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Marcus Miller

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Marcus Miller giving a concert in London
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Marcus Miller giving a concert in London

Marcus Miller (born June 14, 1959 in New York) is a jazz musician, composer and producer, perhaps best known as a bass guitarist with Miles Davis and David Sanborn. Miller is classically trained as a clarinetist, and also plays bass clarinet, keyboards, saxophone, and guitar, and is a capable singer.

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Formative years

As a child, Miller was around music a lot and always fooling around on the piano: His father played piano and organ (mainly in church). At the age of 8 Miller started recorder, and the clarinet at age ten at the public schools he attended.

Miller went to the High School of Music and Art (now the Laguardia School of Performing Arts), where he majored in the clarinet.

As a teenager, Miller would buy the sheet music to all the popular songs and want to play them. His father would teach him how to just read the guitar chord symbols and make up his own accompaniment. At the same time, Miller was playing bass in some funk bands in his neighborhood, learning about funk and grooves, and relating to people with music.

He subsequently went to Queens College, NY, majoring in music education, and continued on clarinet there. Miller also participated in the jazz ensemble there, under the direction of Bud Johnson.

During college Miller began to get a lot of work as a musician in NY on bass. Already very much in demand after four years, he decided to discontinue at Queens College and work full time.

Professional career

Miller spent about fifteen years performing as a sideman or session musician and observing how great leaders operated. During that time he also did a lot of arranging and producing. When he began to record his own records, he had to put a band together to take advantage of touring opportunities.

Miller's proficiency on his main instrument, the electric bass, is generally very well regarded. Not only has Miller pioneered the continuing development of a technique known as "slapping", but his fretless bass technique has also served as an inspiration to many, and has taken the fretless bass into musical situations and genres previously unexplored with the electric bass of any description.

Audible in Miller's playing, along with the rich and undeniable originality, are the influences of some of the previous generation of electric bass players, such as Keni Burke and especially Jaco Pastorius (who himself was only born in 1951). Early in his career, Miller was being accused of being simply imitative of Pastorius (note that Miller was not alone in this regard; Pastorius' influence was — and remains — immense), but has since more fully integrated the latter's methodology into his own sound.

Miller's unique bass tone is due to his customised 1977 Fender Jazz Bass. The most important and notable of these changes was the installation of a TCT Bartolini pre-amp by Roger Sadowsky. This turns the bass active, giving it a much fuller and rich sound.

Miller has an extensive discography, and tours frequently and widely in Europe and Japan. Along with appearing on many albums as a sideman, Miller currently leads his own band, which strives to faithfulness to the concepts of improvisation and innovation in jazz-based music that is perhaps more accessible to different audiences. His concerts and recorded works are often regarded as intensely creative and therefore appealing to serious musicians.

Discography

Solo Period (1982-present) David Sanborn period (1975-2000) Miles Davis period (1980-1990) The Jamaica Boys period (1986-1990)

External links

 

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