''Renaissance'' is the ninth solo studio album by American musician

Marcus Miller William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandros ...

. It was released on May 28, 2012 through

Concord Jazz Concord Jazz is a record company and label founded in 1973 by Carl Jefferson, the former owner of Jefferson Motors Lincoln Mercury dealership in Concord, California. The label was named after the city in the East San Francisco Bay area, and the j ...

. Recording sessions took place at Sear Sound in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with additional recording at Hannibal Studio in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

and at the Music Shed in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. The album features contributions from

Dr. John Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B. Active as a session musician from ...

on vocals, Federico González Peña,

Kris Bowers Kristopher Bowers (born 1989) is an American composer and pianist. He has composed scores for films, video games, television and documentaries including ''Bridgerton'', '' Green Book'', ''Madden NFL'', '' Dear White People'', and ''Kobe Bryant's ...

and Bobby Sparks on keyboards, Adam Rogers, Adam Agati and Paul Jackson Jr. on guitar, Louis Cato on drums, Ramon Yslas on percussion, Alex Han on alto saxophone, Maurice Brown and Sean Jones on trumpet, with

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other p ...

s from

Gretchen Parlato Gretchen Parlato (born February 11, 1976) is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke. Pa ...

and

Rubén Blades Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (born July 16, 1948), known professionally as Rubén Blades (, but in Panama and within the family), is a Panamanian musician, singer, composer, actor, activist, and politician, performing musically most often in th ...

Reception

Phil Wein of ''No Treble'' stated "This is definitely one of Marcus Miller’s best solo records and is an essential release for his fans and highly recommended for listeners who what to more occasionally get a taste of where Marcus is at. It’s not music to challenge a jazz audience with improvisation at the frontiers of sound, but you knew that. What it is: natural sounding music with intensity and groove designed to make an audience feel good. It’s funky music very well written and beautifully arranged. It’s smooth, soulful jazz. It’s deeply grooving music that combines jazz, funk, Brazilian and other influences effortlessly. It’s Marcus Miller at his best". S. Victor Aaron of ''Something Else!'' commented "''Renaissance'' isn’t a revolutionary album, but there’s an attention to detail, the openness to a multitude of styles, and Miller’s strongest set of songs in some time. All of those things seemed to inspire the younger generation of players in his band to play up to the material and respond to Miller’s direction with a rare combination of looseness and preciseness. Where those guys go from here, that’s where the real rebirth will happen".

Track listing

Personnel

* William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. – bass (tracks: 1-4, 6-13),

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

(tracks: 5, 10), acoustic &

fretless bass A fretless bass is a bass guitar whose neck does not have any frets. While the instrument is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them befo ...

(track 5), producer, additional recording,

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

* Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna – vocals (track 5) *

– vocals (track 5) * Malcolm John Rebennack – vocals (track 12) * Kristopher Bowers – Fender Rhodes electric piano (tracks: 1, 11),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(tracks: 1, 4) * Federico González Peña – Fender Rhodes electric piano (tracks: 2, 5, 9), piano (tracks: 3, 5-8, 10) * Bobby Ray Sparks II – organ (tracks: 4, 6, 9),

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

(track 9) * Adam Agati –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

(tracks: 1, 7, 8, 11, 12) * Adam Rogers – guitar (tracks: 2, 4, 6, 9),

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

(tracks: 3, 10) * Paul Milton Jackson, Jr. – guitar (track 11) * Louis Cato –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(tracks: 1-12),

djembe A djembe or jembe ( ; from Maninka language, Malinke ''jembe'' , N'Ko script, N'Ko: ) is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa. According to the Bambara people in Mali, the name of the djembe ...

(track 3),

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

s (track 11) * Ramon Yslas –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(tracks: 4, 5, 7, 8) * Alex Han –

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

(tracks: 1-12) *

Maurice "Mobetta" Brown Maurice "Mobetta" Brown (born January 6, 1981) originally from Harvey, Illinois is a Grammy Award-winning American jazz trumpeter, producer and composer. As a member of Tedeschi Trucks Band, he shared the 2011 Grammy for Best Blues Album ('' Rev ...

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

(tracks: 1, 3, 4, 11) * Sean Jones – trumpet (tracks: 2, 4, 6, 9) ;Technical * Harold Goode – associate producer, executive producer * Harry Martin Jr. – executive producer * David Isaac – mixing (tracks: 1-8, 11) * Taka Honda – mixing (tracks: 10, 12, 13), additional recording * Bruce A. Miller – mixing (track 9) * Chris Allen – recording * Chris Finney – additional recording * Kevin Harper – assistant engineer * George Shaw – assistant engineer * Darcy Proper – mastering * Jack Frisch – art direction & design * Mathieu Zazzo – photography * Josh Semolik – photography * Bibi Green – photography, management

Chart history

References

External links

{{Authority control 2012 albums Marcus Miller albums Albums produced by Marcus Miller