Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

[instrumental rock music]

- [Voiceover] Do I like the things that

Marcus Miller has been doing?

I love the what Marcus Miller has done.

He's a marvelous musician, marvelous writer.

And the wonderful thing about Marcus,

he has his own fingerprint, like we all do.

Everybody has a different fingerprint.

There's billions of people on earth,

but everyone is different and you have

to discover that difference in yourself.

That's what Marcus has done, he's discovered himself.

So, he's very fortunate.

[bass guitar music]

- [Marcus] Where you come from as

a musician is really everything.

If you hear somebody speak, within two

sentences of them speaking, you basically

have a good idea of where they're from.

Their accent, the words they choose, you know.

And it's the same thing with music.

If you're a true musician, when you play,

within a couple of sentences you'll be telling

people who you are and where you come from.

When you heard Miles Davis play,

you knew that he was from St. Louis, that culture.

If I had to describe my sound on the bass it's metallic,

but with a richness, with a deepness.

And I think it's really important

to have both at the same time.

I think that I'm a funk bass player,

but with a huge jazz education.

My music, it says New York, when I was growing

up in New York there was funk in the streets,

there was salsa music here, there was reggae,

there was African, there was Calypso.

There was everything going on at the same time.

And as a musician in New York you had

to be familiar with all those different styles,

early on, and so as a New York

musician I've continued that.

But you're always gonna hear my accent.

[laughs] You're always gonna hear that

I come from New York in the 70's.

[upbeat jazz music]

[ambulance sirens]

My name is Marcus Miller and my birthday

is June 14th, 1959 and I was born in

Brooklyn, New York and I lived there for 10 years.

Then my family moved to Jamaica, Queens.

My dad worked for the New York City Transit Authority

for awhile driving the bus and my mom was a nurse.

I don't have a memory of the first time I heard music

because music was in my family,

man, from the very beginning.

My father's a piano player, he plays in the church

and his father, who was a minister, also played

the piano and my father's aunts all sang.

And so, music was a part of my life

from the day they brought me home.

Every Sunday there would be a church service

and then after the service the whole family

would get together in the basement of

the church and perform for each other.

I always thought music was just as

much a part of life as going to work,

so it's a very natural thing for me.

But the first thing I heard that made me say,

"You know what, I wanna be a musician myself"

was when I heard The Jackson 5.

I was 10 years old and I think Michael Jackson

was probably 10 or 11 years old himself.

And to see people who are your own age

who were that fantastic, it just made you so crazy.

You said, "Man, I can do that."

["I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5]

♪ Let me tell ya now

♪ Ooo, woo

♪ When I had you to myself

♪ I didn't want you around

♪ Those pretty faces always made you

♪ Stand out in a crowd

♪ Someone picked you from the bunch

♪ One glance was all it took

♪ Now it's much too late for me

♪ To take a second look

- [Marcus] In our school in New York

they offered you three instruments,

the trumpets, the drums or the clarinet.

I didn't really have any interest in the trumpet.

I really wanted to play the drums,

but my father was like, "No way, [laughs]

"you ain't playing drums in the apartment."

So, the clarinet was the only thing left

and I didn't know if I loved the clarinet,

but I loved playing and I was pretty good.

You know, I stayed with it all the way through college,

but I wanted to play in a Soul band

and there's no clarinet in Soul music.

I wanted to play an instrument that was at the center

of the R&B and the Soul and the Funk music.

And the bass really seemed like it was at the center.

And I asked my mother to get me a bass guitar

and tried to find a band in my neighborhood

that would let me play bass.

After high school I was ready to go to

the music conservatory in New York,

but at the last minute I said to myself,

"Am I crazy? I'm gonna go to the

"conservatory to play the clarinet?

"How many job opportunities are

"there for a clarinetist in classical

"music with a big afro?"

And I'm like, I'm playing bass guitar,

I don't think I'm as good on the

bass guitar as I am on the clarinet,

but I'm already got jobs and exciting things are happening.

So, let me focus on the bass and once I did

that I began to progress a lot on the bass guitar.

[upbeat Funk music]

- [Voiceover] With Marcus, we met at the

High School of Music and Art.

Marcus was playing clarinet in the Band Eight

and Orchestra Eight which was a Senior wind ensembles.

And next thing I know I see this same

guy who was playing clarinet,

Marcus, playing the electric bass

and so I sat there and watched him.

And then this is how we got to become friends.

My father, who was a big jazz enthusiast,

he had the best of all eras.

I said, "Well, Marcus, man, come over to the house."

We're playing records and everything, I said,

"Well, man, who were some of your favorite bass players?"

So, he says, "Well, I like Larry Graham

"and I like Bootsy Collins."

I said, "Well, yeah, those are great bass players, man,

"but, you know, do you like Paul Chambers?"

And he knew about Paul Chambers

because of Miles's "Kind of Blue" record.

Then I started mentioning other bass players,

Doug Watkins and people like that,

he didn't know anything about them.

So, immediately we would listen to

records all day and half the night.

One day we were sitting up listening to records,

he says, "You know, Wash, I have

"an uncle that plays piano."

I said, "Well, who is he?"

He says, "Well, you ever hear of Wynton Kelly?"

I said, "Wynton Kelly, that's your uncle?"

"You've heard of him?"

I said, "Man, ever heard of him?"

Went right in the closet start pulling out

all these records, you know, said,

"Man, you ever hear this "Miles Davis at the Blackhawk?"

"Someday My Prince Will Come?"

All these records, the records he made,

Winter made, for Riverside.

And so, he didn't realize how great his uncle was.

I couldn't believe it, man.

You know, he got into it, he got into all

the bass players, Sam Jones and Oscar Pettiford.

That shows you how much he was into the music.

Marcus is a very good sight reader.

He got that from playing clarinet.

I think what helped Marcus and made him

become a major studio player in New York

was his ability to sight read at a glance.

Being able to look at these parts and be able

to play these things note perfect.

And there were some bass players

that really couldn't do that.

They'd put something in front of him

and he would look at it,

play it once or twice, bam!

So, then he became the on-call

cat and that's how it starts.

[mellow bass clarinet music]

- [Marcus] When I began playing the bass in

the 70's in New York everyone played the bass

pretty much based on James Jamerson's style.

James Jamerson was the bass player who

played for Motown and then all of a

sudden we heard Larry Graham, right?

Around '73, '74, and he wasn't playing with

the traditional bass guitar sound.

He was thumping it, he was hitting it

with his thumb and plucking it.

And we were like, "Whoa, what is that, man?"

