Marcus

Marcus Miller

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 4, 2008)
• Original Release Date: March 4, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Concord Records
• ASIN: B0012OTVN0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,086 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Blast

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Marcus is the Concord debut for this Grammy winning artist. Features guest vocalists Corinne Bailey Rae, Keb' Mo', Shihan the Poet, Taraji Henson [bonus track], & Lalah Hathaway. Marcus has scored over 20 movies including Boomerang and This Christmas. He was also responsible for writing the party song "Da Butt" for Spike Lee's film School Daze and has scored music for Chris Rock's hit TV show Everybody Hates Chris

Product Description

Marcus, the new album from critically-acclaimed and Grammy-winning artist Marcus Miller, features guest appearances by Corinne Bailey Rae, Lalah Hathaway, Keb' Mo' and more. The 13-track album finds Marcus serving up his own signature funk-jazz music and sees him cover some classics including Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground," Miles Davis' "Jean Pierre" and Tower of Power's "What is Hip?"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funky ! M.M. is a natural born bassman !, October 30, 2008

By	Gimme_Jazz (Casablanca, Morocco) - See all my reviews

Even though a virtuoso musician, he always manages to produce musical music whilst also amazing you with his skills - something that many of his contemporaries fail to achieve.
On this album - which is the new Concord Jazz release of the 2007 Album "Free" (the only difference is the added spoken word version of Robin Thicke's 2007 hit Lost Without You from Evolution of Robin Thicke) - Marcus Miller is joined by Poogie Bell on drums, Michael 'Patches Stewart' on trumpet, Paul Jackson jr. on guitar, David Sanborn and Tom Scott on saxes, Bobby Sparks II on keys, while he plays almost everything else.
Corinne Bailey Rae and Lalah Hathaway lend a hand on vocals.
This is a killer front line, but the slim bassman in the flat-brim porkpie hat is at the beating heart of everything.
Ex-Miles Davis collaborator, the bass master and production guru is the eternal muso's muso.
Marcus Miller is considered one of, if not the best contemporary bass players, having played with countless big name acts such as Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Luther Vandross just to name a few and also has a successful solo career.
Working with artists representing a wide variety of genres is a major theme on this latest work.
Yet his solo albums have been a mixed bag of sophisticated arrangements and slap solos, with occasionally questionable covers.
"Marcus" finds him striving for the raw funk of his Miles days, delivering great stripped down versions of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" and Tower Of Power's "What Is Hip?".
Corinne Bailey Rae crops up on Denise Williams' 1976 classic "Free" and she sounds good, but not great.
Miller plays it pretty straight on this rendition that holds close musically to Williams' original (see This Is Niecy). The main difference is Miller's bass playing, in which he employs his signature thumping and plucking funky style. The version also includes some definite jazz influenced improvising by Miller, as well as a saxophone solo.
You may like "Blast", a thumb-punched gem and his version of the electric-Miles classic, "Jean-Pierre". "I had the honour to work with Miles Davis long ago when I was 21 years of age and I finally figured out how to play this sucker." Marcus says.
There's an interesting version of "When I Fall In Love", a bass-clarinet ballad : it showes his versatility, but he's principally a born bassman and he does it as a funky fretless thing. Elsewhere it's lots of very tight, precise slap that really shows off his amazing phrasing - very cleanly exectuted lines - with a few eastern and asian flavours creeping into the mix.
Overall it's very good but a little different from what he's done before.
It's pretty darn funky. More in the funk vein than most of his more recent jazzy albums and at times it gets some great R&B as well.
His playing sounds amazing - and the killer cover this time around is his version of Tower Of Power's "What Is Hip", which, instead of finger picking, he slaps all the way, with a pocket so tight it hurts.
So if you like your jazz with plenty of life-affirming soul, dont hesitate.
You will enjoy it.
Free
Thunder
Palmystery
The Toys of Men

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Zzzzz...Marcus has officially put me to sleep., April 26, 2008

By	20to20K (Maryland) - See all my reviews

Obviously I'm going to be in the minority here but it's my opinion and I'm gonna express it.

Marcus Miller is one of my favorite musicians of all-time. That perhaps explains why I'm so hard on him. My expectations of him is so high that when he puts out this unrelentless stream of cookie-cutter funk jams CD's I just wince in discomfort.

Hard to believe that this guy was the architect behind the best works of Sanborn, Luther, Cheryl Lynn, Joe Sample and the last decent music made by Aretha and Miles.

His first solo CD, The Sun Don't Lie was outstanding, the next two (Tales
and M-squared) were flawed, but good overall. His last two, Silver Rain and this snooze fest has him falling off the table completely. Even with his so-so CD's...his playing was always engaging. Now I'm even starting to find his bass playing boring and repetitive.

Track 4 is nice and the take on "What is Hip" is excellent (however that's more because of Sanborns playing than Marcus') but overall this CD is completely forgettable. Same stuff can be heard on his previous disks. In fact I have to listen really hard to tell the difference.

Sorry Marcus. You my homey from Queens and all...but I'm just not feelin' your music lately.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Suck the consumer!, June 8, 2008

By	Dieter Funke "funkydieter" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hi Marcus Miller, isn't it nice to produce two releases with 10 same songs?
Last year there came out the CD " FREE" and now with all the same songs + 4 extra songs a CD called " Marcus".
Dear Marcus, I feel a bit abused!!
The music on Marcus is as good or bad as on Free!
I can't understand the proceeding.