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."

An album entitled Renaissance is long overdue for the widely acclaimed Renaissance Man Marcus Miller. In among the most enviable careers in music, Miller is a two-time Grammy-winner and the composer/producer of ten critically acclaimed and genre-defying albums (seven studio and three live). Even the most devoted follower may be astonished to realise that Renaissance is only his eighth studio project since his 1983 debut, Suddenly, considering the abundance of occasions Miller's name has appeared within album credits and that he has dazzled with performances, compositions and productions in the company of some of the world s most respected and accomplished players and superstars - from the mid-'70s to the present.

Marcus Miller has served as bassist, arranger, and producer for everyone from Luther Vandross to Miles Davis, and on his fourth solo album, Tales, Miller tries to reconnect the fractured fragments of African American music. He uses samples of recorded interviews with his older musical heroes to set up his own instrumental interpretations of that musical history. For example, spoken-word samples from Davis, Charlie Parker, and Billie Holiday lead into "The Blues," a midtempo blues groove that features both live drums and programmed drums, both jazzy horn lines from saxophonist Kenny Garrett and Larry Graham-like funk lines from Miller himself. The result is not jazz but R&B instrumentals with the sort of smarts and drama this genre rarely delivers anymore.

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.