You know, and everyone that I knew, every bass player,

was like, "Man, I gotta learn how to do

"that 'cause that's the coolest sound."

You know, especially to a young ear, you know what I mean?

Because it was very dynamic,

"boom, bap", you know, it really got your attention.

So, I was like everybody else, man.

Larry Graham was a huge influence and I think

he influenced a lot of bass players.

I think Stanley Clarke was influenced by Larry Graham.

Bootsy was influenced by Larry Graham

and his personality was so huge

we all got swept up in his world.

I eventually started playing more jazz,

but I took that style and tried to

move it over into the jazz.

When I first played with Miles he heard me playing,

he goes, "Okay, Larry Graham." [laughs]

You know, because he was aware of Larry Graham, too.

So, it was very much a part of the culture.

[Funk music]

- [Voiceover] Marcus, what you mainly can

hear is who he is as a creative person and using

the influence from me as a foundation for that.

He plays the slap bass, but he also plays the

overhand style as well and has mastered that technique.

Another thing on Marcus, he thinks like a lead player.

Not every bass player can do that,

you know, not every bass player thinks like that.

Not every bass player has the ability to get on

other instruments and express that lead quality.

So, he can do it on his horn,

but he can also do it on the bass as well.

So, he's unique in himself and even though

he can play like other people there

are other people who can't play like him.

Every time you hear Marcus, it could be the same song,

but it's not gonna be the same performance.

Because he's always looking for growth.

It's like, "How can I be better at what I do?"

So, the same song he played at a concert last night,

he played tonight, it's gonna be different.

Because he's gonna absorb from the people that's around him.

Whether it be horn players, keyboard players

or whatever, he's soaking that in and when

he plays all of those elements comes out.

So, then he becomes more than the bass player on that song.

But at the same time he knows how to then

fall back and be a part of the background,

part of the foundation and let somebody else shine.

And he can just lay in the cut, that's a gift.

[funky bass guitar music]

- Lenny White was tremendously

important in my career, you know.

He was the first really big artist

in jazz that I played with.

I met Omar Hakim in high school,

we went to the same high school in new York.

And Omar started bringing me around some of

the other talented musicians in Queens, in New York.

And eventually Lenny White walked into a club

one day to check out these young Queens

musicians because he lived in Queens.

He said, "Hey, man, come do some gigs with me."

He had just left Chick Corea's Return to Forever group.

- [Voiceover] We had a common mentor,

Weldon Irvine, and Weldon was like a teacher

and he made all of us in Jamaica, Queens

responsible for the music that we played.

I had just left Return to Forever and I'm putting

my own band together, Weldon says,

"Hey, I got a bass player for you."

I said, "Okay."

They take me to this club called Gerrell's

and I see Marcus and Omar playing together.

Marcus is 16, I said, "Wow, this is pretty impressive."

And so I become friends with Marcus,

he's in the neighborhood and I'm making

my second album called "Big City."

And Marcus would hang out all the time,

I said, "Okay, come on to the studio."

Marcus would always have his bass,

he would never not go someplace without his bass.

So, he's sitting there in the studio and I said,

"Marcus, open up your bass, man, come on and play this."

"Me?"

I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, play this part, man."

You know, and so his first record date was

that he played this bass line on tune on "Big City."

So, when I had this band that I started

and we went out and played,

I needed a good bass player and that's when I got Marcus.

And Marcus is one of the best musicians I've ever known.

Musician, I'm not saying bass player.

Music comes easy for him, it's easy to explain,

it's easy for him to decipher,

it's easy for him to create, it's easy for him to

talk about and it's easy for him to teach.

No matter what instrument it is.

But I always knew it when I knew Marcus when

he was 16 years old, plus he had a purpose,

which is a positive purpose and he wanted to get better.

[funk music]

- [Marcus] Lonnie Liston Smith in the 70's,

he was like the first Trip Hop

player to me [laughs], you know.

His band played funk music and he played

these kind of atmospheric keyboards

over it and it was a very, very distinct style

that we all grew up with.

And I actually got to do some records with him,

it was like my first stuff.

- [Voiceover] I met Marcus Miller when he was 15 going on 16.

We were jamming somewhere in Queens.

I said, "Wow, does this boy sound good."

So, then after he finished jamming he

put his bass down, he said,

"I've got a song for you."

So, I'm looking at this little kid,

I'm saying, "Mm-mmm."

I said, "Okay."

He sat down at the piano and started

playing "Journey Into Love."

"Doom-doom, doom-doom."

I said, "Oh, you have a song for me, don't you?"

I took him right into the studio,

it's on "Loveland" and the producer,

all the musicians saw me bringing this little

kid in and they got all upset, got a terrible attitude.

And few minutes later in there I can't get to him.

They're all surrounding him.

"Man, he can play, he sounds good."

I said, "Miles, he hires young musicians,

"he catches them at that stage

"and he knows what's the future."

And I remember when Miles was

getting ready to hire Marcus,

what he does is he called musicians.

He said, "Well, what do you think of Marcus?"

So, the first thing I said was,

I said, "Good, you have found your twin."

So, he said, "Oh, you still strange."

But what I meant was Miles is Gemini,

Marcus is Gemini, the two twins.

So, I said, "Hey, you found your twin."

And I said, "It's gonna work."

And the rest is history.

- ♪ We can dream

♪ We can dream

♪ Ah, yi-yi-yi-hee-ha

♪ Ah, yi-yi-yi-hee-ha

♪ Haaa

[uptempo Jazz Funk music]

- [Marcus] Well, I met David Sanborn a long time ago.

I actually had braces on my teeth,

I was 18 or 19 years old.

I was making a name for myself as a young musician

in New York, as a young bass player.

And David's producer called me to play on a song for

David Sanborn and I came in, I played on one song.

That song was called "Carly's Song."

And a couple of months later we both ended

up in the house band of a television show called

Saturday Night Live, in the house band together.

I just used to love to watch musicians

react to him the first time, you know?

He'd play and the guitar player would go...

Just from the sound, just from the sound.

The sound was so distinctive, you know?

And it was one of my first lessons in

how important your sound is, not just your notes.

I was probably 20 years old and I wanted to

do my own album so I wrote four songs.

And I said to David, "Hey, man, check out

"my songs, I'm getting ready to do an album."

And a week later David called me and said,

"Marcus, I like these songs, I wanna do them."

And I said, "Well, which one?"

He said, "I wanna do them all."

I said, "You wanna do my album?" [laughs]

I recorded these songs and they ended

up on an album called "Voyeur."

And that was really the beginning of my relationship

with David as a producer and as a composer.

