For decades, Marcus Miller has influenced the way Funk and Contemporary Jazz sound today. Nobody plays like him, nobody sounds like him, and nobody performs like this guy. The best part? He will finally be touring Europe again, including Germany.
Berlin, September 30th, 2022 (The Berlin Spectator) — Two of the world’s greatest slap bass heroes, Bernard Edwards and Louis Johnson, died in 1996 and 2015, respectively. Others are still with us, including Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke, Mark King, Khari Cabral Simmons and Julian Crampton, just to name a few. There is yet another brilliant slap bass giant on this planet: Marcus Miller.
Influential Sideman
Here is a bass player who was just important and influential as a side man as he is as a bandleader today. His impressive discography with fellow artists includes some of the greatest Jazz-Funk albums of all time. ‘Browne Sugar’ by the trumpeter Tom Browne is on the list. Yes, it’s the one that includes killer tunes such as ‘Throwdown’ and ‘Promises for Spring’. The late Grover Washington’s 1980 record ‘Winelight’ is part of it too. So is the late Bernard Wright’s ‘Nard’ album.
Hey! Let’s not forget Miles Davis, Lonnie Liston Smith, David Sanborn, Don Cherry and The Crusaders. Marcus Miller from New York City recorded with all of them. In 1981, he influenced Luther Vandross’ debut album ‘Never Too Much’ prominently. People who listened to ‘She’s a Super Lady’ or to ‘You’re the Sweetest One’ on the next album ‘Forever, For Always, For Love’ were stunned. Behind Luther Vandross’ unbelievable voice, this young bass hero delivered slapping sounds that were out of this world. His name was Marcus Miller, and he still does it, but mainly with his own bands.
Huge Following
Miller’s first solo album ‘Suddenly’ was released in 1983. Since, the bass master, composer, producer and vocalist has recorded twelve more. On those albums and on stage, he touches quite a few genres, from Soul and Funk to Jazz-Funk, Jazz-Rock and more intellectual kinds of Jazz. All of his material is stunning. Marcus Miller killed it when he did ‘Gimmie the Goods’ with Boz Scaggs and countless other stars on a TV show in the late 1980s, he did when he hit the stage at the festival the author of these lines organized in Bulgaria in 2007, and he does on all of his albums and in all of his concerts.
Miller has a huge following. Before Corona messed up the world, he was one of the few artists who could sell out the Fabrik venue in Hamburg twice in a row. He toured so much he probably met himself at J.F.K. Airport, in Heathrow or at some run down rest stop on the German Autobahn. Soon, he will be back in Europe, including in the German-speaking world.
Hamburg and Munich
France, Hungary, Czechia, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Poland are part of the tour plan. On November 2nd, 2022, he will be performing in Zurich. Three days earlier, on October 31st, Marcus Miller and his band are scheduled to raise the roof at Den Atelier in Luxemburg City. Twice, they will be performing at Porgy & Bess in Vienna, on October 26th and 27th. The only three gigs in Germany will be taking place at Munich’s Muffathalle on October 29th, at the legendary Fabrik in Hamburg on November 8th, and in Leverkusen on the 9th.
Tickets for Marcus Miller’s concerts in Germany, Austria and Luxemburg can be purchased here. His entire tour schedule is listed on his own website.