Live & More

Bassist/composer/bandleader Marcus Miller is the kind of artist Ellington used to call "beyond category", so original he created a new paradigm in which to work. His style is an amalgam of funk, jazz, rock, R&B that embraces aspects of all these traditions without sticking to any of them. While some of his studio efforts have tended towards the slick, he really lets his hair down on this album, recorded live in 1996, mostly in Japan. Though heavyweights like Kenny Garrett and Hiram Bullock make their mark on the arrangements, it's Miller who carries much of the weight as few other bassists can. He moves deftly from jazzy, melodic statements to popping, slapping funk lines without batting an eyelash. In addition to tackling the tunes he wrote for his own albums, Miller revisits his illustrious past with a version of the title tune he composed for Miles Davis' TUTU, and he makes warhorses such as "Summertime" and "Strange Fruit" uniquely his own.|