Dave Milne Group

“I’m new at this,” Dave Milne repeats.“This is my first record, just a beginning.” And in a way it is: The saxophonist and composer will debut his new CD, “Present Tense,” at Jimmy Mak’s tonight.

But this is more like a new beginning for Milne, now 32; he actually started his career all over again just two years ago.

“I spent the majority of my 20’s recovering from an injury I had in college,” explains Milne, who was a jazz studies student at DePaul University, working side jobs around Chicago. “Like many sax players, I squeezed my shoulder up when I played, used my body real forcefully, and I was working on intense technique exercises when all of a sudden my left shoulder and elbow got really inflamed.”

Though he tried for the next eight years to return to playing, every attempt re-aggravated the injury – which was compounded by a congenital curvature of the spine – and his dreams remained out of reach. Finally, Milne had to retrain himself completely, using what he calls “low-impact playing,” with correct posture and biomechanics – a technique he teaches his students today.

Though his technical facility might not be back completely, Milne is grateful to be where he is, with gigs lined up at regional festivals and around town.
“Just to get up on stage and play again is like a dream come true,” says the Seattle native. But the journey is far from complete.

“I played real reserved,” he says about the solo work on his new CD, which includes few rapid-fire arpeggios and relies instead on whole notes and strings of legato eights.

And though the beat is pronounced, with tight drum and bass arrangements reminiscent of Steely Dan, Milne’s instrumental voice is far too distinctive, his melodies too edgy, to fit comfortably in the smooth jazz format. Distinguished by his broad, open tone on tenor sax, Milne’s music is built on fewer chord changes than standard jazz fare, and harmonically, it’ more akin to indie rock. He droves it with hip-hop or funk rhythms.

“A lot of the music I’ve been influenced by is in the hip-hop and R&B realm,” he says, “and my goal was to make a record that was jazz but still relevant in that world.”

That required original tunes.

“The jazz repertoire is full of beautiful songs, but we’ve been playing those for years,” he says. “It’s important for young musicians to give people something new.”

And now, with his body up to the challenge at last, Milne wants to make a place for new material in the jazz world and resume the pursuit of a dream he thought was lost for good.
- The Oregonian A&E (by Lynn Darroch)

"His story is compelling to put it mildly and his music is wonderful." - jimmymaks.com

Dave Milne’s musical style brings together a diverse mixture of sounds, something that visitors to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival will find illuminating.

The Dave Milne Group will be performing from noon to 3 p.m. April 14 at the fields, and Milne promises that what people hear will be something totally unique.

“Living in the Northwest, sometimes the winter can seem to drag on endlessly, making us fantasize about the warmth and beauty of spring,” said Milne. “Perhaps that’s why spring is one of my favorite seasons of the year. In fact, I’m already excited, and being involved with the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival seems like the perfect way to celebrate the coming season.”

It wasn’t that long ago that his appearance at something like the Tulip Festival seemed so far away.
Eight years ago, Milne wasn’t even sure he’d be playing music at all, let alone putting the finishing touches on his debut as a jazz saxophonist and composer.

Through a life changing journey that has taken many twists, turns and unexpected detours the 30 year-old Portland-based artist has arrived -- with a Steely Dan, Soulive and OutKast meets Stan Getz and David Sanborn style that is leaving jazz and industry heads bobbing in his wake.
Simply put, Milne is bringing the bounce back to jazz. Mixing hip hop heavy beats and production with exciting chord progressions, memorable melodies and soulful saxophone playing, Milne has created a sound that truly separates itself from the crowd and yet remains accessible to jazz, R&B and hip hop lovers across the spectrum.
His debut album, called “Present Tense,” contains 13 fresh, funkified tracks. At home on traditional and contemporary jazz radio, the genre-bending tunes are salient enough for film and TV scores as well as live shows. All the songs, except the Mongo Santamaria classic “Afro Blue” (which was newly arranged by Milne in 5/4 time), were written and arranged by the Seattle native.
“Present Tense” was recorded in Portland at Kung Fu Bakery and engineered and co-produced by Bob Stark (Tom Grant, Dan Balmer, McKinley). For mastering, Milne decided to use one of the industry’s most respected engineers: Brian “Big Bass” Gardner (OutKast, Eminem, Gwen Stefani, Janet Jackson, Snoop Dog, 50 Cent) who works out of Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, Calif.

From the undeniable melodic intensity of “Soul Bop” to the advanced harmonic sensibility of “You Pea Ess” and the delicate balladry of “Solace,” Milne’s unique vision and artistry are only surpassed, perhaps, by how he arrived there.

As a jazz performance major at DePaul University in Chicago, Milne said he spent 8-10 hours a day practicing, working hard to fulfill his musical dreams.

