Ernest Miller, also known as Punch Miller or Kid Punch Miller (June 10, 1894 – December 2, 1971), was an American traditional jazz trumpeter. Miller was born in

Raceland, Louisiana Raceland is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) on Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 9,768 in 2020. It is part of the Houma– Bayou Cane–Thibodaux metropolitan ...

, United States. He was known in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, where he was based from 1919 to 1927, when he moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. In Chicago he worked with various bands, including those of

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...

and Tiny Parham, and appeared on a number of recordings. He is also confirmed to be the cornettist on the

Gennett Gennett (pronounced "jennett") was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, United States, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and ...

recordings of the obscure ensemble King Mutt and his Tennessee Thumpers. His lifestyle and the decline of

Dixieland Jazz Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ...

led to his falling out of the limelight. This changed with the rising importance of the

Preservation Hall Jazz Band The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is a New Orleans jazz band founded in New Orleans by tuba player Allan Jaffe in the early 1960s. The band derives its name from Preservation Hall in the French Quarter. In 2005, the Hall's doors were closed for a p ...

and he returned to national attention. He returned to New Orleans, playing at

Preservation Hall Preservation Hall is a jazz venue in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The building is associated with a house band, a record label, and a non-profit foundation. History of the jazz hall In the 1950s, art dealer Larry Borenstein f ...

and leading a band under his own name, in addition to playing with other groups. In 1963, he toured

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

with the clarinetist

George Lewis George Lewis may refer to: Entertainment and art * George B. W. Lewis (1818–1906), circus rider and theatre manager in Australia * George E. Lewis (born 1952), American composer and free jazz trombonist * George J. Lewis (1903–1995), Mexica ...

. Miller was the subject of the television documentary ''Til the Butcher Cuts Him Down''.

References

External links

New York Times on the film
* 1894 births 1971 deaths Dixieland jazz musicians Jazz musicians from New Orleans American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters Savoy Records artists 20th-century American musicians 20th-century trumpeters People from Raceland, Louisiana 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Preservation Hall Jazz Band members {{US-jazz-trumpeter-stub