 Towards the end of 1976 Miller was invited to substitute for the regular pianist in the Duke Ellington Orchestra ( led by the late bandleader 's son , Mercer Ellington ) . Miller had performed the same role for one weekend around a year earlier , and the new work was to be for only three weeks , but he ultimately toured with the orchestra for almost three years . His membership of the orchestra helped him , in the words of a piano magazine , to get " respect as a powerful , two @-@ fisted pianist adept at delivering <unk> lyrical and gracefully introspective runs as well as dazzling and buoyant passages . " He left in January 1980 , after being recruited by vocalist Betty Carter , with whom he toured for eight months that year . He was then part of Shaw 's band from 1981 to 1983 , thereby , in Miller 's view , fulfilling his destiny from their earlier meetings . In 1981 he made his studio recording debut , on Shaw 's United . During the early 1980s he also accompanied vocalist Carmen Lundy , and played and recorded with saxophonist Johnny Griffin . 
