Shore Fire Media Jazz bassist Marcus Miller will be performing on Friday at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard. His new album is called "M2."

By Antero Garcia

Daily Bruin Senior Staff



When jazz bassist Marcus Miller reflects on the time he spent performing and collaborating with jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, he realizes how much of a profound effect the music guru had on him.

“He encouraged me to write,” Miller said from his recording studio in Santa Monica. “He liked what I was doing and gave me confidence. He was a good friend and he was in my corner – a true blessing.”

After producing records for a wide array of bands, composing several movie scores, and gigging with musicians such as Luther Vandross, Miller has just released his fourth solo album, “M2.” Featuring many new compositions as well as his renditions of classics, Miller will host a special record release concert on Friday at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard.

“I took some old songs like ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’ and an old John Coltrane song and updated them,” Miller said. “Then I took some newer songs like the Talking Heads’ ‘Burning Down the House’ – you know, just songs that you wouldn’t expect to hear in this style – just to show people where this music can go.”

While the song selection for “M2” is diverse, the way Miller chose which songs to cover is rather commonplace. Miller said that he recorded songs that happened to be stuck in his head at the time of production.

“The only way to get it out of my head is to record it,” he said. “When you do you’re like ‘OK, I’m free from that for a while.’ Even with songs I write, that’s how I write ’em. If it’s a cover song it’s like ‘I’m thinking about this song, man, why am I thinking about this song?’ and then I’ll think about ways that I can treat it.”

One such song was the well-known “Amazing Grace.” The combination of Miller playing bass clarinet and Chaka Khan on vocals leaves Miller especially proud.

Besides Chaka Khan, “M2” features many other notable musicians, including Raphael Saadiq, Herbie Hancock and Maceo Parker.

With so many guests on the album, “M2” has a spontaneous jam-session feel to it. Miller said this feeling also comes from recording the album while he was touring.

“I was on the road, so some of the songs we had been performing already,” he said. “It was just a matter of going into the studio and cutting some tracks. Then I would take the tracks and mess around with them – maybe add a little overdub or a little drum machine thing and also cut tracks that I built from scratch in the studio.”

Despite his current success, Miller didn’t always have his own recording studio. What he did have, though, was a keen musical understanding that Miller said runs through his lineage.

“I’m from New York, and my family’s pretty musical,” he said. “My father plays organ in his church and he’s doing a show in New York.”

Fitting in with his musical family, Miller started playing clarinet at the age of ten, and would continue to play the woodwind instrument all the way through college. While receiving a formal education on clarinet, Miller simultaneously learned how to play bass guitar. His musical abilities helped him meet other aspiring musicians while in high school.

“I went to the Music and Art High School in New York,” Miller said. “That’s part of the performing art school that was made famous by ‘Fame.’ So I went to that school and met a lot of great musicians. That’s basically how I decided I wanted to be a professional musician.”

After high school, Miller toured with funk star Lenny White. Taking a semester off from college to play fusion was a thrill, Miller said. After traveling with White, Miller settled into gigs in the New York area.

“I joined the Saturday Night Live house band in ’79 and was there for a couple of years and saw Eddie Murphy get his start,” Miller said.

Through his participation with SNL, Miller met R&B musician David Sanborn and started doing gigs and writing songs with him. At the same time, Miller started performing with jazz singer Roberta Flack. Despite the fact that Miller was already playing with these artists, he still jumped at the chance to collaborate with another performer.

“Luther Vandross was singing background for Roberta, so Luther and I were working together and writing songs as well,” Miller said. “So I was working with Sanborn and Luther for a couple of years and then I got a call from Miles (Davis).”

“Somebody recommended me to him,” Miller continued. “So I came down to the studio for him and he dug it and he said ‘look I want you to be in my band’ and that began my relation ship with him.”

Miller played in Davis’s band for two years and then decided to study studio production more closely. After leaving the Davis band for a few years, Miller returned in 1985 and started writing and collaborating with Davis. It was during this period that the two musicians became close friends until the trumpeter’s death in 1991.

In tribute to Davis, Miller wrote two songs that appeared on his solo albums, “Tutu” and “True Geminis.” With the endorsement of one of Jazz’s most influential artists, Miller has since produced albums for artists such as Grover Washington Jr., as well as recording several movie scores. Despite all of his studio work, Miller still recognizes his love for performing.

“Man, I have gotta do both,” he said. “I have to be in the studio – I love making records. But if you just make records all the time you don’t have any experience and your music gets really boring really fast. So you gotta get out there and experience life and play in front of people so you can bring something back to the studio.”

And Miller has gone “out there,” and performed in countries all over the world, noting that his favorite venues have been in France, Japan and Switzerland. In fact, in 1998 he released a collection of live performances, “Live & More.”

Of his concert performances, Miller said that he is actually more popular in other countries than in America and that his most loyal crowd is the bass players that adore Miller’s thick grooves. However, whether or not someone has even heard Miller’s records, he is certain that they will enjoy his live shows.

“Ah, man, most of the people that don’t know anything about us walk in and say ‘Man, I didn’t like jazz when I came, man, but I love it now,’” he said. “That’s usually the response we get from college kids. They didn’t think they were going to like it and we just blew them away.”

MUSIC: Miller will be performing on Friday, June 1, at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard. For tickets go to www.ticketmaster.com. Miller’s “M2” is available on Telarc Records.