Marcus Miller

MARCUS:     Yeah man! 

TERRILL:     And tight again when you did it, so. … 

MARCUS:     Thanks man. We got Keb’ Mo’, singing some funky blues on there. And David Sanborn is playing saxophone on a couple of songs and Tom Scott from way back. It’s nice, so I got some really great musicians to help me out.  I’m really happy about it. Particularly having Lalah on there. She and I have been working together on and off for maybe 15 years now. So I’m really glad to see that she’s starting to blow up. People are really starting to check for her and it’s really overdue. And Corrine Bailey Rae…..

TERRILL:     Aw man. 

MARCUS:     ….She blessed us with her beautiful voice on the album. We can listen to that and take some comfort. 

TERRILL:     Oh absolutely. Going back a little bit to some contributors, like David Sanborn – man your music transcends time. Let’s not just talk about your new album but, some of the material that you put out that had R&B grooves and David Sanborn, one of the finest contemporary jazz sax players ever.  

MARCUS:     Yes, He was ridiculous man. I’ll never forget the first time I heard him in person. Like standing in a room next to him, you’ve never heard a saxophone like that. It made like your toes shake. (Laughs). The sound is so strong and he’s just like a little guy. It just blows your mind. The contrast – you know what I mean? When I met him, I was in the house band for Saturday Night Live, and David was in the band at the same time. We would play music for the commercial. Right before they got ready to go to commercial break, you would hear a little bit of us playing. And David and I got to be cool then. I started to play some songs that I was writing around that period & said ‘hey man, I want to record these’. That began a long relationship. I was writing these compositions and eventually producing him and after twenty-five years. We were doing this contemporary jazz thing back in the day when no one else was really doing it. You know drum machines. We were using modern R&B along with the jazz. Turn on the radio now and to hear everybody doing it, some thirty years later. It’s a trip!

TERRILL:     It’s funny you said that, ’cause that music back then – you can put it back on again. It blends with today’s contemporary/smooth jazz music.  

MARCUS:     Yes, exactly.  I worked with Sanborn, I worked with Joe Sample from the Crusaders, Bob James, Grover Washington Jr…. those are all the innovators of that music. 

TERRILL:     That’s right. That means you have to be part of that innovation yourself. I mean your music, I mean goll-lee, with David Sanborn. Man, the crooning delight, the ultimate romantic ballads. Some of that stuff you touched in Luther Vandross’ career. 

MARCUS:     Ah yes man. He was really a special individual. I can’t believe he’s been gone for a couple of years now. He had a beautiful voice. But he had more than just a beautiful voice. He had a beautiful concept about music. He really wanted to find those notes that really got to your bones. You know what I mean? He wasn’t about just singing hard and singing riffs. He really wanted to touch . He was so good at doing that. He could make a crowd of 50,000 people completely quiet – where you couldn’t hear a pin drop. Waiting for his next line – when he was going to sing. It’s was just beautiful to watch him do his thing.  

TERRILL:     It’s just inspiring to hear that coming from you Marcus. Which leads to this immediate question – based on some of the notables we talked about and previous legends…, who influenced you? What influenced your style, your musical style? Your taste for the bass? everything about Marcus Miller? 

MARCUS:     Well I started in the ’70’s & when everyone was really experimenting with mixing music together, different styles of music together. One of the first groups I heard that I really flipped over was called Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters. And I heard that music and it had everything that I liked in music. The beat was funky, the solos were jazz improvisation, the concept was experimental – mixing this, mixing that. African overtones. Man it was just like he just took everything he liked from every kind of music, in just one kind of soup and that really inspired me. Then I heard Earth Wind and Fire. They were really doing the same kind of thing. More on the R&B side, but they had the Brazilian element, they had jazz, everything in their music. So those guys really inspired me. On the bass, I heard Stanley Clark. He was doing his thing and Larry Graham was a huge influence on me – plucking or slapping that bass. So you know, Stevie Wonder. All those kinds of music! Those 70s. I really got inspired man. 

TERRILL:     Stanley Clark  is Supreme! We had a chance to interview him and I mean he really graced us with his presence.  

