Customer Reviews

Marcus

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The electric bass guitar never sounded so good. Anybody that is a sucker for it should know the name Marcus Miller. With more than 30 years in the business and a portfolio that includes extensive work with people like Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, and David Sanborn, Marcus Miller has also managed a formidable solo career that spans the last 20+ years as well. And his latest release, simply titled Marcus, is a welcome addition to his discography. The brazen yet groovy flow of the album opener "Blast!" will certainly get the party going if it's not already. "Funk Joint" is a carefully-timed offering that serves up a slightly bouncy rhythm to nod your head to. The prominence of Corinne Bailey Rae's singing coupled with David Sanborn's brilliance on the sax prove to be the right mix on the cover of Deniece Williams' "Free." He continues his journey to the past with a thumping rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." Bluesman Keb Mo' does his thing with "Milky Way," while the interlude "Pluck" runs like an actual track. Lalah Hathaway lends her vocals for the jazz cover of Robin Thicke's "Lost Without You," a great attempt at drawing in today's younger generation. The spoken word version of the song closes the album and features actress Taraji P. Henson. Speaking of spoken word, Marcus enlists Russell Simmons' Def Poetry's own Shihan the Poet for the track "Cause I Love You." Lalah Hathaway shows up again for the smoothed out melody "Ooh." He goes full instrumentation on the stirring ballad "When I Fall In Love," the melodic "Strum," and the subdued Miles Davis cover "Jean Pierre." He closes with his interpretation of Tower of Power's "What Is Hip?" featuring David Sanborn and the aforementioned spoken word version of "Lost Without You." If you're a newcomer to the musical offerings of this Grammy Award-winning artist, Marcus is a good starting point.

Marcus had to have known that 'Silver Rain' was a subpar record, 'cause he's come back strong with this self-titled disc. He seems to be using the same concept he used for M2. Let me be the first to say, this formula is working quite well thank you. Marcus has always had one of the more identifiable and unique voices among slap-style bassists, hence his popularity among bass players and artists like Luther Vandross and Miles Davis.

While Marcus has always been great bassist, to me this record sheds more light on his somewhat underrated abilities as a multi-instrumentalist and producer. With this record he goes deeper into a melodic neo-soul idiom while managing to keep his bass playing in the leading-but-disciplined role. Quite a feat to accomplish in this era of bland, play-it-safe smooth jazzers and over-the-top progressive power-noodlers. Marcus' bullwhip slapping propels this record without overpowering it.

I do like the fresh treatment he gives to cover tunes like Free, When I Fall in Love, What is Hip?, and especially the oft-covered Stevie Wonder classic Higher Ground(this tune has that old-school R&B shuffle that you can't help but bop your head to). I had to deduct a star though, because Marcus included a cover of 'Lost Without You'. My significant other loves Robin Thicke and I don't. Hater in the house...lol! And is it me, or does it seem that Marcus is poking a little fun at that slap-and-pluck speed demon Victor Wooten on 'Jean Pierre'?

Marcus' session musicians perform wonderfully also, especially newcomer harmonica player Gregoire Maret. Marcus obviously learned his lessons from Miles Davis on choosing sidemen well. And why it took Marcus so long to reunite with his old boss David Sanborn is beyond me, but I'm glad they finally did. Let's hope its not the last time. With this disc Marcus should at least merit a nomination from the Grammies, this record is that good.

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.

I have been following the work of Marcus Miller since he first came on the scene in the late 1970s, throughout the 1980s, and 1990s. I continue to anxiously anticipate his new material into the 21st Century. As in the past, on "MARCUS" he continues to explore new techniques and rifts which are exhibited through his superb bass playing on his new compositions as well as his reinterpretation of old funk/soul standards. At the same time however, he maintains the foundation of his work through the mastery of his 1977 Fender Jazz Bass. Keep it coming Marcus!!!

I decided to get this cd with mixed emotions : hope and fear.

Hope because of the undeniable quality of Marcus Miller, as a musician, as a producer, as a showman on stage, and because of incredible releases such as The Sun Don't Lie andTales, which are two marvelous collections of tracks.

Fear because of the general trend of music, the contagious effect of "smooth jazz" which is more than ever a middle of the road "I wanna be played on background music FM station" (and thus have to be very conventional), and Marcus Miller himself with two releases, M², and Silver Rain that were going south, south-south.

Well, I love Miller !!! Many years ago, I kept on telling my friends and acquaintances that my three favourite bass players were Stanley Clarke (when he was aggressive enough), Mark King (Level 42), and Marcus Miller. The first two are practically silent now, Marcus Miller has this masterpiece out ! As the title of the review suggests it, we have Marcus hitting hard on his instrument ("Higher ground", or the funky "Milky way", "Pluck" and "Ooh", and the fast paced "What is hip"), with enough diversity of rhythms and styles to satisfy his longtime fans and new followers. "Cause I want you " is a beautiful melody, where Marcus shows his virtuosity and shades almost completely the singers.