- You know how it's funny, like, sometimes you

don't see who somebody is because you're kinda

so close to the situation that you don't

really, you know, recognize it.

But, you know, when I step back and look

at what he does and who he is,

it's like, "Wow, that's really impressive."

I have a tremendous amount of respect as a

musician and as a writer and producer

because as a producer he's able to maintain

an overview about what the song should

sound like and what the record should sound like.

And he has a good sense of structure

and really good at finding unusual voicings

and unusual harmonies and stuff that,

you know, are challenging to play

on musically and be authentic.

Because he has a really good, solid

harmonic knowledge of what constitutes jazz

and he really understands R&B music and Funk and Pop music.

And not only does he kind of understand it

and have an appreciation for it,

but he also can get inside the music.

[uptempo Jazz music]

- [Marcus] Luther Vandross and I met

when he were both in Roberta Flack's band together.

He was singing background, I was playing bass.

That's when I really got to appreciate Luther

because a lot of singers are not musicians, they just sing.

But Luther was very much a musician.

He really taught me about singing.

So, one day he says, "Look, I want to go in the studio

"and record a demo because I wanna be an artist,

"not just a really well known background singer."

He had already sang background for David Bowie,

for Bette Midler, for everybody, you know.

Like, if you look on an album in the late 70's,

early 80's, he was singing on everything, you know.

But he wanted to be an artist.

So, we cut some demos for Luther and it took

him awhile but he eventually got a record deal.

And his album was an instant hit, million seller.

Luther and I had such a good time working

together that for Luther's second album

we began to write music together.

And we continued to write stuff

together for the next 20 years.

And I began to produce with him.

♪ In her arms and love me, too

I would love to do:

♪ You couldn't really have a heart

♪ And hurt me

♪ Like you hurt me

♪ And be so untrue

♪ So what can I do

♪ Yeah

♪ Ooo, yeah

♪ Yeah

♪ Knowing I love you so

- [Voiceover] I met Marcus Miller through

doing sessions for Luther Vandross.

He's one of those names that you can

just say Marcus, you know, in many, many

countries you could just say Marcus

as opposed to having to say Marcus Miller.

You can speak in terms of a well-rounded musicians.

Someone who really has made a statement

in so many different areas from the standpoint

of producing records and arranging

and writing and singing and playing.

The thing that I think I appreciate most

about Marcus's technique is that he articulates

each note as if he were using a pick.

It's like his thumb is like a pick.

Someone like a George Benson who would

play a phrase [imitating bass guitar] with a pick.

Well, Marcus does that with his thumb.

And that is one incredible accomplishment

and that technique really does set him apart

from pretty much any other bass player.

Marcus has his own unique style.

[uptempo Jazz music]

- [Marcus] Somebody in my neighborhood,

an older drummer, said he heard me play,

he said, "You need to check out Jaco Pastorius."

I said, "What is that, Jaco Pastorius?"

He said, "He's very good."

So I listened, at first I didn't get it.

But I knew it was important so I continued to listen.

And this thing basically just revealed itself to me.

It was Jaco's first album and I just listened

and it just grew and grew and important.

I started learning the notes, man,

and he was playing a fretless bass,

which is the first time I heard that.

Which allowed you to use more vibrato

like a violin or a cello.

I'm playing, and I'm getting deeper and deeper into it, man.

And he's playing these solos that are really

intricate and I'm learning the solos

and I'm feeling pretty good that I've been

able to halfway figure out these solos.

But then I said to myself, "But why did he

"choose the notes that he chose?"

And this is around the same time that

Kenny Washington, in my high school,

had said to me you need to learn jazz.

I said, "I heard about jazz from this

"Jaco Pastorius thing, maybe I need to check this out.

"So I can figure out why, not just how, but why."

And Jaco was basically the one as a bass player who

threw me into harmony, he made me learn melodies,

he made me learn composition because I recognized

that he wrote a lot of his music, too.

So, I owe a lot of my education to the

inspiration I got from Jaco Pastorius.

I said, "Man, I gotta learn music."

I was in Los Angeles playing with Roberta Flack

and I was 20 and I'm at the Sunset Marquee Hotel

and my phone rings, I say, "Hello?"

"Marcus, Jaco Pastorius, I'm in room 226,

"come up here and get your lesson."

Click, and he slams the phone down, right.

So, I go, "Okay, this guy's crazy."

But I did go upstairs.

"Play something for me."

So, at this moment, right, Jaco Pastorius

is right in front of me and he says,

"Play something for me."

So, what am I gonna do?

Am I gonna play Jaco's stuff for Jaco?

Why would I wanna do that, right?

I said I gotta play something from deep inside me.

I went [imitating bass guitar] and he goes,

"I can do that, I just don't."

Right, and at that moment I recognized how

important it was that you have your own identity.

And then we began to jam together.

[uptempo Jazz music]

The other thing I learned from him was

in order to have a style you have to

commit to certain limitations.

And what I mean by that is Jaco played a Jazz bass,

a Fender Jazz bass has two microphones and you

have two knobs that correspond to different microphones.

Jaco never turned this one on, it was always off.

He only used this back pickup, we call it the back pickup.

And so his sound was more nasal and more thin,

but you could hear all of his notes very clearly, right.

But he never turned it on, he limited himself.

He said, "This is my sound."

And that's why his style was so clear.

That's why his style was so distinct

because he closed in his possibilities, right.

And he never played like this.

He didn't bother with slap, you know,

he played like himself and it made me go, "Okay."

I'm watching him and going,

"I want to limit myself, whatever I play

"I'm gonna make it work with my bass."

My mom had bought it for me, it was a 1977 Fender Jazz bass

and I started limiting, I didn't fool around

with different settings, same setting every time.

My was both pickups full on, right.

A little bit more bass, a little less treble, okay?

Every time, everything else I would change with my hands.

Every once in awhile I did have a fretless bass

because sometimes I wanted to use my Jaco influence.

But for the main, same bass.

I still play the same bass today

and I think that has a lot to do with my style.

Miles Davis, when he first started,

he told me he was trying to play like Dizzy Gillespie.

High and fast and Miles was working, working.

And he was getting close, if you listen to

records from the early 50's, playing high,

playing fast and then he said to himself,

"What do I achieve by playing almost like Dizzy?"

And then he said, "I'm gonna be more me."

He slowed it down, more mid-range, more of what

he felt naturally and he became Miles Davis

that everybody considers a legend.

I think Jaco really set me on that path.

[bass guitar solo of "I'll Be There" by The Jackson 5]

Miles had been in retirement six years maybe,

he hadn't played a note in public for that long.

