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Live Review: Double Vision Revisited at the Birchmere in Virginia

The trend for a band to revisit a particularly successful album from its past seemed to have started with the curators of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival who asked hip hop and alternative rock artists to perform one of their older albums from start to finish. The phenomenon soon spread to the 60s and 70s … Read More

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Marcus Miller: Laid Black (Blue Note)

Marcus Miller’s Blue Note debut, 2015’s Afrodeezia, drew from the African diaspora, presenting a globetrotting musical mélange driven by his experiences acting as a UNESCO Artist for Peace and a spokesman for that organization’s Slave Route Project. This followup finds him firmly planted on U.S. soil, employing the sounds of modernity born at said route’s … Read More

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Marcus Miller: Afrodeezia

For Afrodeezia, Marcus Miller-who mentions in his liner notes that he’s a spokesperson for UNESCO’s “Slave Route Project”-chose to incorporate musicians and instrumentation associated with various locales historically impacted by slavery. It’s a formidably funky collection-no surprise there-and some of Miller’s most ambitious work. “I Can’t Breathe,” the album’s finale, is its most affecting piece. … Read More

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Marcus Miller: Renaissance

Fastest, most melodic thumb in jazz-funk or not-and on many days, he deserves that title-bassist-producer-composer Marcus Miller wields that digit in a manner that’s impossible to ignore. He does that instantly identifiable thing he does with great panache and high musicality from the get-go on Renaissance, his first studio recording since 2008’s Marcus. Title aside, … Read More

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