On the album, Don't Move (2006), spunky vocalist Natasha Miller teams up with 83-year-old songwriter Bobby Sharp (Unchain My Heart, Don't Set Me Free), and this time, she's got an album of destined-to-be jazz standards that outdoes everything she's produced to date.

Don't Move features 11 songs written by Sharp, most of which have never been recorded before. That makes this album something of an historic event in its own right. What makes it a musical event--of the first order--is Sharp's songwriting, Natasha's gift for flawless phrasing, and stunning arrangements penned by a group of musicians whose roots go deep and whose talents run to the top of their class--pianists Bill Bell (Duke Ellington, Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson), Larry Dunlap (Cleo Lane, Mark Murphy), Ellen Hoffman (Oakland East Bay Symphony, Linda Ronstadt), and Josh Nelson (Peter Erskine, Ernie Watts).

Natasha Miller

Natasha began her musical career as a classical violinist, serving as a concertmaster for a symphony in the Midwest and founding her own string ensemble, "The Sapphire String Quartet." She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995 and began composing and performing songs, accompanying herself on the guitar and piano. Charged with the passion for singing jazz standards with her pianist father, she began performing for private events, parties, and concerts and festivals, enlarging her band and mixing jazz tunes with her own pop/rock compositions. She spent her days working in the advertising industry and her evenings cultivating her performing career.

In 2001, Natasha was a single mother working as a media buyer in an ad agency, making a yearly salary in the high fives when she decided she should quit her job to pursue her musical dream. She left her comfortable 3-bedroom home and moved with her 8-year-old daughter to a small one-bedroom apartment--just in case she didn't make enough money that first year. Since then, she's never looked back.

In the beginning, she often performed up to 5 times a week in the evenings and on weekends. In 2002, Natasha produced her first album--a collection of her own work called Her Life, and later that year, her first jazz album, Talk to Me Nice. In Talk to Me Nice, she flirts with "Peel Me A Grape" and "Makin' Whoopee," swings through "Stompin' at the Savoy," and creates an intimate yet ironic dialogue with personal tragedy in "Good Morning Heartache." "Call these standards if you must," a fan writes, "but there's nothing standard about the way Miller brings these jazz treasures to life."

Then in 2003, Natasha discovered a gold mine. Actually, the gold mine discovered her. Miller was giving an interview on KCSM Jazz 91 in the Bay Area, promoting one of her many concerts. Little did she know that listening that day was songwriter Bobby Sharp. Known for his hit song "Unchain My Heart," made famous and a Top Ten Hit by Ray Charles in 1961 and performed more recently by Joe Cocker, Sharp was blown away by Natasha's voice. After hearing her on the radio, he figured Natasha would appreciate his songs, so he sent them to her.

When she opened the package of Bobby's songs, including never-before-heard gems, she knew she had discovered a long-lost treasure of the most beautiful jazz ballads--lyrically masterful, melodically exquisite, and harmonically alluring. Five months later, she presented a concert in the great songwriter's honor, bringing tears to his eyes and the sold-out crowd to their feet. Now, 2 years and 2 albums later, Sharp's 35-year leave of absence from his songwriting career is over, his catalogue of songs is out of the piano bench, and this musical tandem is just getting started.