February is Black History Month and all month long we will be highlighting black artists, innovators and places that helped shape the Austin music scene.
Ernest “Ernie” Mae Miller was born in 1927 in Austin, Texas. She was the granddaughter of the famous educator LC Anderson. He served as Prairie View A&M University’s principal before serving as the principal of LC Anderson High School which was later named after him.
Anderson High was the first high school for African American children here in Austin, and is now known as Eastside Early College High School. Ernie was deemed musically inclined at just the age of 5 years old and learned how to play the piano by ear after listening to her grandmother’s records. She switched to playing the saxophone in high school and was influenced by the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie who toured through Austin during her teenage years.
After graduating high-school at 14 years old she was invited to play the baritone saxophone in the all female jazz band called the Prairie View Co-Eds at PrairieView A&M University. The band was formed after its male musicians were drafted into the armed forces and soon, the band’s popularity grew beyond campus. Miller traveled around the country with the 16-piece band and performed in shows that featured Vaughn Monroe, Anita O’Day and Billie Holiday. The band also performed at army camps and forts throughout the United States.
Soon after, she returned to Austin and began her solo career where she performed in iconic Austin clubs like the Flamingo Lounge, Jade Room, Driskill Hotel and the New Orleans Club, where she recorded two live albums. Her album, “At the New Orleans,” showcased her range and Billie Holiday-inspired vocal quality.
At the peak of her career, Ernie gained admirers like Janis Joplin who also lived in Austin, Joplin later paid homage to Miller by covering her song “Little Girl Blue.” Ernest “Ernie” Mae Miller was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 2013, three years after she died at the age of 83– proof that her musical legacy lives on in the Austin jazz scene and beyond.
Fellow Austinite Janis Joplin covering Miller’s song “Little Girl Blue”
