Results for "Marcus Miller"

Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller, winner of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album of 2001, was born in Brooklyn in 1959 and raised in Jamaica, New York. He came from a musical family and was influenced early on by his father, a church organist and choir director, as well as his musical extended family (which included the extraordinary Wynton Kelly, jazz pianist for Miles Davis during the late fifties and early sixties!). He displayed an early affinity for all types of music. By the age of thirteen he was already proficient on the clarinet, piano, and bass guitar and had begun composing music. The bass guitar, however, was his love and by the age of fifteen, he was working regularly in New York City with various bands

Tom Kennedy: Stories From Behind and Beyond The Bass

By JIM WORSLEY

Tom Kennedy has never considered himself a prospector, but surely has tapped into a goldmine. As if releasing a hotshot new record wasn't enough, the world class jazz and fusion bassist is in compositional bliss with a bevy of new material yet to be recorded. Kennedy and I talk at length about his new writing technique ...

2020: The Year in Jazz

By KEN FRANCKLING

The COVID-19 pandemic put the jazz world in a tailspin, just like the world at large, in 2020. And there is plenty of uncertainty going into the new year about what “new normal: might emerge from the darkness. International Jazz Day, like so many other things, became an online virtual event this time around. Pianist Keith ...

Ibrahim Maalouf: 40 Melodies

By MATT HOOKE

The age of 40, in America at least, is looked at with fear as the start of middle age. For many, it is a state of limbo; the knee pains say they are not young; however, that black hair says they are not old either. Many people buy a motorcycle or start an ill-conceived fling with ...

Scott Jones, Pickpocket Funk, Marcus Miller and more

By LEN DAVIS

Our Tony Palkovic tribute continues, plus Scott Jones, Marcus Miller, Pickpocket Funk and much more. Playlist Niacin “High Bias" from High Bias (Stretch) 00:00 Jan Hammer “Midnight" from Beyond the Minds Eye (MCA) 05:49 Yellow Jackets “Go Go" from Times Squared (Heads Up) 11:37 Brian Auger “Freddies Flight" from Retrospection (Sunset Blvd Records) 17:24 ...

Elina Duni & Rob Luft: Songs Of Love And Exile

By CHRIS MAY

The British guitarist Rob Luft has already released one of the great albums of 2020 with Life Is The Dancer (Edition), which came out back in the spring. Now Luft notches up another 2020 highlight with the collaborative Lost Ships (ECM), jointly conceived and co-led with the Albanian-Swiss singer Elina Duni. By turns passionate and grave, ...

Steve Khan: A Rich Discography and A Priceless Left Hand

By JIM WORSLEY

The life and times of guitarist extraordinaire Steve Khan stretch through a high volume of evolving chapters that fuse together like the passages of a finely crafted arrangement. An expansive conversation with Khan touched on a variety of memories. Still, this is perhaps the Reader's Digest version of the seventy-three years old musician and composer's remarkable ...

Baby Steps to Giant Steps

By ALAN BRYSON

It's a good bet that most of us have heard people say they don't like jazz, or even worse, drop the H-bomb, “I hate jazz." If you choose to engage, the key is to tread lightly and tailor an approach that considers the tastes and sensibilities of the other person. The “So You Don't Like Jazz" ...

A Bu: Live At Beijing Poly Theater

By KARL ACKERMANN

Beijing's Poly Theater has held over three-thousand international artistic events since its opening in 1991. The prestigious fifteen-hundred seat cultural hub was the site of a 2018 solo piano concert by Dai Liang (aka, A Bu), possibly the best unknown pianist in music. A prodigy who began playing at four, the pianist was discovered in 2012 ...

Catalina Jazz Club: Landmark Jazz Haven Forges Onward

By JIM WORSLEY

While west-coasters long to go to the Blue Note in jny: New York City, east-coasters have their sights set on the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. The family-owned and operated jazz hot spot has seen and heard from all the jazz legends over the past thirty-four years. The supper club has fine dining and even finer ...