And then Dr. George Butler, I think, finally convinced

him to come out of retirement in the early 80's, 1980, '81.

And the first guy Miles called was Dave Liebman

and said, "I need a young saxophonist,

"who can you recommend?"

And Dave recommended Bill Evans and so Bill

would come to Miles' house and hang out with him.

And Bill got into boxing, you know what I mean,

with Miles and they just became really good friends.

And Bill helped Miles put together

Miles' first band for his comeback.

And Miles said, "I need a funky bass player,

"who should I call?"

And Bill was the one who recommended that Miles call me.

I was just hanging out, I was doing a recording

session for some singing group and the

receptionist called and she handed me a note that

said call Miles and I said,

"Oh, okay." So, I dialed the number and I said,

"Is this Miles?"

He said, "Yeah, can you be at

"Columbia Studios in a couple hours?"

And I said, "Yeah, you gonna be there?"

He said, "I'm gonna be there if you're gonna be there."

So, I said, "Well, I'm gonna be there."

And a couple of hours later, man,

I'm at Columbia Studios, man, and we're recording.

Al Foster, Barry Finnerty, Sammy Figueroa,

Bill Evans and myself and we were recording.

I mean, it happened really fast.

For me there was no time to think about it,

no time to think what should I wear,

what should I practice, no.

Just get over to the studio and react.

And Miles walked in the studio, man,

and the first thing I noticed, man,

was that I thought he was maybe 6'5.

I thought he was a tall...

Because he was Miles Davis, but no.

He wasn't that tall, a regular human being.

And he showed me two notes on the piano,

F sharp G, and he said,

"That's the song, you got it?"

I said, "That's it?"

He said, "Yeah!"

I said, "Okay, I got it."

And we played, man, and the first take

he stopped me and said, "Is that all you

"gonna play, just F sharp G?"

Because that's what he told me to play, right?

I said, "Oh, I see, it's just a suggestion."

And so the next take I played a lot more

and he stopped again and said,

"You're playing too much."

And the third take I think I got it just right.

You know, where it was just like,

I played that sharp G and I played the other

things when I thought it was appropriate.

After we finished that take, which was the first

complete take, after we finished the take

he said, "Ya'll play like a bunch of faggots."

[laughs] And then he walked out of the door, you know.

But I was sitting by the exit and as he walked

past me he gave me a wink, you know.

And I said, "Okay, alright, I made it

"through the first song."

You know, and I think we recorded a couple of

days and then he asked me to be in his band.

And that's how I began my relationship.

I was in his band for two years.

You know, we did "The Man with the Horn"

which was the recording that I just described.

And then we did a live album called

"We Want Miles" and then there was another

album called "Star People", which actually

had some more live performances on it

and some studio performances.

But those were the three official

recordings that I did with Miles at that

time in the two years I was with him.

[uptempo Jazz music]

The first time I played with George Benson

I think I was probably 19 years old.

George, he owned a club called the Breezin' Lounge

in New York City and encouraged the young

musicians to play at the Breezin' Lounge.

We used to have some legendary jam sessions.

Tom Brown and and Tom Blachman,

everybody played at the Breezin' Lounge.

Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen who had a label

called GRP Records, they came up to the

Breezin' Lounge one night and they heard our

homeboy Tom Brown playing the trumpet

and they signed him on the spot.

It was a really cool scene,

but that was all...

George Benson was the Godfather, you know.

He was the one, every once in awhile when

he wasn't on tour, he'd come and make

sure everything was going okay.

- [Voiceover] When I met Marcus he was a kid.

The manager of the group that he was with,

The Tom Brown, was my manager also.

His name was Mr. Jimmy Boyd and he recognized

Tom Brown as being a very important musician

and the whole band, Marcus Miller he

recognized as being a genius at his young age.

And everything I heard Marcus on was a killer.

So, I said, "Wow, you mean these kids did this?"

I would hear the music and I said, "That's spectacular!"

We ended up doing the album with Earl Klugh

called "Collaboration", his playing was outstanding.

He gave us platform to spring out from.

He didn't lock us down into any one vibe.

He gave us room to breathe because he

understands harmony so well.

I don't measure him by his sound,

I measure him by his character.

The character that comes from him when he

speaks on an instrument is subtle power.

You know, if you try to compare him to

a rock 'n roll or bass R&B funk player

you'd be doing him an injustice because he

doesn't have to play loud to be effective.

His stuff is always musical.

[mid-tempo Jazz music]

- [Marcus] I was doing a lot of work as

a side man with Luther Vandross,

with David Sanborn and I made two albums on my own.

But I wasn't so satisfied with the albums,

I don't really have a true sound for myself.

What should I do?

And I said, "Well, why don't I just relax

"and play with people I grew up with."

Lenny White, Bernard Wright, they both

come from an area in New York called

Jamaica, Queens which is where I come from as well.

And I said to them, "Okay, let's do a group together

"where we can just experiment with different sounds."

And that's what we did and we formed

the group Jamaica Boys and initially we

thought we would go and do Jazz, you know.

But when we got into the studio we were like,

"Hey, you know what, maybe we should try

"to do something a little different."

And that's how it started, man.

And we got the brother of Chaka Khan,

his name is Mark Stevens and he became our singer.

Our music was a little bit different from what

was going on the middle 80's,

but I still love what we did and I think

I took a lot of my experiences from Jamaica Boys

when I started writing with Miles.

- ♪ Don't start with me

♪ Spend a little time with me

♪ Oh, oh

♪ Come on, let's spend some time

♪ Don't start with me

♪ Spend a little time with me

♪ Oh, oh

♪ Well, I know

♪ All we need is time together

♪ Oooh

♪ Just a little time to know you

♪ Come on, baby, I'll begin to show you

♪ Don't you want to spend some time with me

♪ Just a little time

- Miles was moving into another era.

Nobody knew where he was trying to go, only he knew.

And when he selected Marcus Miller,

because Marcus was a very game-wise young fellow,

good intellect, great command of his instrument,

full of ideas, great sound and he

had a great love for Miles.

I think he understood was Miles was

trying to do and so he fit right in.

And that song "Tutu" was a great example

of what that combination could accomplish.

Miles' great ability to improvisate

and create a picture against Marcus Miller's

melody and his harmonies underneath.

It was a great one, that's a historic meeting there.

- [Marcus] I heard that Miles moved,

he left Columbia which was a big deal

because he has been on Columbia for a long time.

And he moved to Warner Brothers.

I was signed to Warner Brothers at the time

so I knew everybody at Warner Brothers.

