John Miner is an American Rock/Jazz Guitarist.

Biography

Composer John Miner may be best known for his rock opera

Heavens Cafe ''Heavens Cafe'' is a rock opera written and composed by John Miner. It was first staged in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1996. The opportunity to perform the musical theater project came after Miner's demo was heard by investor Mike Lewis of Las Ve ...

, which was staged at the Flamingo Theater in Las Vegas 1996, the Charleston Performing Arts Center in 1997, and later at Insurgo Theater in Los Angeles in 2004. Miner formed the progressive rock group

Art Rock Circus Art Rock Circus is an American progressive rock band. Background Art Rock Circus was founded in Las Vegas in 1995 first commissioned to perform the Rock Opera '' Heavens Cafe'' for Las Vegas-based Tributary Productions. Promoter Mike Lewis ...

to perform the music with a live band on stage alongside the singers and actors. Investor Mike Lewis was instrumental in financing and staging Heavens Cafe. The Tributary Music Label released a live CD of Heavens Cafe to the progressive rock community in 2000. Previously, Miner co-founded the California-based

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

band

Mantra Sunrise {{Infobox musical artist , name = Mantra Sunrise , image = Mantra_Sunrise_Debut_1994.jpg , caption = Self Titled 1994 , background = group_or_band , origin = California, genre ...

in 1992 with singer-bassist Joel Bissing and drummer Wayne Garabedian. The band produced the self-titled album "Mantra Sunrise" in 1994. In 2001 "A Passage to Clear" was released by Miner's

, also being conceptual in nature. The album featured two female vocalists, Karyn Anderson, and Karen Marquart. The album was not as well received as Heavens Cafe'. Collaborating with drummer and compose
Nolan Stolz
Miner rebuilt the Art Rock Circus from the ground up, and in 2005 released a double CD Tell a Vision. The extensive keyboard palate in addition to Miner's eclectic guitar stylings found an accepting progressive rock audience. In 2005, Miner wrote and constructed guitar parts for the

K² (band) K² is a progressive rock band from Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of bassist/keyboardist Ken Jaquess (Atlantis, New Cross), keyboardist Ryo Okumoto ( Spock's Beard, Natalie Cole), drummer Doug Sanborn ( the Untouchables), electric ...

albu
Book of the Dead
that would integrate around the lead parts of

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer. Holdsworth was known for his esoteric and idiosyncratic usage of advanced music theory concepts, especially with respe ...

. Musically, Miner is known for his use of several alternate guitar tunings, and this is evident in nearly all his compositions. The use of a double necked guitar has enabled the performer to switch from one tuning to another within the same song in a live situation. His use of

odd time signatures The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

is apparent in the majority of his work as a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, particularly in Heavens Cafe, in which the majority of the album features unorthodox metering. Other distinct characteristics of the composer include the absence of repeating choruses. Drum and bass parts are usually hinting toward melody, rather than standard rock fare. As a producer, Miner's analog recording techniques have been the discussion of much debate in the modern digital world.

Projects

Mantra Sunrise {{Infobox musical artist , name = Mantra Sunrise , image = Mantra_Sunrise_Debut_1994.jpg , caption = Self Titled 1994 , background = group_or_band , origin = California, genre ...

Live Performance (Only) Projects

* Art Rock Ensemble (2012-2014) * Bindi's Wild Adventure (2015-2019) * Blue Cinema (2020-Current)

Discography

Fro
official website

Albums

013 013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the ''Noorderligt'', the ''Bat Cave'' and the ''MuziekKantenWinkel''. 013 is the largest popular music venue in the southern Netherlands. There are two concer ...

Variations on a Dream/ Art Rock Circus *

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

Tell A Vision/ Art Rock Circus *

Book of the Dead/ K2 *

001 001, O01, or OO1 may refer to: *1 (number), a number, a numeral *001, fictional British agent, see 00 Agent *001, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian fire brigade (until 1986) *AM-RB 001, the code-name for the Aston Martin Valkyrie ...

A Passage To Clear/ Art Rock Circus * 998Heavens Cafe' Live/ Art Rock Circus * 996Heavens Cafe'/ John Miner * 995Lost My Way/ Mantra Sunset * 994Mantra Sunrise/ Mantra Sunrise

References

Progressor- Russia: The merits of Heavens Cafe as a significant contribution to the historical genre of rock opera

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070927041318/http://www.prog-nose.org/engels/albums_2005/art_rock_circus_tell_a_vision.htm Prognose- Art Rock Circus methodology/ pros and cons of analog recording
Music Street Journal- Critical of Editing Tell a Vision/ Uniqueness

Rock Reviews- Heavens Cafe Live shows in LA/ Sharing Guitar duties with Allan Holdsworth K2

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070705025405/http://www.gepr.net/ar.html#ARTROCK Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock- Miner as Art Rock Circus Ringleader/ Odd meters/ Alternate tunings/ HC studio vs. HC Live]
Sea of Tranquility- Assessment of Miner's guitar playing on Heavens Cafe' Live/ critique of analog production values

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070825010452/http://www.rockprogressivo.com.br/canais/rev/artrockcircus.htm Rock Progressivo Brazil- Reviews of three of Miner's works in Portuguese
Prognosis- Review of Tell a Vision

Expose Magazine USA

Prog Archives

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070822214845/http://www.tributarymusic.com/atw.htm American Theater Web Look at Heavens Cafe Live in Los Angeles
American Freedom Interview with John Miner 7/ 13/ 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miner, John American male composers 21st-century American composers American rock guitarists American male guitarists Guitarists from Nevada Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American male musicians