WHO SHE IS Jane Miller is an active composer and session guitarist in the Boston, Massachusetts, area who has roots in jazz and folk. In addition to being an assistant professor in the Guitar Department at Berklee College of Music, she leads her own jazz quartet, the Jane Miller Group, and has played with a wide range of musicians, including saxophonists Cercie Miller and Billy Novick and singer-songwriters Sonia Rutstein and Patty Larkin. “Patty and I stayed in the studio for a while just trying different ways of interacting—her voice weaving lines around the chords and my guitar responding to that,” Miller recalls. “It was experimental, conversational, and, I think, magical.” Miller’s acoustic-guitar style encompasses straight-ahead bebop and standards, as well as original contemporary jazz. She also enjoys playing fingerstyle bossa nova and samba, but keeps her flatpick nearby for melodic leads.

MAIN GUITARS 2002 Martin 000-28H steel-string with a spruce top, rosewood back and sides, and herringbone rosette (“It has a 1 11/16-inch nut, which is perfect for my hands—anything wider causes discomfort and muscle strain—and it has an amazing balance of tone and follows me wherever I decide to go, dynamically”); 1967 Martin 016NY nylon-string; and a 1967 Guild X50 hollow-body with custom cutaway.

SECONDARY AXES 1999 Guild F5CE; 1971 Guild M65 ¾-size hollow-body; 1987 Ovation Custom Balladeer; and a half-size Amada nylon-string.

AMPLIFICATION K&K Pure Western Mini multitransducer systems on the Martins (“I’m pretty blown away by the natural acoustic sound”); Fishman Rare Earth in the Guild acoustic; Presonus Blue Tube mic preamp (for gigging and recording); Tech 21 SansAmp Acoustic DI; Acoustic Image Coda R combo (“It makes my guitars sound like themselves—only louder”).

STRINGS AND PICKS D’Addario Chromes (.011-.050) for the Guild hollow-bodies; D’Addario EJ16 sets for the steel-string acoustics; and D’Addario Folk Nylons (J33 tops and J33 bottoms) for the classical guitar. Jim Dunlop 1.14 mm picks.

FAVORITE GIG Recital at Berklee in the fall of 2005. “I prepared the hardest I ever have for one gig,” says Miller. “I worked all summer, every morning and every night, arranging ten new chord solos for solo guitar—five originals and five standards. I was attached to that nylon-string and a pen and a pad of music paper the whole time.” Her work paid off: The recital helped Miller secure a promotion to associate professor effective this September.

HEAR HER MUSIC www.janemillergroup.com