A generation is roughly defined as a period of about 30 years. 30
years ago in the early 80s - America was rolling with Ronald
Reagan at the wheel and his conservative back to family values
tenets. A similar traditionalism was also being adopted by
several prominent up-and-coming jazz musicians. While most of the
then-young flock was looking back, Marcus Miller was looking
ahead. By the middle of that decade in 1986, Marcus - the
musician, composer and producer - was at the helm of one of the
most impactful modern jazz masterpieces of the era with some
futuristic roots music he composed for the legendary Miles Davis
entitled Tutu.
Now with Renaissance in 2012, Marcus Miller surveys the landscape
of not just music but society as a whole. In the same profound
way that anointed gospel-soul singer Sam Cooke prophesized 50
years before in 1963, Miller feels that a change is gonna come.
And just as with Tutu, he is ahead of the storm with Renaissance,
fortified by a team of hungry young players that includes
trumpeters Sean Jones and Maurice Brown, alto saxophonist Alex
Han, drummer Louis Cato, guitarists Adam Agati and Adam Rogers,
and keyboardist Kris Bowers along with veteran keys wizards
Federico Gonzalez Peña and Bobby Sparks, Miller is creating the
soundtrack for this musical, cultural and spiritual revolution.
I feel like a page is turning, Miller muses. The last of our
heroes are checking out and we are truly entering a new era.
Politically, things have polarized and are coming to a head.
Musically, we ve got all these cool ways to play and share music
- MP3 files, internet radio and satellite radio - but the music
is not as revolutionary as the media. It s time for a rebirth.
Renaissance finds Miller offering up an especially emotive
13-song collection that includes eight richly inspired original
compositions that swing from a tip of the porkpie to the CTI
Records sound of the `70s ( CEE-TEE-EYE ) to an introspective and
ultimately hope-filled rumination about the island off the coast
of Dakar in Africa known as Gorée (Go-ray). Renaissance also
includes five cover songs that canvas works by soul-jazz culture
band WAR, new wave-soul starlet Janelle Monáe, New York jazz
dignitary Weldon Irvine, Brazilian musical ambassador Ivan Lins
and Christian composer Luther Mano Hanes. Though the CD primarily
features Miller s smokin new band, it also features special guest
vocalists Dr. John, Rubén Blades and Gretchen Parlato.
Renaissance is a word that resonates on a lot of different
levels for me, Miller explains. It s about getting back to the
essential aspects of art. I m focusing less on production and
more on composition, so this is a very clear album for me. People
have often called me a Renaissance Man. I always understood that
to mean someone who s got their creative hands in a lot of
different things but not on a surface level. Like Leonardo da
Vinci: he wasn t just dabbling in things, he was going deep. I
would really like to be that kind of guy. Over the past three
decades of my career, I ve been blessed to produce a wide variety
of music that means something to people. I didn t just do some
clichés in different genres, like a guy who says he can speak 20
languages but all he s saying is how are you and can I get
something to eat. The real challenge is can you communicate
something of substance to the people through these languages that
you speak?