Marcus Miller

Bass, bass clarinet and Miles

William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. was born on June 14, 1959 in Brooklyn, trained classically on clarinet, and later played keyboards, saxophone and guitar as well as bass. His main bass is a 1977 Fender Jazz Bass modified by Roger Sadowsky, which he used on Miles Davis's The Man with the Horn (1981). He worked about 15 years as a session musician, including with Bobbi Humphrey and Lonnie Liston Smith in the 1970s, played in Saturday Night Live's band from 1979 to 1981, and on Grover Washington Jr.'s Winelight, David Sanborn's Hideaway, Chaka Khan sessions and Donald Fagen's The Nightfly (1982). Wikipedia counts more than 500 recordings, including Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Mariah Carey and Eric Clapton, and lists James Jamerson and Larry Graham as influences.

With Davis he played on The Man with the Horn, We Want Miles (1982) and Star People (1983), and was the main writer and producer of Tutu (1986), Siesta (1987) and Amandla (1989). His first solo albums were Suddenly (Warner Bros., 1983) and Marcus Miller (1984). He was musical director for NBC's Sunday Night and Night Music from 1988, and made The Jamaica Boys, Tales (1995), Live & More (1997), M2 (2001, a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album), Silver Rain (2005), Free (2007), Renaissance (2012), Afrodeezia (2015) and Laid Black (2018). He toured with Eric Clapton, David Sanborn, Joe Sample and Steve Gadd in Legends in 1997, with Stanley Clarke and Victor Wooten as SMV, and with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter in 2011 to honor Davis.

He wrote film scores including House Party (1990), Boomerang (1992) and Marshall (2017), hosts Miller Time on SiriusXM, was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2012 and received the Bass Player Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. His official site promotes a We Want Miles! Davis-centennial show for summer 2026 with Mike Stern, Bill Evans, Mino Cinelu and Russell Gunn.