Miles Donahue, a New Englander, is a veteran trumpet player who can play both the tenor saxophone and the soprano saxophone. Although he prefers wind instruments, the hard bop/post-bop musician can also play the piano. Donahue is a quiet, strong trumpet player. He also plays the sax in a reflective, reflective, and lyrical manner. Donahue, a Boston resident, put his jazz career on hold for a while due to family obligations. However, he has been playing jazz almost every day since then. Donahue was brought up in Watertown, MA on August 19, 1944. He began playing the trumpet when he was ten years old. Babe Donahue was Donahue’s father. He was a local trumpeter/arranger who had strong Roy Eldridge influences. Donahue was a teenager when he enrolled at Lowell State College, Lowell, MA. He heard Charlie Mariano, a Boston tenor, and decided to learn the saxophone. Donahue also studied piano at Lowell State College. It was during college that he played trumpet in a jazz band. Donahue dropped out of college and got married. He had two children at an early age. Although he enjoyed music and supported his family, he did not play jazz all the time. Donahue felt that rhythm section were more likely than horn players to keep them busy, so he spent five years exclusively playing the piano and also paid for his living with other musical activities. He didn’t abandon jazz entirely during this period. In fact, he composed all the music for the jazz album that Paige Brook, a flutist with the New York Philharmonic, recorded. He did put jazz on the back burner. Donahue was encouraged to focus on jazz by Jerry Bergonzi, a Watertown friend and tenor saxman. Donahue resumed his trumpet and sax playing and was soon hired to play at various jazz events in Boston. By 1988, Donahue was actively pursuing a career as a jazz musician. Donahue was one of many American jazz musicians to have his first recording album on independent European labels in the early 1990s. Double Dribble was the improviser’s first album as a leader. It focused on a 1992 concert. It was released by Timeless Records (a Dutch record label). Donahue recorded The Good Listener in 1993 for RAM Records, an Italian company. Good Listener featured Bergonzi extensively and was Donahue’s first studio album. In 1999 RAM released Simple Pleasures, his next album. In 2003, four albums featuring Donahue’s playing standards were simultaneously released on his Amerigo label. Allmusic
