Sammy Miller and the Congregation: Leaving Egypt Tour
Sammy Miller and the Congregation are on a mission, crisscrossing the country like a vaudevillian revival show with an evangelic fervor for music. The seven-piece band delivers a bracing dose of joyful jazz, performed with infectious theatricality. The New York City–based, familial collective has captured its frenetic energy and unflinchingly optimistic songwriting on Leaving Egypt, its debut album.
Sammy Miller and the Congregation has been described as a mashup of the sensibilities of Ben Folds and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The band freely mixes vocal and instrumental tracks live and on record, with the lead melody carried by vocalists half the time, and instruments the other half.
The band is composed of Sammy Miller, drums and vocals; Sam Crittenden, trombone; Ben Flocks, tenor sax; Molly Miller (Sammy’s sister), guitar; Alphonso Horne, trumpet; Corbin Jones, bass and tuba; and David Linard, piano. Independently, the band members have performed and recorded with notable artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Lady Gaga, Jason Mraz, and Beyoncé.