So, I called Tommy LiPuma who's the head of

A&R there at Warner Brothers and I said,

"Tommy, you guys just signed Miles Davis?"

And he said, "Yeah, man, and Miles is looking

"to do something new and contemporary,

"do you have any music?"

And I said, "Well, yeah."

I didn't have anything but I said, "Of course."

And he said, "Well, I'm gonna send you

"what George Duke wrote for Miles."

And when I heard what George Duke wrote,

it was contemporary, it was using synthesizers

and samples like, very current, like right up to date.

And I said, "Whoa, if Miles is interested

"in going this route, this is really exciting."

I called Tommy LiPuma later and said,

"Hey, I have some songs, man."

Amd he said, "Well, come out to L.A.

"and we'll listen to them together."

So, I flew out to L.A. and I played my

cassette demo for Tommy LiPuma and he said,

"This is great, let's record it."

And I said, "Okay, where's the band?"

He said, "No, no, no, no.

"let's not use the band, let's do it

"the same way that your demo was done.

"How'd you do that?"

And I said, "I just played all the instruments myself."

He said, "Okay, let's do it like that."

And I said, "This is a Miles Davis record,

"this is not like a pop R&B record."

He said, "Yeah, but this is great, this is different,

"I think Miles will really like this."

So, I called a rental company and had them send

all the instruments and just got to working,

just building the tracks up.

And then Miles came in after three days

to hear what I was doing and he said,

"Oh, man, that sounds great, keep going,

"let me know when you need trumpet."

Okay, so a few days after that I called Miles

and he came in and he put the trumpet on.

And it was difficult for me initially to

instruct him because he was Miles Davis,

you know, I had so much respect for him.

Man, I was 25 or something like that at

the time and to be telling Miles what

to do was a little intimidating.

But he said, "You gotta tell me what to do

"because you know this music.

"You have in your head exactly what it's

"supposed to sound like, so tell me."

So, after a couple of, "Miles, do this,

"Miles do that", after I got into it a little bit

it started sounding so good that

I lost my inhibition and started really

kinda telling him what I liked to hear.

And after Miles had recorded his parts

I started calling some other musicians to

come in add things to react to Miles so that it

didn't sound just like a track with Miles on top of it.

[mid-tempo Jazz music]

See that hat, man, that's what

I'm talking about right there.

That's the hat, man.

And that was the bass player in

Charlie Parker's band at the time, Tommy Potter.

A lot of guys used to wear this hat in this time.

Lester Young was the most famous one,

but a lot of guys wore it.

But I like wearing mine as a

connection to this period, you know.

'49, man, the 50's to me seemed like the

end of a period of a...

Harmonically kind of

a tonal Jazz and then after that people

started going outside the harmony to

try to take it to the next level.

But the 50's, man, was like, you had to be

clever and you had to know all your tunes.

You know, all the standard Jazz tunes

and you had to try to figure out a new way

to approach them and it had to swing really hard.

It required a lot from the musicians.

I always wondered whether Miles was

actually trying to make you grow or he just

liked making people uncomfortable.

Because Charlie Parker made him uncomfortable.

Charlie Parker would always put Miles

in uncomfortable situations, like he'd leave

Miles on the bandstand while he left

and he wouldn't come back for a long time.

And Miles was up there trying to figure

out after five, six choruses, 17 choruses,

what do I do now, you know?

So, Charlie Parker put him in those situations

and sometimes I think that Miles just spent

the rest of his life making everybody else pay. [laughs]

With "Tutu" we still knew who was really in charge.

[laughs] You know what I mean?

It was still Miles because if there's something

I had on there that he didn't like he'd just say,

"Oh, yeah, take that piano outta there,

"you don't need the piano."

And when he played he commanded the whole picture.

What's really surprising when I think about it now

is that this thing was really modern and it was

really a different way of making music for him.

And he never seemed uncomfortable for a second.

And I'm just now realizing that, you know,

there are some Jazz musicians who couldn't overdub.

And that never happened with Miles,

he was like, "How about this?"

And not only did he get into it but he found

different ways to do it, you know.

He was saying, "Hey, run that back,

"I wanna try something else.

"I wanna try another approach."

You know, he completely embraced it

without a second of transition.

Man, the guy was 61 years old.

He could have been like,

"Marcus, now what happens, where are the musicians?"

Or, "What am I supposed to play to the

"music I hear in the headphone?"

He could have very easily been uncomfortable,

but he was like ahead of it and it's just

a testament to how forward-thinking he was.

He was completely ready for

a new situation, a new challenge.

In "Tutu" when I was building this track up,

I tried to incorporate all of

Miles' previous periods in this one tune.

So, if you listen to the drums the beat is from New Orleans.

It's a beat that he had shown me years before,

he called it a New Orleans two-step or something.

And the harmony is from the 60's,

you know, like it's kind of Gil Evans

and Herbie Hancock type of harmony.

And there's ensemble paying with soft brass,

like the trombones, from the 50's,

like the "The Birth of the Cool", right.

And then there's a force kind of harmony that

Miles started experimenting with in the 70's, right.

So, I had elements from every one of his eras in "Tutu."

So, I was really excited to see which of those

elements he was gonna connect to and the thing

that he connected to was the Blues elements of it.

[mid-tempo Jazz music]

When I hear "Tutu" I definitely hear the 80's,

but I think there's some depth to the music.

It wasn't just about the modern sounds.

And I think if you have melodies and you have harmonies,

the traditional music elements,

then there's a good chance that

that music will transcend the era that it was

created in and maybe it'll appeal to people

in the future down the road when it's

no longer the sound of the day.

It's a scary thing when you're doing, like,

contemporary music because you have no

guarantee that your music will ever make

it out of the little window that you're creating it in.

If you play a more traditional form of Jazz

that's already proven to be timeless

then you don't have that worry.

But to create something for that moment,

you never know, you're just taking a chance.

But that's what Miles was all about

and I think if you create something that's

of that moment and it ends up becoming timeless,

that's the ultimate win.

- [Voiceover] The song and the arrangement in "Tutu",

that really fit Miles Davis' sound in particular

for that period of Miles' expression.

Funky sound, urban groove, all those

things were there with "Tutu."

So, from listening to it I felt like this is something

that Miles is really having a good time with, you know.

And I've had a chance to play "Tutu" with

Marcus and frankly I had to ask him,

"How did you voice these chords?"

He had to show me, you know, I couldn't easily

pick it up from the recordings.

For the most part I don't usually have to

ask musicians how they voice a certain chord.