As to the traditional cover versions, as mentioned by another reviewer, "Free" is just all right, not great (but yet again, who can reach the level of quality of Deniece Williams in her album This Is Niecy, produced by the great Maurice White ? Not even Chante Moore, although she came close with A Love Supreme. "Higher Ground" is good enough because played with energy and it doesn't slaughter the original Stevie Wonder version. By the way Gregoire Maret does an acceptable play on harmonica on this one (non initiated people could almost be fooled into thinking it is Stevie Wonder himself playing). And "Jean Pierre", from Miles Davis, is marvelous.
I don't care too much for "When I fall in love", although Marcus shows a complete control of the clavinet, like he already did in his album TALES (see above).

Al in all, a superb release, with practically no time out during this 71 minutes journey (you get your money's worth) from one of my favourite players. Thanks Marcus, YOU are HIP, and keep slammin the bass !

Oh, and if you like Marcus, go to listen Level 42 and Mark King !

I bought this cd because I kept hearing Corinne Bailey Rae sing Free on my local jazz station and loved it! I discovered her and Marcus Miller while trying to find this song. I like them both alot, now! This cd is really great! Very upbeat and gets me going, and would be great at a party!

julrobs

Marcus has thumped and plucked out another impressive album. I am a big M.M. fan and he seems to get better with each album, and the technique on some of the tracks is simply incredible, he is so fast, check out "What Is Hip?". David Sanborn sounds good too. Put on a good pair of headphones, sit back, and enjoy!...dlm

This CD is great. More guest vocals than usual, and some of the covers are a little...smooth. But can ya beat the bass playing, the production, the musicianship? WOW!!!

- I really enjoyed the Marcus Miller CD. It had a wide range of musical styles and realy showcases Marcus' bass playing witout being too over the top.

- I'd recommend this CD to any Jazz or R&B music enthusiast.

I'll get the first thing out of the way first: this album was not orgianically "new" upon release. It was released a year and a half before overseas in different locations under the title Free,which is actually a title cut as it were for the neo soul styled Denise Williams cover featuring Corinne Bailey Rae. So it was re-released stateside with a revised track listing. However it came out this is an excellent album finding Marcus grabbing heavily not only at his funk muse but at all the different subgenres that funk represents and often creates. The genre is a movement to him,not just a style and he brings in some equally talented people such as old Jamaica Queens pal Bernard Wright along with Keb Mo,Lalah Hathaway along with old hats Paul Jackson and Chester Thompson. What this album through it's "journey through funk-jazz" concept has as one basic tennent:it's an album primarily focusing how adept Marcus is at various styles of electic bass playing not accompanied by his highly sympathetic rhythm section but by the jazz harmonia stylings of Gregoire Maret,with a sound similar to Toots Theilmans.

The opening "Blast!",a tune that relies heavily on 'Nard Wright musically actually emnbraces a jazz-funk styled variation on the mictronal scaled/Arabic sounding modern hip-hop/R&B popularized by Aaliyah and Beyonce. It shows that Marcus has a significant grip on the changes on the R&B scene,for better or worse and elects to do the best he can with them musically. "Funk Joint",with it's mildly atonal solos and shuffling groove actually goes very well in the Miles Davis style he embrases in his cover of Miles' standard "Jean Pierre" later in the album. A version of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" really brings to mind not so much the rocky keyboard sonics of the song but when it emphasizes the bass as it does here the influnnce of the JB's is baught more to the forefront with it's shuffling beats with the accenting solos. He also pulls out some serious blues with Keb Mo on the infectious "Milky Way" and some very serious back-to-basics funk of "Pluck" and a version of "What Is Hip?". The neo soul of the import versions title song is returned to with Lalah Hathaway's deep,husky tone on the bassy midtempo R&B/funk of "Ooh".

Radio worthy numbers "Lost Without U",presented here in both a purely vocal and a rap styled version,the more traditional jazz-funk instrumental "Strum" and a wonderful improvisation on Nat Cole's "When I Fall In Love" round out this excellent set. I noticed that a few reviews describe this in a positive sense as a "smooth" album and sometimes more negatively as "boring". And that's interesting to me especially as this album is one of the most thoroughly musical,sharp and downright funky albums Marcus has made in quite a long time. While it's true his music went through a period of being very predictable,likely the result of too much of a good thing this album found it's heart and strengh not only by turning up the energy level and musical sharpness but also by Marcus exploring the many new directions that jazz,funk,hip-hop has taken from all the world music,blues and outside influences they've taken on. Considering that contemporary hip-hop/R&B seems to be on it's last creative legs these days it's fitting to see that in the hands of someone like Marcus Miller those modern styles,in small doses can actually have a strong musical ethic. Especially alongside the hardcore "classic" jazz/funk stylings he does so well.