 After graduating from Greenwood High School , Miller became a student at Memphis State University in 1973 , attending with a band scholarship . He played euphonium , but , during his two years at the university , Miller met pianists Donald Brown and James Williams , who introduced him to the music of well @-@ known players such as Wynton Kelly , Bud Powell , and McCoy Tyner . Still at Memphis State , Miller attended a jazz workshop , where one of the tutors was his future bandleader , Woody Shaw , who stated that they would meet again in two years . They did meet again two years later , and Shaw remembered the young pianist . After leaving university in 1975 , Miller took lessons privately in Boston with Madame Margaret Chaloff , who had taught many of the pianists that Miller admired . He later commented that , " I should have stayed with her longer , [ ... ] but at that time I was so restless , constantly on the move . " Miller played with saxophonists Ricky Ford and Bill Pierce in Boston . That winter , Miller was invited to Los Angeles by a school friend and decided to go , to escape the northern cold . He stayed on the West Coast for a year , playing locally in clubs and a church . 