I can usually hear it on the record,

but with that it was so cleverly put together

that it's a lovely tribute to not only

Miles Davis but a tribute to Marcus Miller.

[uptempo Jazz music]

- [Marcus] I think the thing I would like people

to remember about Miles is that he was hip.

Not shallow hip, not I just pay whatever's current,

but he was always looking for the

depth in what it is that's new.

The first thing I admire about Miles

was how natural his genius was.

You know, I know a lot of great musicians

who have to consider what they should do.

You know, they go, "Okay, let me think,

"what would be the most profound thing I can do?"

You knw, and they really work at it

and not that Miles didn't work at what he did,

but it came very naturally.

You know, "I'm tired of this I think I'm gonna do that."

And then he put the thought into it and the work into it.

And I really was struck by that and I think

I subconsciously, now that I'm talking about it,

I realize that I've kinda used that.

In terms of what I should do,

and just go, "Well, what do I feel like doing?"

And the other thing was that he was always

true to himself, he was a very complicated guy,

but the one thing that I observed was

that if he felt like there was something he

should do musically, he did it.

He never did anything for anybody else

because anyone else said that that's

what they thought he should do.

He did what he thought he should be doing.

The third thing about Miles that I respect, man,

is that he had that beautiful combination

for me of his head and his heart.

And some people are really cerebral

and some people are really soulful

and they play or they speak with all this passion.

But the people that I really admire have

this really beautiful balance of the two.

They do all this thought,

but they way they put it across is with a soulfulness.

And I think Martin Luther King was like that,

you could tell that he was doing all this studying.

He studied Gandhi, he studied all these philosophies.

But then when he relayed it to the people

he did it through a soulfulness,

with emotion and it really put it across.

And John Coltrane did the same thing,

Malcolm X and Miles Davis absolutely

had that combination, I really admire that about him.

[mid-tempo Jazz music]

I think there's absolutely before Miles

and after Miles for me the main thing was confidence.

Because once you've played with Miles,

if he's told you that he loves what you're doing,

you're not really walking around

looking for that kind of validation anymore.

You already got it from Miles Davis,

who else do you need to tell you that you're doing okay.

So, then it was really more, "What do I want

"to express, how do I want to say it?"

You know what I mean?

"What kind of musical area do I want to move into now?"

Those are the kinds of things that you start to

concern yourself with, which means you're growing.

I remember once I took a solo, Miles, he said,

"Man, wouldn't it be cool if you could play

"the roots and also play your solo at the same time?"

It was a very simple statement but it was

like the whole problem with bass solos,

is that when you begin to solo there's

nobody playing the bass beneath you.

All the other musicians have the advantage,

have the benefit of a bass playing underneath

you that gives you the support.

And then when you play a solo on the bass

there's nobody playing the bass for you.

He nailed it, he nailed the dilemma of the

bass player just in that simple statement.

And I found myself from that point

dropping the bass notes and then solo,

and dropping the bass notes.

So, I was going back and forth to get the best

of both worlds and I think that really

influenced my style of soloing, you know what I mean?

That you'll hear a bass line and a solo

in my solos at the same time.

[uptempo Jazz music]

- When Marcus does this on the bass,

he has a facility on the bass that's

unparalleled by, you know...

I mean unparalleled meaning other people

could do it if they did it, that they could

do their own, you know.

But most people stop at the place where

it becomes convenient and it

becomes like a job, I'm playing a job.

But Marcus can do things

with his bass, with his fingers

and then write down many kinds

of story.

I think that Marcus has all the complications for

piercing the unknown without a care

in the world about any consequences.

Consequences mean like, sometimes you think

you're gonna betray your gut feeling.

Marcus, he can stand on his own and not going

around with his hand in his hat for assistance

because something doesn't work.

He's the kind of a person that Miles admired,

he would like to admire the fact that someone

left or going on and not coming back

to him for assistance.

- [Marcus] "Man, I gotta go to Mars

"and get some more notes."

That's what Wayne Shorter said once, man.

Somebody said, "Wayne, how you doing?"

He goes, "I gotta go to Mars and get more notes."

Wayne Shorter's incredible, man.

This guy is truly a creative genius.

It's just so beautiful to be around him

and he naturally thinks along a different path.

I worked on an album where I produced for Wayne,

an album called "High Life."

As a producer your job is to almost limit the

creativity because he has so many ideas.

I'm sitting with him, I said,

"Wayne, what's the most important thing

"for composition, just give me one thing."

He said, "Composition is just imagining something

"that's not here yet, but hearing it

"completely in your head and not

"being afraid of your imagination."

And that really affected me.

[uptempo Jazz music]

I first heard Al Jarreau when I was

a teenager and he was singing "Take Five."

I'd never heard a singer like this before.

I heard a lot of jazz singers,

but they all were in the older style, you know.

They all tried to sing like Ella Fitzgerald, you know,

or Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

And this was the first guy,

he was singing Jazz Fusion with his voice

and it seemed so natural, he was using every

sound that he could make from his voice.

A lot of singers work hard to eliminate

certain sounds from their voice.

Their voice teacher will say don't ever use that sound,

make it more round, make it more full.

Don't sing like this.

Al Jarreau never took those lessons.

He uses everything that comes out of his mouth.

So he goes, "Dane, dane, dane, dane,

"nuna, nane, nane, nane, nay-yay."

He sings like that, he sings very full.

He uses everything, it's pure imagination.

And he was the first singer to me

who was a true jazz musician.

Years go by and I start to work with

David Sanborn who had the same manager as

Al Jarreau and I'm in David Sanborn's band

and we would be the opening act for Al Jarreau.

This was in the 80's when Al Jarreau

was a huge, huge pop star.

In the 90's they asked me to produce Al Jarreau.

It was an exciting thing for me and what

I wanted to do because his pop thing had

been running for maybe 10, 15 years now.

And I said, "You know, it would be nice to

"return to a little bit more of a Jazz feeling

"of Al Jarreau's improvisational talent."

I suggested that to them and they said,

"This might be a good time to do that."

So, I put together a band and the idea

was to do it live but have it be studio quality.

- [Voiceover] You know, by the time we did

the "Tenderness" record Marcus was becoming

a famous producer, you know. [laughs]

He was kinda like my little cousin,

my little brother, you know, playing bass with

David Sanborn, on tour on with me

and David Sanborn, pretty soon he's producing

records for everybody in the world and having

big hit songs on the radio.

So, it was just a natural thing for Marcus

and I to start thinking about doing a record together.

And that was our first time doing some music together

and I think we did some nice music.

A lot of people think it's one of the most

important projects that I did right alongside

"Look to the Rainbow Live."

