If you haven’t heard Marcus Miller’s latest album Afrodeezia, now is the time (see Spotify playlist below). The album was inspired by Miller’s role as a UNESCO Artist for Peace and spokesperson for the organization’s Slave Route Project. “For this project, I collaborated with musicians from West Africa, South America, the Caribbean, the southern U.S. and large northern cities in the U.S. This is my way of paying tribute to the long journey of my African ancestors who became African-Americans,” says Miller. “The melodies and rhythms they carried with them from Africa have EXPLODED int a ‘dizzying’ array of musical styles and genres that have changed the world.”
“The power of music has no limits,” states Miller. “Through spirituals, jazz and soul were able to preserve our history, because all the rest had been erased. What I wanted most was to go back to the source of the rhythms that make our musical heritage so rich, to follow them like footprints from their beginnings in Africa all the way to the United States. That journey took us from Mali to Paris, from New Orleans to Sao Paulo and across the Caribbean.”
Make plans to catch Marcus at the JAS June Experience on Sunday, June 26th prior to Booker T. Jones. Tickets can be purchased here.
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