He is simply one of the most prolific and gifted musicians of the last 30 years. He has excelled in jazz, fusion, soul, funk, R’n'B and film soundtrack work as a bassist, composer, producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist (he plays mean keyboards, bass clarinet, guitar and drums too). On the bass, he’s got one of the most recognisable sounds in the business, whether he’s putting the funk in it or soloing with his fretless.
He was born in Brooklyn New York, but moved to Queens when he was 10. As a young child, he was drawn initially to singing, performing in his father William’s church choir. At the age of 8, he started playing the recorder and by 10 was mastering the clarinet. After an audition, he attended the New York High School of Music which gave courses in music, art and dance. There he met future Weather Report, Miles Davis, Chic and Sting drummer Omar Hakim who he has credited with introducing him to the NY session scene.
Inspired by The O’Jays, The Stylistics, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson Five, Marcus took up the bass guitar at 13 years old, and simultaneously began studying harmony and chords with his father. Marcus has said, ‘I learned at least as much in the street with my bass as I did in the schools with my clarinet – but I value both.’
Marcus started working with local musicians flautist Bobbi Humphrey, keyboard player Lonnie Liston Smith and Return To Forever drummer Lenny White. The mid-’70s was a glorious time for bass players and Jaco Pastorius, Larry Graham and Stanley Clarke particularly influenced Marcus. He also started working in the house band for the ‘Saturday Night Live’ show between 1978 and ’79 alongside long-time musical partner and friend, the late great guitarist Hiram Bullock. The show’s cast at the time included the likes of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray.
Marcus was also making quite a name for himself on the New York studio scene, working regularly with Dave Grusin, Bill Eaton (arranger for Grover Washington Jr. and Ralph MacDonald), Bob James, Arif Mardin and Leon Pendarvis (arranger for Roberta Flack). All wrote out very detailed bass parts for Marcus, and his hard work at school was now paying off. As he once said, ‘There weren’t that many bassists in NY at that time who read music that well. Bass was usually learned in the street, not in school, so most bassists had a hard time with charts.’
Marcus played on some key albums of the late ’70s and early ’80s including Grover Washington Jr’s ‘Winelight’, Donald Fagen‘s ‘The Nightfly’, Aretha Franklin‘s ‘Jump To It’, David Sanborn‘s ‘Hideaway’, Luther Vandross‘s ‘Never Too Much’ and Lee Ritenour‘s ‘Rio’. In Sanborn and Vandross’s cases, Marcus was now being called on to produce and provide regular songwriting assistance. Marcus worked with both Sanborn and Vandross extensively throughout the ’80s.
But surely the biggest moment in Marcus’s career to date was when he got the phone call from Miles Davis in 1981. Miles apparently began the conversation with, ‘Can you get here (Columbia Studios) in a couple of hours?’ Marcus replied, ‘Well, if it’s really you, sure!’ Miller became a trusted collaborator for Miles, playing on his live comeback album ‘We Want Miles’ as well as studio sets ‘The Man With The Horn’ and ‘Star People’. Marcus’s bass playing on the latter’s opener ‘Come Get It’ is one of his all-time great performances (see below).
Marcus left Miles in 1983 but returned in 1986 to co-produce and co-compose the masterpiece ‘Tutu’. Read all about it here. A year later, they collaborated again on the sublime soundtrack for the film ‘Siesta’. Marcus also helmed Miles’s final studio album ‘Amandla’ in 1989.
Marcus also somehow found time to record two solo albums during the ’80s, 1983′s ‘Suddenly’ and a self-titled set a year later. These were mainly R’n'B/funk-tinged albums featuring Marcus’s compositions and singing, as well as a few choice instrumentals including the sublime ‘Could It Be You’, later re-recorded with Dizzy Gillespie on the ‘Closer To The Source’ album. Marcus’s first two solo albums showed his mastery of the R’n'B genre, and they stand up well today alongside the best work of acts like Cameo, The Time, Zapp, The Gap Band and Kool And The Gang.
Next time around, we look at Marcus’s career from the 1990s to the present day.