♪ It has occurred to me that you should go right ahead

♪ Go 'head

♪ I know you don't want to hear

♪ You gon' do what you want to do

♪ You, Jackson, you

♪ Yeah, you

♪ I see you, I'm watching you

♪ Take your money and run

♪ Even got groceries and running too

♪ You're running and hiding, and ducking and hiding

♪ And selling 10 pounds coals in factories

♪ And I can't find no job, no where

♪ I assaulted your mama

♪ I beat your daddy

♪ Go 'head [backup vocals down out Al]

♪ Going to be there in my own time, in my own way

♪ [mumbling]

♪ See me

♪ Say you don't see me

♪ You don't see me

♪ Don't see me

♪ You don't see me

♪ When I'm trying to do right, baby

♪ You gon' see me now

♪ You gon' see me

♪ When I'm trying to do right

♪ [backup singers drown out Al] see me now

♪ You don't see me

♪ When I've been trying to do right, baby

♪ You don't see me when I'm trying to do right

♪ Baby, if you could see me now ♪

- [Marcus] When I was a kid, I was probably

about 13 years old and I was in the basement of

a friend of mine, that's where we used to hang out.

We used to listen to music and each of us

would have albums and we'd challenge each other.

"Well, you think what you play is cool,

"but have you heard this?"

So, we were doing that kind of thing.

And this guy came downstairs into the basement

and said, "I got ya'll today 'cause check this out."

And he put this record on and the bass went

[imitating bass sound]

and we all just stood there

with our jaws dropped because we'd

never heard anything that funky.

We thought it was a bass guitar playing it,

we never heard a bass guitar sound like that.

Well, it turns out that it wasn't a bass guitar,

it was Herbie Hancock playing on a bass synthesizer.

But you know, synthesizers were new at

that time and we'd never heard anything like it.

And then we were tripping out because we'd

look on the back of the album at the

instruments that these guys played

and Herbie Hancock, under the instruments

that he played, he had listed

about 13 instruments, you know.

And we hadn't heard of any of them.

What's an ARP Odyssey, what's a clavinette?

We didn't know any of these names so it

was like a music lesson and at the

same time our heads are going like this, you know.

And in the middle of that song Herbie went

to the Fender Rhodes and played this incredible

Jazz solo and none of us knew anything about Jazz.

"Head Hunters", that album did so many things for us.

It made us want to learn about instruments,

we wanted to learn what all these instruments

on the back of this album were and we

wanted to learn what Jazz was.

Because if this is Jazz, we decided that we liked Jazz.

[uptempo Jazz music]

One day Herbie called me in and said,

"Look, I'm gonna put together a

"group called Headhunters 2005

"and I'd you to play in it."

I said, "Oh, no problem, I'm there."

And I'd been leading my band for a long time

and I hadn't seen doing any side man stuff.

But if I was gonna do one side man gig,

playing with the Headhunters,

that was the gig I was gonna do.

So, we got together and Herbie called me

before the rehearsals and said,

"Marcus, do you want me to send you

"the music to any of this stuff?"

I said, "Man, I know this music better than you do."

[laughs] It turned out I wasn't quite right about that,

but I did know the music pretty well.

In the band was Terri Lyne Carrington on drums,

and Lionel Loueke played guitar.

John Mayer played guitar as well on a few gigs with us.

Roy Hargrove played trumpet and Kenny Garrett played sax.

And Munyungo played percussion.

- [Voiceover] One of the most incredible

things about Marcus is that he can make

music under any number of musical environments.

He transcends all of that.

That he has the ability to get right to the heart

of whatever

choice of expression for that

band's sound whether it's an orchestra or whether

it's a small Jazz group or a Funk group

or whether it's R&B or Country or whatever it is.

He finds his own voice within that.

[uptempo Jazz music]

- [Marcus] In the early 2000's Victor Wooten

called Stanley Clarke, he called me

and he said, "Man, we should do a group

"together like The Three Tenors,

"we should be like The Three Bassists."

And Stanley and I thought it was a funny idea,

but we didn't take it too seriously.

And then in 2007 there's a magazine here

in the United States called Bass Player magazine.

And Bass Player magazine, every year they give

a lifetime achievement award to a bass player

and in 2007 the lifetime achievement award

went to Stanley Clarke and Bass Player magazine

called myself, they called Victor Wooten.

And they said, "Would you guys like to be

"the presenters to Stanley Clarke?

"You can give a little speech about how

"important Stanley Clarke is and then

"you can hand him his award."

So, that's what we did and then after the award

was presented we did a jam session, the three of us.

People were surprised to see that three bassists

could work together and make it sound like music.

After the show we said, "Hey, man, maybe we

"should do a few gigs."

When you play with Stanley Clarke

and you play with Victor Wooten,

you really have to make sure everything

you play is like yourself, make sure people

can tell which one is you.

So, I found myself really looking into

myself to see what's really me.

What can I play that really puts my personality out there?

I think both of those guys probably experienced,

to some extent, the same thing.

So, it was very nice for us to be on

the stage together, you know,

it kinda represented three decades of the bass guitar

and it showed people what the bass guitar was capable.

[bass guitar music]

It was the first time I really kinda

revisited the album "Tutu" in 20 some odd years.

And I did think it would be interesting for me,

particularly since I wasn't in a band

when I wrote that music for Miles.

You know, it's not just "Tutu",

but for "Tutu" and "Siesta" and "Amandla",

the three albums that I wrote music and produced for Miles.

I wasn't in his band so I really only

got to play some of those songs one time,

in the studio when we recorded it

and that was the last time.

So, I never got the pleasure of exploring those songs

and seeing what else you can find in them

on a night to night basis, on a tour.

So, I said, "What can I do so that it will

"be okay with Miles' mentality?"

And I decided to get all young musicians

who could bring a new energy to this music

and maybe we could use the notes of "Tutu"

maybe to create something new and something for today.

That was my hope.

[uptempo Jazz music]

- So, so--

- [Man] That's all I have?

- [Marcus] Yeah.

- Like, I'm not playing with the sequence,

like, that's just the intro and then [imitates drums].

- [Marcus] Yeah.

- [imitates bass guitar] That's when

it jumps into [mumbling].

- [Marcus] [laughs] Even when we recorded it, man...

[trumpet and bass guitar music]

- Yeah, yep.

- [voice drowned out by music]

- Is that right?

[trumpet music]

- Oh.

[audience clapping and uptempo Jazz music]

Jean René Palacio who's the Artistic Director

on the Monaco Jazz Festival, he called and said,

"Look, we have the Philharmonic Orchestra

"of Monte Carlo available, would you

"like to collaborate with them?"

