Bassist Marcus Miller courts R&B audience

By Gail Mitchell

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - A multi-instrumentalist and electric bass virtuoso, Marcus Miller has logged more than 500 credits as a session player, band member, songwriter and producer.

His work has encompassed rock (Eric Clapton), jazz (Miles Davis), pop (Paul Simon), hip-hop (Jay-Z), new wave (Billy Idol) and opera (tenor Kenn Hicks). He also has scored soundtracks for film ("Boomerang," "This Christmas") and TV ("Everybody Hates Chris").

His biggest claims to fame are his collaborations with the late Luther Vandross, co-writing, co-producing and playing on the signature hits "Never Too Much," "Any Love" and the 1991 Grammy Award-winning "Power of Love/Love Power."

But despite Miller's formidable credits, he's still not -- in the words of Concord product manager Brett Merritt -- "quite the household name he should be." Miller hopes to change that with "Marcus" (March 4), his first release under the 3 Deuces Records/Concord Music Group banner.

Record promotion veteran Lamont Boles, billed on the "Marcus" CD as providing "executive vision and direction," says he was floored when he first dropped by Miller's Los Angeles studio. On the walls he saw plaques for Miller's work on two No. 1 R&B hits: Tom Browne's 1980 "Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)" and E.U.'s "Da'Butt" from the 1988 Spike Lee soundtrack to "School Daze."

"I said, 'You've got the skill level as a jazz musician, but your inner soul is R&B,' " Boles recalls. "Then I asked, 'How come you can't do this within your own project?"'

Thus the seeds were planted for "Marcus," Miller's seventh studio album. To help connect the dots with consumers, the set features current and classic covers (Robin Thicke's "Lost Without U," Nat "King" Cole's "When I Fall in Love") alongside funked-up jazz originals. There are guest appearances by Keb' Mo', Lalah Hathaway, Shihan the Poet and actress Taraji P. Henson on a spoken-word bonus track of Thicke's "Lost."

The lead single, "Free," features Corinne Bailey Rae in a cover of Deniece Williams' 1976 hit.