Album Notes

IT'S ALIVE!!! The long-awaited CD release by BUG, titled "Murmur" is now available. The new disc features all original compositions by James & Jeff Miley, recorded live in the studio by George Stone at Cuesta College in beautiful San Luis Obispo, CA, during the band's Fall 2006 World Domination Tour.

What's BUG, you ask?

In short, BUG is the accidental brainchild of Brian Hamada.

Following a successful 2004 performance at the Cuesta College Central Coast Jazz Festival in San Luis Obispo of the Peter Epstein Quartet (featuring Jeff Miley, Roger Shew and Brian Hamada), James Miley (then director of jazz studies at Cuesta College) began scheming ways to bring the group together again for a repeat performance at the college. A date was secured, schedules confirmed, and then James got the idea that it might be fun to take on a new faculty position at Virginia Tech and move 2600 miles due east. Rather than allow the gig to fall through, Brian convinced James to join the group himself--and they ended up booking a few more dates in Southern California so he could fly out from the east coast to "sit in" on piano and bring along a few new tunes in the process.

BUG was born. The rest is history.

As things currently stand, we are a band apart, with just under two weeks spent together in the past two-and-a-half years. James lives in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, Peter in Reno, Nevada, Jeff in Los Angeles, Roger in Fullerton, CA, and Brian hails from Fresno (the 'NO!). Yet somehow we still manage to get together and play every now & then and things just fall into place each time as if we'd been performing together for years.

Thanks for flying with us. Hope you enjoy the music!