[youtube id=”FuEt5aibpn0″] Marcus Miller’s 2005 Silver Rain album was influenced by a Bob Marley show he saw and a Langston Hughes poem, “In Time Of Silver Rain.” Those creative references were not the only ones as he covered songs by Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix and Duke Ellington. Miller’s experience with Prince goes back to the ’80’s when he was Miles Davis’s chief collaborator. Prince wrote “Can I Play With U” for Miles Davis’s Tutu album and Miller was responsible for incorporating the song into the album. Miller is just as much a Prince fan as Davis was and the cover of “Girls And Boys” with Macy Gray was an unpresumptuous tribute lead by his melodic bass. Miller’s 40-year career has established him as a star session player, collaborator, touring musician, songwriter and leader. He has scored several films, worked with some of the most important names in jazz and R&B and won multiple Grammy awards. In his journey as a solo artist he has released over a dozen solo albums and 2015’s Afrodeezia is his most current collection.
