Born and bred in New York, Marcus Miller is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer who’s worked with everyone from Miles Davis to Luther Vandross to Frank Sinatra while waxing a score of records on his own. This Sunday (May 15), the Grammy winner returns home to New York’s Highline Ballroom for a special one-night all-star benefit concert to provide financial relief and support to those devastated by the recent tsunami tragedy in Japan.
“Marcus Miller Presents: A Concert for Japanese Tsunami Relief” will feature performances by cutting edge artists from around the globe and across the musical spectrum, including African vocal superstar Angélique Kidjo, hip hop/jazz pioneer Q-Tip, trumpeter Wallace Roney (Miles’ heir apparent), drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (of the Roots), and taiko drummer/bamboo flautist Kaoru Watanabe, among others. In this exclusive interview, I spoke with Miller about the show, his three-decade history with Japan, and other high points of his career.
How did this benefit concert come together?
I heard about what was going on over there, and was trying to figure out—probably like a lot of people—what can I do? And I figured, you know what? I might be able to put together a benefit concert to try to raise some money, because at the time [of the earthquake] it seemed devastating, and as the weeks have gone by we actually realized it was much worse than we thought, with all this radiation and stuff. So you just want to do whatever you can to help, and show everyone that we’re thinking about them and trying to support them.
How did you choose the performers?
I just wanted to try to present something that was unique, you know what I mean? That kind of represented New York, because there’s a whole lot of different things going on in New York, and this is where I’m from. I thought it was a nice opportunity to bring a lot of different elements together.
You were born in Brooklyn?
Yes. I was in Bed-Stuy for two years, then we moved to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn from age three to ten, and then we moved to Jamaica, Queens, which is when I started playing music. So a lot of times, people ask me how come I’m not from Jamaica.
Right. There’s Jamaica, Queens, and then there’s Jamaica, Jamaica.
I had a band called The Jamaica Boys, which was a real big mistake in terms of naming it, because they were trying to book us on reggae concerts, you know? Always got to throw in that New York part in when you mention Jamaica.
Tell us about your history with Japan.
I first when to Japan when I was nineteen years old. I went with a saxophone player called Sadao Watanabe, who was the first Japanese musician to go to Berklee College of Music in Boston; one of the really early jazz musicians. And he’s really, really famous over there, you know, like a national icon. So it was a great introduction to Japan, because we went to every city in Japan—we went to the Japanese cities that Japanese people haven’t been to.
So I got a taste of the country and a taste of the culture, and I’ve been going back ever since. I’ve been there with the Brecker Brothers; I’ve been there with Miles Davis; I’ve been there with my own groups; with Herbie Hancock. And their appreciation of American jazz is just incredible—at first you can’t believe it, because they know every record that you’ve ever played on. I’ve had people waiting for me in hotel lobbies with a stack of a hundred LPs, and they want me to sign each one because I played on each one of them, you know? I sat there in the hotel, man, for an hour (laughs) signing LPs just because I admired their enthusiasm so much. So it’s been a really beautiful place for a musician to play jazz. And so when I heard about [the disaster], I said, man, I’d love to be able to give back a little bit.
What are some of your favorite memories of Japan?
My early memories—anybody who’s visited Japan probably has the same memory—first is the incredible jetlag. Staying up all night, and then wanting to go to sleep right before your concert, you know? If you ever saw Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, sitting on the edge of his bed in the middle of the night, everybody goes through that (laughs). But also, how generous their culture is; it’s very polite. Everyone is bowing to everyone, and when you get back to the States after you’ve been in Japan, you’ve got to remember to stop bowing, because then people think there’s something wrong with you, you know? The food is always a trip, interesting, and learning how to use chopsticks.
And the fact that they never really say “no” in Japan. Like if you walk into a store and say, “Do you have size ten shoes?” they shake their head yes and say, “Yes, I don’t think we have any,” you know what I mean? (Laughs) You begin using that. And like I was talking about, the enthusiasm for music is incredible there, and the beauty of the country—we go from city to city on the high-speed trains, so you get to really see in between the two cities; you get to see all these incredible fields and flowers and rice fields and workers in the traditional kind of Japanese clothes. It’s a really beautiful country. So those are the kinds of things that strike me about Japan.
You mentioned Sadao Watanabe before. Do you have any other favorite Japanese musicians?
There’s a guitarist named Kazumi Watanabe. I guess Watanabe’s a pretty common name, but Kazumi Watanabe’s a musician that I went to Japan with who’s also a great guitarist. I’ve played with a bunch of great Japanese American musicians—Teruo Nakamura was my first Japanese American musician who I played with and really learned a lot from; he’s a bass player. But they have some incredible Japanese musicians—I played with a Japanese koto player who plays the traditional instrument in a very contemporary style, very cool.
Being from Bed-Stuy, did that have any connection for how you were able to get the gig doing the music for the TV show Everybody Hates Chris?
