Marcus Miller

Bass great Marcus Miller brings the influence of modern urban music to his trademark sound on his highly-anticipated, genre-defying new album Laid Black, which will be released June 1 on Blue Note Records. It’s been three years since Miller’s last album, Afrodeezia, which The New York Times called “vibrant and expressive… music that frames his playing beautifully.” Miller says: “Afrodeezia was like a musical voyage through my history. I followed the journey of my ancestors by collaborating with musicians along the African Slave route – musicians from West Africa, North Africa, South America and the Caribbean. With Laid Black, I decided to bring the music right up to the present - using elements from what’s happening in urban music today. So you’ll hear hip-hop, trap, soul, funk, R&B and jazz on this album.

Multi-talented Marcus Miller's debut Suddenly was issued in the spring of 1983 on Patrick Rains' PRA Records label through Warner Bros. Miller shared production chores with Ray Bardani and Michael Colina, whom he'd worked with before on sides for David Sanborn. It's a tasty showcase for the bassist/songwriter/vocalist/producer who went from New York session stardom to mega-stardom with his frequent collaborator Luther Vandross. Vandross does vocals on "Lovin' You," "Just for You," and the squishy "Be My Love."

The “Safety” original soundtrack features score by critically acclaimed Grammy®-winning jazz musician/producer and composer Marcus Miller, plus the original song “Hold Us Together” performed by Grammy®-winning singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist H.E.R., which she wrote and produced in collaboration with Josiah Bassey and Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II.

Marcus Miller (born William Henry Marcus Miller, Jr.; June 14, 1959) is an American jazz composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a bass guitarist. Throughout his career, Miller worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a successful solo career. Miller is classically trained as a clarinetist and also plays keyboards, saxophone and guitar.

This two-CD (plus DVD) set is a better bet than last year's A Night in Monte Carlo: it celebrates the same creative funkiness of the mid-80s Miles Davis bands that bass guitar virtuoso and composer/arranger Miller had a big hand in, but here in more focused form, without symphony orchestras or singers. The canny Miller still goes for a soul-pop bravura and some technical posturings Miles would have avoided (hard to imagine the Prince of Darkness doing anything as uncool as swapping quotes from Sonny Rollins's St Thomas with his sidemen, or letting his bass guitarist acknowledge a sharp sax solo with a congratulatory sliding-note whoop) but there's a lot of very inventive jazz-making here, particularly from the gifted young partnership of trumpeter Christian Scott and saxophonist Alex Han.