When Aziza Miller sat down for dinner and conversation, the evening became much more than an exchange between two music lovers.
It became an opportunity to reflect on a remarkable career that has crossed the worlds of jazz, popular music, Broadway, education, television, film and mentorship. Today known as Aziza Miller, she was also professionally known as Linda Williams, the name under which she released her 1979 debut album City Living on Arista Records.
A native New Yorker, Miller is an award-winning poet, pianist, composer, conductor, lyricist and
educator whose influence has been felt across generations of music.
Miller’s musical journey took a significant turn in 1975 when she became Natalie Cole’s first female music director, pianist and conductor. Her collaboration with Cole spanned more than a decade and included world tours and performances at prestigious venues. Their creative relationship also resulted in music that would continue to resonate decades later.
Among Miller’s most notable songwriting collaborations with Cole is “La Costa,” for which Miller wrote the music and Cole wrote the lyrics.
The composition has since been recorded by other artists, further demonstrating the lasting reach of Miller’s work.
Miller’s career has continued to evolve, and she was performing as the featured onstage keyboardist in Alicia Keys’ Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen.
The production represents another meaningful connection to Miller’s history with Keys. Miller was also Alicia Keys’ high school music mentor, vocal teacher and music theory teacher at the Professional Performing Arts School, also known as PPAS. That relationship adds another dimension to Miller’s current role on Broadway, bringing her career full circle from educating and mentoring a young Alicia Keys to now performing in Keys’ Broadway musical.
Miller’s musicianship has earned her recognition at the highest levels of the recording industry. She is a two-time Grammy musician, having played on Natalie Cole’s platinum album
Thankful, which includes “La Costa.”
She also performed on Keys 2, the cast album for Alicia Keys’ Broadway production of Hell’s Kitchen in 2025. Her accomplishments in music extend well beyond performing.
Miller’s extensive discography includes her debut album City Living, released on Arista Records in 1979, as well as her independent projects Jazzsoetry Vol. 1, Jazzsoetry Vol. 2, What’s on Your Mind? and This Journey of Love. Her current album, Live Your Life, was released July 30, 2026.
Miller’s original music has continued to travel across musical genres. Her compositions have been re-recorded, covered, sampled and remixed by artists including Natalie Cole, Ahmad Jamal, Vanessa Williams, Najee featuring Regina Belle, Pete Escovedo, Buddy Williams featuring Will Downing and others.
Her collaborations with jazz legend Ahmad Jamal are another important part of her musical legacy. Jamal provided the music while Miller contributed lyrics to compositions including “Picture Perfect,” “Whisperings” and “My Latin,” with Miller also featured on vocals on “My Latin.”
Her songwriting has also reached the world of hip-hop. Redman and Sheek Louch sampled “Our Song,” a song Miller co-wrote with Richard Evans from her City Living album, for “Dynomite.”
Taylor Bennett and Lil Yachty sampled another Miller composition from the album, “Elevate Our Minds,” for “Neon Lights.” The song was featured during the second season of Lena Waithe’s HBO series The Chi. UK pop artist Ben Westbeech also sampled “Elevate Our Minds” for “Get Closer.” Adding to the rappers who have sampled “Elevate Our Minds” are Blue Skin for “No Way” and Spec Boogie for “No Knock.”
Miller’s music has consequently found an audience across jazz, R&B, pop and hip-hop, connecting her original work with artists from different generations and musical backgrounds. Her career has also included an unexpected appearance on the big screen. Miller had one of her first acting jobs alongside the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, in the Dan Aykroyd comedy Dr. Detroit. In the film, she can be seen onstage playing keys while accompanying Brown with the band.
While her performance career is extensive, education remains one of the most important chapters of Miller’s story. In 1997, during President Bill Clinton’s administration, Miller received the Presidential Scholar Distinguished Teacher Award. She was one of 50 teachers selected nationally, with one teacher representing each state. The teachers were nominated by students who wrote essays explaining how their educators had positively changed their lives. Miller’s commitment to arts education has continued to receive recognition. In 2024, she received the Arthur Miller Foundation Award for Excellence in Arts Education, followed by the YANY, Young Audiences New York, Award for Arts in Education, in 2026.
Her impact as an educator can be seen in the accomplishments of her former students. One of her most memorable success stories is Broadway performer Marty Thomas, who was just 12 years old when he competed on Ed McMahon’s Junior Star Search in 1992. Thomas won the competition singing “The Time Is Now,” a song Miller composed in 1985. Among the young performers he competed against was Britney Spears, who had also been one of Miller’s former music students before joining The Walt Disney Company in Florida.
Miller also created extraordinary educational experiences for her students, including a memorable collaboration with the late, multi-Grammy-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch. During a performance with her students in the Paramount Room at Madison Square Garden, Miller conducted while Hamlisch played piano and her students sang his composition “One Song.” That moment captures something central to Miller’s career: her ability to bring together performance, education and mentorship in ways that give young artists opportunities to experience music at the highest level.
From her early years working with Natalie Cole to her collaborations with Ahmad Jamal, Ray Bryant and Richard Evans, from sharing the screen with James Brown to working with Marvin Hamlisch, and now performing on Broadway in Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen, Miller’s career has continually moved between genres, generations and creative platforms. Yet her story is about more than the names attached to her impressive résumé. It is also about the music she created, the students she inspired and the artists who have carried her compositions into new eras.
Aziza Miller, aka Linda Williams, has spent decades creating, performing, teaching and mentoring. Her music continues to find new audiences, her students continue to make their mark, and her own artistic journey continues with Live Your Life.
You can see Miller’s next live performance in New York City at Joe’s Pub on February 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Follow Aziza Miller on Instagram: @azizamiller2, YouTube: @AzizaMiller, and visit azizamiller.hearnow.com for more information and music.
For Miller, the journey is still very much in motion.
