Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller has spent about 15 years playing as a session player and closely observing the leaders of many bands. During these years he also engaged in arrangement creation and production. From 1978 to 1979 he was a member of the Saturday Night Live band.

He has received the “Most Valuable Player” award (an award given by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to studio musicians) 3 years in a row, consequently receiving the title of “player emeritus” and thus being unable to receive the award further. In the 1990s Marcus Miller began recording his own songs and put together a band to engage in touring.

Marcus Miller’s skill as a bass player is universally recognized. In addition to having contributed like few others to the development of “slapping” technique, particularly in the use of the thumb (“thumb” technique), his skill in the fretless bass also served as an inspiration to many bassists and inserted the fretless bass into situations and genres of music where it was not typically used.

The influence of some of the greatest bassists of the previous generation, such as Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke, and Jaco Pastorius, can be seen in Marcus Miller’s technique.

Between 1988 and 1990, he was the bassist and conductor of The Sunday Night Band, during the two seasons of the Sunday Night program broadcast by NBC.

As a composer he wrote Tutu for Miles Davis, a song that also gave the title to Davis’s album of which Marcus wrote all but two pieces (one was co-written with Davis).

He also composed Chicago Song for David Sanborn and collaborated on the composition of Til My Baby Comes Home, It’s Over Now, For You To Love and The Power of Love for Luther Vandross. Miller also wrote Da Butt used on the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s School Daze.

Marcus Miller is currently the leader of his band, which remains true to the concepts of improvisation and innovation in jazz music that is accessible by a wide audience.

In 1997, Marcus Miller played bass guitar and bass clarinet in a lineup called Legends, consisting of Eric Clapton (guitar and vocals) Joe Sample (piano) David Sanborn (saxophone) and Steve Gadd (percussion), which resulted in an 11-date tour of major European jazz festivals.

Marcus Miller has an extensive discography, and is often touring between Europe and Japan. In addition to his studio and stage career, Marcus Miller has also composed music for movie soundtracks starring actors such as Eddie Murphy, LL Cool J, Chris Rock, Matthew Perry, Samuel L. Jackson, and others.

Marcus Miller has won numerous Grammy Awards as a producer for Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chaka Khan and Wayne Shorter.

He won the Grammy Award for Best RB Song in 1992 for Power of Love (written for Luther Vandross) and in 2001 he won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for his fourth instrumental album M².