When Chris [Rock] showed me the pilot for the show, I viewed it with Ali LeRoi, who’s the producer-director. They said, “We don’t know if you’re interested in doing a television show,” and I said, “Man, I’m interested in doing this television show,” because I lived that life, you know what I mean? Chris was living in Bed-Stuy but he got bussed into the white area of Brooklyn—he got his butt kicked on a regular basis. I was living in Sheepshead Bay, man, which was pretty much the same thing before we moved to Jamaica, Queens. So I felt a real connection to the show, and really had a good time. That show was only supposed to maybe last a year; that’s all anyone thought it would do. But it ended up being a four-year run and now it’s on Nick at Nite, so it’s really cool.
You also joined the Saturday Night Live band in the late ’70s. Can you tell us a little bit about how you ended up getting that gig at such a young age?
Since I was born and raised in New York, I could start playing around town earlier than a lot of the musicians who aren’t from New York and who had to finish school and then move here and get a job waiting tables or whatever you do until you can establish yourself. So I got a pretty early start. And a friend of mine said, “Hey, come on down, they’re auditioning a new bassist for Saturday Night Live.” So I went down and played and got the job, and it was very cool.
It was the year right after John Belushi had [left], so it was a difficult year for Saturday Night Live, actually, because they were still recovering from that. But I played two seasons, and in the second season Eddie Murphy showed up—Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. And that kind of started yet another life of Saturday Night Live; they’ve probably had about twelve lives now, you know? But that was a really exciting time, to see Eddie Murphy coming out of nowhere and becoming a huge star.
What were some of your highlights there?
I loved the Mr. Bill segments of Saturday Night Live, which was when they used these puppets and Mr. Bill was always getting his ass kicked—it was hilarious. And Eddie Murphy was doing Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood, he was doing Gumby, and he was doing his many characters, which was always interesting and cool and hilarious. And musically, I got to play with some amazing people, you know? I got to play with Aretha Franklin; I got to play with Debbie Harry; I got to play with Andraé Crouch. Every week there was a new situation for us to play in, and I grew a lot playing with that band. So it was a really nice experience.
And then you also returned there when Miles Davis was the musical guest, right?
Yeah. I left Saturday Night when I joined Miles’s band, so it was very cool to return and say hi to everybody with Miles, you know? It was really nice. Miles wasn’t doing so hot physically, health-wise when we did that show, so that was a drag. And I really didn’t know how much longer he had, to be honest, seeing him in that state at that time. But he got married to Cicely Tyson, and soon after that she started taking him to all these doctors and stuff, man, and next thing I know, he was back. So that was really beautiful to see.
I think that was only musical performance in the history of Saturday Night Live where they cut to commercial in the middle of the song because they didn’t know when it was going to end.
(Laughs) Absolutely. You know, playing music on TV is really tricky, because they really want you to fit into their segment, because they have to go to these commercials; it’s really set in stone. So usually when you do TV, they ask you to play the song, and they time it. And with pop music, that works fine, because the song is basically the same every time. But we were improvising; we were making stuff up. So we had no idea how long the tape was. Plus, Miles was never going to work that hard at cutting stuff short. So I think everybody just agreed, “Look, when the time’s up, just change us out.”
It’s almost inconceivable to today’s audience, because it’s been so long since they’ve had any jazz artists on that show.
It wasn’t really as much as he was a jazz musician as much as he was Miles Davis. He almost like transcended jazz…having an icon of America on the show, it’s pretty consistent on Saturday Night Live.
Before joining Miles’s band, you did a lot session work as a bassist. What were some of your most memorable dates during that time?
Everything I did with Luther Vandross was a highlight. Same with Grover Washington; we played on “Just the Two of Us” with Bill Withers; that was really cool. Playing with McCoy Tyner, who was John Coltrane’s piano player, is a highlight. There’s a lot of them because we were working every day, man, all week. Who else? Quincy Jones. Frank Sinatra. Elton John. Man, there’s a lot of them. And David Sanborn, who I met in the Saturday Night Live band. We ended up having a long relationship where I was writing music for him; [I] still do.
It was an amazing period, man. Because there were no computers, so everybody needed musicians to make music. So I was working with Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, all day long, you know what I mean? Running from studio to studio; that doesn’t exist anymore. I was really blessed to be part of that scene.
Were there ever any ones that you missed being a part of that you wish you could have done?
I played at a club on 97th and Columbus [in New York] when I was seventeen or eighteen. And the club manager got a call saying Stevie Wonder’s down on 23rd Street at Sigma Sound and he needs a bass player. And I said, “Man, I’m in the middle of a set”—I was ready to bolt out of there, but the club manager was looking at me like, “You’re not going to leave in the middle of the show with all these people here.”
So after we finished the show I jumped into a cab and got down to Sigma Sound as quickly as I could, and he was wrapping up. His session was just ending and Stevie had played the bass himself on the keyboard, which he does, you know; he’s amazing. And it was the song (sings): “All I do is think about you.” So it still kills me every time I hear that song—that I could have been me on it—because it’s one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs. But I got to hang out with him after the session anyway, and it was still very cool.
Read part 2 here.
See Marcus Miller Presents: A Concert for Japanese Tsunami Relief at Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Sunday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $45 advance, $55 day of show, and $75 reserved VIP seating. Price includes afterparty with special guest DJs Kid Capri, DJ Cassidy, D-Nice and DJ Selly. Click here here for more information and tickets. Visit Marcus online at http://marcusmiller.com.
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