapes Miller's big Bach homage proved a hit with classical fans. The album jumped to the top of the British charts and is also made the top 40 pop-album chart in Britain. At this point in time he started with his work on Third World. The twelve compositions (a bonus-track follows after 18 minutes after the last number) sound corresponding classical, even if Miller uses a more free language than he uses on Shapes. If his mentor had put his voice over these mainly instrumental songs, this album would have surely been a Sting-classic. Apart from Partido Alto Miller plays in a highly emotional way on his Fernandez-acoustic-guitar. Sometimes Pino Palladino joins him on bass, Miles Bould on the percussion and drums and Stings main-programmer "Kipper" on keyboards. Reminiscent in some ways of Ralph Towers "Blue Sun" Third World shows that Dominic Miller is not just another session musician. Many of them are gifted instrumentalists, but when it comes to compositions many of them fail. Third World shows that Miller is also a good composer, which he doesn't only show in his co-work with Sting. Maybe the list of those who ask him for recordings is so long because he always makes more of this gift than doing just a job. You find his heart-blood especially in his own compositions, of which "Third World" is again one of his own class. (Thanks go to our anonymous translator!)

© Tools magazine | Feb/Mar 2004

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