Debut release by Tinn Parrow & Co., the solo project of Ann Arbor-based multi-instrumentalist Laurence Bond Miller (Fourth World Quartet, Miller Twins). 

A collection of 22 works, My Gymnasium Museum is an ultra-imaginative magnum opus, an impressive, eye opening musical gallery of Miller's creative compositions. 

Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Laurence Bond Miller comes from a family of siblings who each pursued creative musical careers. As with musical brother Roger Clark Miller (Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Dream Interpretations/ Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble, The Anvil Orchestra, Mission of Burma, etc) and identical twin brother Ben Miller (Destroy All Monsters, God Knows Who, Solo Multiphonic Guitar, Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra, etc), Laurence has spent an entire life time devoted to his own original music. 

As his career progressed, Laurence’s music broadened its scope, welcoming musicians from various backgrounds and creating music theater performances in collaboration with actors, video-makers, opera singers, free improvisors, set designers, stand up comedians, and a plethora of other creatives. 

However, Laurence’s music soon broadened its scope, welcoming musicians from various backgrounds and creating music theater performances in collaboration with actors, videomakers, opera singers, free improvisors, set designers, stand up comedians, and a plethora of other creatives. 

Eclecticism – musical and artistic – has always been Laurence Miller’s underlying rule of thumb. Pigeon holes need not apply, and yes, maximalism ~ on occasion ~ has invariably prevailed. Laurence has been a defining member or leader over 50 years in the following, distinctive groups: Sproton Layer, The 4th World Quartet, Empool, Destroy All Monsters, Nonfiction, The Empty Set, Larynx Zillion’s Novelty Shop, The Mister Laurence Experience, Exploded View, Laurence Miller and The Love Maniacs, Tinn Parrow and his Clapfold Platune, etc. 

CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS: 

MY GYMNASIUM MUSEUM was born to bring life to new compositions that Laurence had written specifically for his new ‘little big band,’ Tinn Parrow and his Clapfold Platune, while also reinventing a few old gems he’d written decades earlier. As for the new material, some pieces evolved over the course of this two year multi-track recording process. 

Tinn Parrow and his Clapfold Platune currently performs blistering versions of many Laurence compositions found on Miller Twins Early Compositions. Clapford Platune bandmates helped lay down additional tracks along with brothers Ben and Roger and additional hand picked talent from the surrounding Detroit Metro area. 

MY GYMNASIUM MUSEUM began in the fall of 2023, broadly speaking, essentially pulled from the inspiring heels of Cuneiform’s June 2023 release of MILLER TWINS’ Early Compositions (1973-76). A mammoth 30 piece collection, Early Compositions (1973-76) was recorded November 2022 thru April 2023 by Laurence with identical twin brother Ben and a few other close colleagues. The MILLER TWINS album in fact rode in on it’s own coattail connection to two albums by THE FOURTH WORLD QUARTET released two years prior by Cuneiform Records, 1975 and Grand Bland Vapid Rapids. Brother Roger Miller was an integral member of the THE FOURTH WORLD QUARTET’s 1st incarnation, receiving rave reviews. [Point of fact; The Fourth World Quartet could be argued as to have led, if not indirectly, to Roger's group formation Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, a group whose entire catalog is also on Cuneiform.] 

Laurence is pleased as punch he picked up the ‘clarinet family’ once again and made My Gymnasium Museum a reality, after hibernating without for nearly five decades. He thanks Steve at Cuneiform and all those who took the time to take-the-time, creating this ultra-imaginative magnum opus. 

BACK STORY / LAURENCE MILLER MUSICAL BIO: 

British Invasion and Psychedelic Rock unwound itself in a tizzy as The Beatles began to break up. Hendrix and others died. Syd Barrett evaporated quickly. Local inspirations MC-5, SRC, and other promising bands were also coming to their own demise. Rock as ‘new music’ became progressive at best, leaving little left but Classic Rock to soon melt into the coming dread of Disco. The tail end of Don Van Vliet was still percolating but no, Laurence’s attention was soon paid to the likes of; Out to Lunch, Escalator Over the Hill, Erik Satie, Charles Ives, Waiting For Godot, Henry Cow, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, and other artistic expressions in aleatory creation. 

