Mieke Miami - Birdland (2024) [Hi-Res]

Mieke Miami is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer originally from Hamburg, but now living in the working class, so- called “artistic” enclave of Luckenwalde, in the federal state of Brandenburg to the south-west of Berlin. Her musical origins lie with the jazz saxophone, which she studied in the German capital, before starting her song-writing journey in 2014.

She released her folk-influenced first album, In The Old Forest, on Sonar Kollektiv in 2015, and having moved to Brandenburg in 2019 to bring up her family, released her darker, second LP, Montecarlo Magic, on Berlin imprint Fun In The Church in 2021.

This year she returns to Sonar Kollektiv with her third album, Birdland, which develops her unique fusion of psychedelic jazz and leftfield electronics with Mieke performing vocals, bass clarinet, flute, sax, keys, programming, as well as co-producing and writing all of the original music. It’s an album that in many ways represents a solo vision, but is also created with a full live band performance in mind.

The album’s title is not only a reference to the world famous New York jazz club (named after Charlie “Bird” Parker) but also to the many jazz venues of the same name in Germany alone, as Mieke explains:

“Hamburg’s best known jazz club when I was a teenager was one of them and when I started being really interested in music I used to tell my parents every Thursday night that I was going out to visit a friend. Instead, I took the S Bahn into the city and went to the Birdland jam session and tried to figure out what the hell they were doing there. This was the point when I started getting serious (ok, nerdy) about music, I was about 15 or 16 years old back then - oh no, now my parents will find out!”

The title also refers to the propensity of bird life in Mieke’s hometown of Luckenwalde, especially migratory birds like storks.

Keeping to the natural world aesthetic, the album opens with the groovy and optimistic Whispering Pines. It’s a track that was written whilst seeking solace from the outside world on a family holiday, and then recorded in her studio with Mieke providing vocals, flute, tenor sax, programming and keys, backed up by Benno Schmitz Wenzl (otherwise known as Benautik) on Moog, Jörg Holdinghausen on bass and Hanno Stick on drums. The song was produced by Mieke herself, alongside Benjamin Spitzmüller, as are all of the songs on the LP.

The album is a collection of short, sweet atmospheric pieces, from the sprightly Same River, with its uplifting sax and flute contrasting with Mieke’s melancholic vocal, to the more urgent Bungalow with its chopped up beats, jazzy guitar and quirky keys - coming together something like Keyboard Money Mark hooking up in the studio with Feist, or Shabaka working his flute with Inflo & Cleo Sol.

Elsewhere, Parrots harks back to the album’s title with its wordless vocals and evocative soundscapes, and Pharaohs Sand takes things to an even more ethereal plain with its cosmic, dubby spiritual jazz feel.

Much of the album, in fact, comes with its own sense of serenity - whether it be the hypnotic, percussive Afro-jazz loop of The Light, or the warm simmering summertime sound of The Tiger and the Snake - and it’s only on the rather more pacey 7 Miles To Jordan that the more frenetic 4/4 drums and Mieke’s moody bass clarinet combine with her almost rapped vocals to take us some sort of momentary musical travelogue. For the most part, Mieke seems settled in her new home.

The only cover version on the album is that of the timeless Dusty Springfield classic Son of a Preacher Man. The art of a creating a worthy re-make is a mystical one, but Mieke has really achieved something special here, re-working the sultry, soulful serenade to a lost love and turning it into a jazz drenched, enigmatic mid-tempo shuffler complete with Karl Ivar Refseth’s vibraphone, dubbed out effects and Mieke’s dramatic flutes, bass clarinet, alto sax as well as, of course, those spaced out vocals!

Birdland is an album that has brought Mieke closer to the balance she’s searching for between her first folk tinged first LP and her darker and more groovy sophomore offering. It’s an illustration of her abilities not only as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, but as a producer and an artist that can bring together disparate musicians to help fulfil her ideas.

It’s also a love letter to the world of jazz - to artists like Miles, Davis, Herbie Hancock and Sergio Mendes of course, but also to more contemporary icons like Erykah Badu, Jimi Tenor and Sufjan Stevens. It dips into the playful side of the genre and, importantly, adds a sense of humour - something that will carry through into Mieke’s live shows, as she explains:

“Live we play it very differently of course, with lots of spontaneity and interplay, because making music most fulfils me when it's surprising and when there is communication and connection between the musicians.”

Having not been able to tour her second album due to pandemic, the hope is that Mieke and her live band will be hitting the road and performing such spontaneous shows across Germany and beyond in the coming months!

Watch this space.