“I was well on my way,” said Milne. “I played saxophone for groups all over the city from the House of Blues, Park West, and Schubas to the Double Door and the Lincoln Park Zoo Summer Concert Series.
“The future looked bright,” he added.
By his junior year, however, Milne was suffering from severe scoliosis and his rigorous performance and practice schedule had taken its toll, setting off a series of painful setbacks that eventually forced him to put down the saxophone indefinitely.
“I was devastated,” he said.

So, in 2000, Milne moved to Portland and focused on two things: healing and eventually playing music again. Over the next four years he would slowly nurse himself back to health with a combination of meditation, exercise, chiropractic work and patience. Developing a technique of low impact playing, he methodically began to retrain himself to play the saxophone.

By mid-2005 Milne had made more progress than anyone had anticipated. His goal of playing the saxophone professionally once more was becoming reality.
He now has a full docket of students he’s teaching his newly-developed saxophone method to, and was sitting in with several groups around town.

Nearly seven years after his debilitating setback, it was once again time to set his sights on a new challenge -- completing an album project. After months of writing, arranging, practice, recording and preparation, he has almost completed his goal. As Milne and team move forward on shopping the record and building buzz for the project, he continues teaching and playing in the Portland area.


- Woodburn Independent (by John Baker)

Sometimes there’s no escaping your destiny – no matter how much it seems like fate is trying to steer you toward another course.

Local jazz artist Dave Milne fell into his passion effortlessly. Born into a musical family, he picked up the tenor sax – a hefty instrument for a young kid – when he was in the fifth grade.

“I think I pulled it out of the box and put a reed on it and started playing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ ” he says, laughing.

What happened after that isn’t really a laughing matter. He parlayed his talent into a scholarship at DePaul University in Chicago, majoring in jazz performance. Milne was in heaven.

“My first two years in college, all I did was practice, and I took 22 credits a quarter,” he says. “My mom kept saying it’s too much, but I could not be talked to. I did everything. I was doing jazz combos, playing in the jazz band, played in the symphony. I played in the classical saxophone quartet. I had a jazz teacher, a classical teacher, ear training, piano, music theory, music history and then in my second year I started gigging.

“I’d be in school from 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. – have class in the morning, practice in the afternoon, more classes, have dinner, study and then come back to the music school and practice until midnight.

“And I was passing,” he says proudly. “I was loving it. And then I had the injury, and it was just like … .”
Milne’s burgeoning career could have trailed off as easily as his sentence. By his junior year, repetitive stress injury caused by his playing and severe scoliosis combined to make playing sax almost impossible.

“I thought it would go away, and it just wouldn’t,” he says. “It just hurt. I couldn’t play my sax without being in an extreme amount of discomfort.”

Milne was crushed but not defeated.

“I was depressed for probably two or three years after that,” he admits. “It took me a long time to pull myself out of that because I kept trying to come back to it and it felt like it was never going to get better. And I didn’t really know what else to do. I had put all my eggs into one basket. I didn’t really have a backup plan. I didn’t have an alternate career.

“I talked to the dean of the musical school and I was looking for advice, and he said, ‘Maybe you should just do something else.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’ ”

He found a new way to play

Milne switched his major from jazz performance to music and finished school without a clear plan. He met up with a community of friends in Portland in 2000 and set about the business of healing.

He got a job at Starbucks and started teaching music lessons, using his spare time to delve into books on spirituality and self-healing.

Three years ago, he decided he was ready to play again. He bought a mirror so he could observe and retrain himself. He functioned as his own physical therapist, using the mirror to correct his posture when he started lapsing into his old, shoulder-damaging style and relearning how to play with a lighter, more Zen touch.

“The whole experience changed my life,” he says. “I used to have a really bad attitude about a lot of things, and I got to the point where it was like, ‘This is my situation and where I’m at right now, and this is what I want, so what am I doing? How am I going to get there?’ Kind of letting go of any self-pity and just doing it.”

Milne worked his way back gradually, using his extra time to read up on music production and business. Eventually he got down to writing – and then recording – a record.

“Present Tense” was recorded at Portland’s Kung Fu Bakery studio, and then mastered by Brian Gardener, who has worked with Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Eminem and OutKast, among others.
Milne, 30, beams when talking about the experience – of going from having his dreams crushed to making them come true.

“It was awesome,” he says of mastering the record with Gardener. “Gwen Stefani’s masters were on the counter when we were there. I have a picture of my buddy picking them up like he was going to steal them!”

Player followed his heart

Milne released the record himself in June and now is deep in the midst of promoting it and thinking about the next one.

As for his experience, he says, “As hard as it was, I really believe it was the best thing that ever happened to me. At some point I realized more than wanting to be a musician I just wanted to be a well-grounded person.”

His advice to anyone else with a passion? “Follow your heart. As trite as that is, do what you feel in your heart. The only reason that I’m here is that I didn’t go take a job I knew I wasn’t going to be happy with. I trusted what I knew was my path and I followed it even when it was really, really hard and I’m still trying to do that.”
- Portland Tribune (by Barbara Mitchell)