MARCUS:     Oh man, yes. And he was the first one who really stepped out there with the bass guitar and said ‘I’m going to run this stuff with just my bass’. Usually, it’s with guitar players or keyboard players or horn players or singers, but Stanley Clark – really, he was on the guitar when I heard him. I said ‘oh, I can do that with my instrument – cool’,  And that really inspired me. 

TERRILL:     But Marcus, The minute we hear that pluck of your bass, we KNOW it’s Marcus. 

MARCUS:     That’s good, that’s good. (laughs) That’s what you want man. You hear four notes, and you say okay that’s him. That’s what you aim for. 

TERRILL:     Exactly! There’s no way around it! Others out there try. God bless ‘em, but the minute you step in – that’s Marcus! ‘Ya’ll Need to Step Off!!  Back up – create some space, here comes Marcus y’all! You need to back up! (announcement & laughs) 

MARCUS:     That’s cool man. When we met at the Playboy Festival man, that was a nice time. I remember that show last summer. 

TERRILL:     Oh it was tight! And what was also inspiring, because I had interviewed Malcolm Jamal Warner, seeing him come up on the stage and pull up a chair. Remember that? 

MARCUS:     Yes, I remember that. And I made him come on the stage and jam with us for the last song.  

TERRILL:     Yes I saw that. 

MARCUS:     He had that look. His eyes got big like – man I said play, instead of sitting in a chair and watching. But it’s nice to see like Malcolm who had a career and still has a career in acting and he’s so turned on to the music that he keeps himself humble to keep learning and growing. That’s what it’s all about.  

TERRILL:     Absolutely and that humility showed when he went on stage with that chair. 

MARCUS:     Yeah, yeah, yeah – I don’t care, I got to check it out. 

TERRILL:     Exactly,  I mean you have people, inspiring musicians and you take note of that. 

MARCUS:     Oh yes, absolutely.  

TERRILL:     Don’t get too prideful. Learn from the best! And speaking of the Playboy, you got that big Jazz Cruise coming up, January 2009?

MARCUS:     Yes. 2009, I’m hosting the first Playboy Jazz Cruise and I just tell people, you might think of a cruise as one thing ’cause we all saw TV shows of the cruises and it was kind of corny. But when you get all the best jazz artists in the world and you get that 2,000 people who love jazz all together, who absolutely love it, love it enough to be immersed in that music. It’s an unbelievable experience. The ship is like a hotel, a Vegas hotel on water. And you’re down in that Caribbean and you hear Herbie Hancock and Dianne Reeves and James Moody and Roy Hargrove and Kirk Whalum. It’s just going to be a really beautiful experience. And I encourage everybody to consider it, because it’s really, really a nice thing. 

TERRILL:     Cool. I can’t wait man. You got a really big line up here. Herbie Hancock, I mean the list goes on! Dianne Reeves…. 

MARCUS:     And we have Keb’ Mo’ to show up too, he don’t even like boats. But …(laughs) 

TERRILL:     Say that again? 

MARCUS:     And when he heard who was going to be there, Keb’ Mo’ said, “Alright man, I think I’m goin’ have to come too.” So I think it’s going to be nice. 

TERRILL:     And you know you got Poncho Sanchez in the house! 

MARCUS:     Yes, Poncho Sanchez is going to do his thing and it’s really nice. We have a young kid that I met at Berkley School of Music, I think he’s about 19 years old by the name of Alex Hahn, who plays the saxophone and he’s blowing people’s mind! A little unassuming kid. He puts that horn to his mouth and it breathes fire! 

TERRILL:     Alex Hahn? 

MARCUS:     H-A-H-N, exactly. 

TERRILL:     Oh wow. I look forward to hearing about him! 

MARCUS:     I’m excited man! 

TERRILL:     And that’s one of the young cats…. 

MARCUS:     Young cats exactly. 

TERRILL:     Coming up underneath your wings. 

MARCUS:     < /font>Exactly. So we got that and we got James Moody, who’s like a living legend. Singing, “There I go, there I go, there I go, there I go”. That’s him, that’s his solo – that they wrote those words to. So, we got James Moody. So it’s going to be a really nice, kind of group of musicians.