Always pushing the envelope, the original music of Laurence’s youth veered far from the mainstream. As stated, the last echoing cries of the '60's Revolution had long since died and what little counter culture was left had now became nothing short of a disturbing fashion. The Bee Gees soon took center stage as Kings of Disco, and even Hillbillies were smoking pot and dropping acid. 

MARSH CRABBITTS and his CLAPFOLD PLATUNE was a small horn-based band Laurence formed in late summer 1972 with a focus on clarinets and saxophones. Its loose, cock-eyed marching band sensibilities took hold rapidly with good fun ahead. Homemade compositions were drawn up using hallucinogenic free-form notation for solo interpretation. Eighteen years of age with absolutely no training on how one goes about composing scored music. 

Although some of Laurence’s Clapford Platune bandmates were schooled, none were particularly proficient on their instruments. Laurence was known to exclude ‘learned’ musicians, instead choosing to play with best friends. They may not have had the chops but they were clearly willing to openly explore. 

This original Clapfold Platune managed a few gigs at Ann Arbor’s new Earthworks Pioneer II Free School and a couple random outdoor performances on Ann Arbor’s University of Michigan campus. They were also part of a pack that lead the city’s 1st Ozone Parade with chief cohort and friend, David Swain. A photograph of them in fact made the front page of The Michigan Daily. The Platune’s best gig of all was at the end of their short lived career: a triple bill show at Ann Arbor’s The People’s Ballroom in August 1973, for Ann Arbor Community Television’s first video production ever. That video production converged with David Swain’s free-form jazz band The Cruzonics, renamed for the occasion as “The Psychic Research Jazz Ensemble – ESP through Drugs”. 

In the fall of 1973, Laurence moved to Boston with twin brother Ben Miller, David Swain, and Patrick Powers, where he attended The School of Contemporary Music. Laurence continued composing and rehearsing in various bands the three formed along the way but it was soon discovered the school experience was not what they had hoped it would be. Contemporary my ass. 

Moving back to Michigan in fall 1974, Laurence enrolled in Thomas Jefferson College, one of four arts colleges in the Grand Rapids area, with brothers Ben and Roger. It was in this arts & music curriculum that the short-lived FOURTH WORLD QUARTET was formed, and where Laurence’s compositions began taking on a more sophisticated tone. Roger left the quartet after recording 1975, replaced by composition teacher Denman Maroney. A slightly jazzier version of the band soon developed. Denman also co-ran a class at Thomas Jefferson College called ‘Sound & Movement’ where modern dancers and the 4thWQ experimented in free-form improvisation, further honing the quartet’s group chemistry. 

The Fourth World Quartet gave up the ghost that summer though, sadly, with Laurence choosing to stay on in school that fall. Hopes were high in his forming yet another free-tonal swing band, but no thank you. Not this time, Charlie. By March 1976, Laurence threw in the towel, put his clarinets down, and moved back home to Ann Arbor. 

Laurence then hooked up with his brothers and a host of other eclectic musicians August 1976, this time on a creative journey into existential-Dada-noise entitled EMPOOL. Now on electric guitar and using a shit ton of footpedals, Laurence employed original analogue reel-to-reel soundscapes via sound effects vinyl and other prerecorded homemade chaos. Empool’s mad concoction dissolved in spring of 1977 when Cary & Niagara’s DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (with Ron Asheton/ Stooges and Michael Davis/MC5) merged in and took over. The rest is history. 

Laurence continued writing, recording, and performing his own original music over the decades since, regardless of rhyme or reason. The music entertainment industry continued to allude him as did any solid concept in marketing deals. 

No one put a gun to his head, true, nor were there any class projects or commissioned works to be had. Priorities were simply to document and catalog it all with one finger always hovering just above the record button ~ begging to be pushed. 

My Gymnasium Museum press release