TALES was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance.
The title track was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition.
Jazz / Jazz-Funk; Contemporary Jazz; Fusion; Crossover Jazz
Recorded: Right Track Recording, New York, New York; Camel Island and The Complex Studios, Los Angeles, California.
Marcus Miller - African flute, bass clarinet, Wurlitzer piano, keyboards, organ, synthesizer, guitar, 4-, 5- & 6-string fretted & fretless basses, programming, samples
Me'Shell NdegeOcello - vocals, synthesizer
Lalah Hathaway - vocals
Joe Sample - rap vocals
Q-Tip, Bill Withers - spoken vocals
Roberta Flack - spoken vocals
Kenny Garrett - alto saxophone
Joshua Redman - tenor saxophone
Michael "Patches" Stewart - trumpet
Bernard Wright - marimba, electric piano, Clavinet, organ, synthesizer, synthesizer bass
Hiram Bullock - guitar
Dean Brown - guitar
Poogie Bell - drums
Lenny White - drums
David "The Cat" Ward - programming
Jason Miles - programming
Juice And Juju
TALES contains recordings of the voices of Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Joe Zawinul, Miles Davis, Lester Bowie and Eric Gale; as well as samples of Bill Cosby's "The Bill Cosby Intro" and Bashiri Johnson's percussion.
It is obvious from the music of his group that Marcus Miller badly misses Miles Davis. The funky grooves he uses on this CD sound like a continuation of Davis' later band, Michael "Patches" Stewart contributes muted trumpet in Davis' style, altoist Kenny Garrett is among Miller's sidemen, and Miles Davis himself (along with the voices of several other notables in very brief moments) pops up twice on Miller's release. Marcus Miller's electric bass is a major force throughout the music. Samples are used intelligently, a tribute is paid to the late guitarist Eric Gale (Hiram Bullock starts off his solo sounding uncannily like Gale), "Strange Fruit" (a feature for Miller's bass clarinet) gets a revamping, and all of the music is both danceable and full of development. A few songs (especially later in the program) ramble on a bit and one wishes that Marcus Miller would drop the funk now and then for variety's sake, but in general his set holds one's interest.
---Scott Yanow, allmusic
Includes liner notes by Marcus Miller. |