I was like, "Sure."

And I had done a lot of work with

orchestras in writing music for films,

but I had never written for an orchestra for my own music.

So, I said to myself, "Well, what pieces should I choose?"

And then I just went back in my mind

and remembered when I was recording different

pieces when I would say to myself,

"I'm going to try and make it sound orchestral."

And said, "Well, now I have the opportunity

"to have an actual orchestra, so let me

"just choose the songs that I've always

"imagined an orchestra in my head anyway."

So, there was some songs that I'd written for Miles,

some songs from my own albums, that's what made

up the song selection for "A Night in Monte Carlo."

[uptempo Jazz music]

For the last couple of years I've been doing a

tribute to "Tutu" and then somebody said to me,

"You know, next year in 2011 it's

"20 years since Miles has passed."

And it was a huge surprise, it struck me, you know,

because if you had asked me I would never

have thought that it was 20 years.

I would've thought maybe five or six

and I tried to figure out why.

And I think it's because Miles' music is everywhere,

but more importantly his spirit is so strong

and it's so alive that it doesn't

feel like it's been that long.

I called Herbie and I said,

"Man, do you know that it's 20

"years since Miles passed?"

And he said, "Wow, really?"

And I said, "I would like to do

"a tribute, not a long tour, just maybe nine

"or ten concerts and would you be interested?"

And he said, "Yes, I would."

And I called Wayne and he said the same thing.

But it's one thing to decide to do a tribute to Miles,

it's another thing to figure out which

tunes to play and then how to play the tunes.

So, the first day of rehearsal we didn't play a note.

We just sat around and we just talked.

We just talked about Miles, we just talked

about what he meant to us, told stories.

And I said, "This is beautiful."

And Herbie said, "Maybe the concert should be just

"like this, a conversation about what Miles means to us."

And I think Wayne was the one who said,

"Maybe it's like a dream, like if Miles

"were actually dreaming about his life

"or one of us were dreaming about Miles' life."

- [Herbie] Both Marcus and I kinda joined in with this.

Maybe we could play fragments of Miles' songs

and go from one to another and not have real

solos like they did on the old records.

Just one long solo after another long solo.

And how 'bout if we went from this part of

one tune to this part of another tune at this point?

This would be kinda cool.

Or how 'bout if we played this song in a slow

3-4 instead of a faster 4-4 that people knew?

"Yeah, that's cool because that's

"a different way of treating it."

So, we just start throwing in a lot of

different ideas and then we start to rehearse it.

[uptempo Jazz music]

- [Marcus] "Renaissance", for this album I began

to feel like it was time to do something different.

I changed a few things, I changed a lot of

the musicians that I was working with,

I really tried to write music from a different mentality,

I recorded the music in a much more

different way than I was before.

Like, I used to just live in the studio for

three months to make an album.

You know, and just trying this, trying that,

with a lot of synthesizers and things like that.

I really enjoyed that,

but for this album it was much more organic

where I just was with a band and we just kept playing

until it started to feel right and then we recorded it.

[mid-tempo Jazz music]

- [Marcus] [imitating the melody]

Okay, okay, let me take that after awhile.

I'm gonna ask you to let me take

it by myself and the drums, okay?

If I had to pick a song of the "Renaissance" album

it would be the song "Goree."

About three years ago we visited Senegal.

We did a concert of the arts in Senegal,

it was my first time there.

The day before the concert we visited the

Island of Goree and we all knew

the story, so we were prepared,

but I wasn't prepared for the depth of the

emotion standing there in that place.

And we took a tour of the slave house and we heard

the stories of how they kept the slaves there

for three months to make sure that they

were healthy enough to send them into slavery.

And the gentlemen who was our tour guide

was telling us Africa's population is

probably diminished by 25 to 30%.

I decided while I was there that I would

like to write something about how we felt.

And initially the song was about anger

and sadness and frustration over this situation.

But as I was writing the song I began

to realize it was also, as horrible as it was,

it was a beginning of my people, the African-Americans.

And so, you know,

as horrible as it was I'm really proud of the ability of the

African-Americans to take that horrible

beginning and change it into positive things.

With "Goree" this was what was on my mind,

the initial anger and pain and resentment,

but also it's a celebration of the ability to transcend.

["Goree" by Marcus Miller]

- [Voiceover] I have a dream,

my four little children will one day live

in a nation where they will not be

judged by the color of their skin,

but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

[cheering and applause]

- As a bass player I can't play

a whole concert of bass solos.

A bass is very interesting when

it's accompanying, when it's playing rhythm.

So, I want to get my other guys involved

so that I can feature playing support bass.

I got young guys in the band now.

I don't try to be like Miles, nobody's Miles,

but with the young musicians I really

appreciate it when they have an open mind.

Miles never spoke that much, he'd say a couple of things,

but I had to learn by watching him.

I learned how he dealt with criticism,

I learned how he dealt with creativity,

how he wasn't afraid of his creativity,

he wasn't afraid of his ideas.

I'm hoping that my guys, just from watching me,

will learn things, just from seeing how I deal with my life.

I go from day to day and that's a big responsibility.

[uptempo Jazz music]

People ask me, "What kind of music do you play?"

And I say, "We play Funk on the bottom

"and Jazz on the top."

The music I play is basically Soul music,

R&B and it's got a lot of Pop elements,

but the difference is that we play it with a Jazz spirit.

If we receive something from the audience

that's a little different energy-wise,

the music will change, I play something else.

The thing about Jazz that I always loved was

Jazz always has a great connection to Pop music.

The Jazz music that I always loved was when

Sonny Rollins would play an old Broadway song

or Miles Davis or Keith Jarrett would take a

song that everybody knew and change it around.

Jazz was always very closely related to Pop music.

The Bee-Bop guys, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie,

most of their songs were based on

old Show Tunes, you know, that everyone knew.

And basically what Jazz musicians were saying was,

"We can take this music that everyone knows

"and we can show you the possibilities.

"We can show you how far that music can be developed."

And I always thought that was the

most fascinating thing about Jazz.

["Come Together" by The Beatles]

- ♪ Come together

♪ Right now

♪ Yeah

- [Voiceover] ♪ Over me

- ♪ Right now

- [Voiceover] ♪ Come together

- ♪ Right now

- [Voiceover] ♪ Over me

- ♪ Over me

♪ Over me

♪ Yeah-yeah, over me

[cheering and applause]

- [Marcus] [speaking French]

[cheering and applause]