Luther Vandross and Marcus Miller wrote “Get It Right” for Aretha Franklin’s 1983 album of the same name. It was the second time Vandross produced an album for Franklin with him first taking the honor with her 1982 release Jump To It. “Get It Right” was a sassy dancefloor hit with an inspirational message of resilience. Miller’s bass, the backup singers, the trap drums and Franklin’s vocals made an indestructible groove that could make anyone dance and feel motivated to do their best in anything. Vandross was fulfilling a dream again after the success of Jump To It which earned Gold status.  Franklin was in the second decade of her career and proved her versatility and that she still had something musically vital to say in the ’80s. The album did not have high sales or climb the charts but “Get It Right” was a number-one R&B hit and has gone down as one of Franklin’s underrated dance classics. 

Aretha Franklin recorded her 28th album Jump To It in 1981 and it was released in 1982. Luther Vandross fulfilled a lifelong dream when he was given the job of exclusively producing a project for one of his musical idols. Miller and Vandross wrote the title song which was about Franklin ready to move when her lover calls.  Miller played the bass and Vandross sang backup on the song that also had Nat Adderley Jr., Fonzi Thornton, Cissy Houston and Tawatha Agee among its personnel. “Jump To It” was a hit heard everywhere in the summer of 1982 including radio, cookouts, clubs, roller rinks and car radios because it was so catchy. Franklin was brilliant and coolly added a sophisticated jazz scat into the plush tones of her standard-bearing soulful delivery.  She had a comeback with “Jump To It” because it was her first  Gold-certified record and pop hit since 1976.  It was the beginning of Franklin’s successes in the ’80s which included pop and gospel recordings that kept her on the charts. Jump To It, the album, earned an American Music Award for Best Soul Album in 1983. 

Franklin passed in 2018 after an almost six-decade career. As the Queen of Soul, she helped to create the genre and showed the world how blues, gospel and pop could be used to take the ebbs and flows of life to create beautiful songs that will connect with people forever. In 2021, National Geographic aired the eight-part series Genius: Aretha about Franklin’s life. The motion picture RESPECT starring Jennifer Hudson as Franklin is expected to be in theaters also in 2021. 

[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.

(Detroit,MI) Innovative and iconic bassist, Marcus Miller and the shape-shifting and genre-bending aggregation, Yellowjackets bring this amazing double-bill to The Music Hall’s Main Stage on Sunday, March 15th at 7PM. Miller’s just released new album, Afrodeezia—which was inspired by Miller’s role as a UNESCO Artist For Peace and spokesperson for the organization’s Slave Route Project—was recorded in locations around the world including Morocco, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans and Los Angeles, and features a wide range of guests including rapper Chuck D., vocalist Lalah Hathaway, keyboardist Robert Glasper, trumpeters Etienne Charles and Ambrose Akinmusire, guitarists Keb’ Mo’ and Wah Wah Watson, bassist/producer Mocean Worker, and cellist Ben Hong, as well as musicians from Africa, South America and the Caribbean.
– Miller’s core band includes saxophonist Alex Han, trumpeter Lee Hogans, pianist Brett Williams, guitarist Adam Agati, and drummer Louis Cato.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Marcus is highly proficient as a keyboardist, clarinetist/bass clarinetist and, primarily, as a world-renowned electric bassist, topping critics’ and readers’ polls for three decades. His résumé as an A-list player brims with over 500 recording credits as a sideman on albums across the spectrum of musical styles: rock (Donald Fagen and Eric Clapton), Jazz (George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Sample, Wayne Shorter and Grover Washington, Jr.), pop (Roberta Flack, Paul Simon and Mariah Carey), R&B (Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan), hip hop (Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg), blues (Z.Z. Hill), new wave (Billy Idol), smooth jazz (Al Jarreau and Dave Koz) and opera (collaborations with tenor Kenn Hicks and soprano Kathleen Battle).

Hard to pigeon-hole, Yellowjackets are in a sense fusion, but are also seriously tuneful and memorable R & B with elegant touches of deft Post-Bop sensibilities and elements of a Rock undercurrent as well. 2013 brought their their most recent CD, “A Rise In the Road” which debuted at #1 on the Itunes Jazz Chart!

The current line up includes, Russell Ferrante on keyboard, Felix Pastorius on Bass, Bob Mintzer on Sax and drummer, William Kennedy

Produced by Ferrante, Mintzer and Kennedy, A Rise In The Road stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Yellowjacket’s 21 previous efforts. “It’s about the challenges that people face in their lives and whatever path they are on: It’s not always smooth sailing, it’s not always a level road,” explains Ferrante, with regards to the project’s meaning. “Certainly, over the 32 years that we’ve been a band, we’ve had things come up, challenges such as musicians that have left the band, business people, relationships that you have built over the years. Things come to an end, and you have to meet the challenge and keep going forward.”

Tickets: $75.00, $55.00, $45.00 at Music Hall Box Office or www.ticketmaster.com and www.startickets.com