[Marion Joseph]
(b Indianapolis, July 22, 1912; d after 1975). American trumpeter, singer, and dancer. The birth year quoted is from his 1940 draft registration, which he signed “Joseph Taps Miller”; in the 1950s he told European interviewers he was born in 1915. From 1932 he was featured as a singer and dancer in New York shows, notably Blackbirds of 1939. In 1941 he was a master of ceremonies at Kelly’s Stable and took part in jam sessions as a drummer at Monroe’s Uptown House. He recorded as a singer with Count Basie in May 1942, and he may be seen in the soundie A Song and Dance Man (1943). In 1944–5 he toured North Africa and Asia as a member of a USO unit led by Alberta Hunter; this tour included a month’s residency in Casablanca. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Miller worked around New York; he recorded again as a singer with Basie in ...
