Artist/Percussionist Marcus L. Miller is a multi-instrumentalist based in Southern California.
He is the Artistic Director of the performance art ensemble Freedom Jazz Movement and the
bandleader of the percussion ensemble Project World Drum. He also serves as Musical
Director and consultant for the modern dance company Lula Washington Dance Theatre.
Miller is President of his record label Universe Soul Records and is also the founder &
director of the Young Drummers of Los Angeles. Marcus is a member of Chamber Music
America, a voting member of the Recording Academy, a member of American Federation of
Musicians Local 47, a composer for Heavy Harmony Music publishing, and a SESAC affiliate
artist.
Miller has recorded and released 14 CDs for his label and has also written music for several
independent films and documentaries including Movement with a meaning, Beyond the Echo
of the drum, Love and other 4 letter words, My girlfriend’s back, and the 20th Century fox
DVD release of Avatar the Last Airbender.
Marcus began his professional music career in 1995. He has toured internationally &
nationally performing with many groups including Ben Harper, The Watts Prophets, Sheila E.,
Ashanti, and BoujouBumBastick. Since 2006, he and his ensemble, the Marcus Miller
Ensemble, have performed extensively with the Lula Washington Dance Theatre. This
collaboration of Black American music and Black modern dance continues to redefine and
reflect a unique “Black American cultural perspective”. Highlight performances include the
Lincoln Center out of doors festival (2006), a six-week tour of Russia (2009), the International
Book Fair festival in Guadalajara, MX (2009), a 15-city tour of China (2011), the Amazon
Dance Festival in Manaus,BR (2011), the 2012 San Jose jazz festival, and a 3-week
Russia/Siberia tour (2013), and a 4 night run at the Israeli Opera house in Tel Aviv (2016).
In 2015, Miller and his ensemble headlined the 12th annual Vladivostock International Jazz
Festival in Vladivostock, Russia. He also started working with a group of artists called
Panoply...a collaboration of musicians, dancers, poets, and graphic/visual artists to develop
new technology that bridges and advances the presentation of these artistic mediums. In
2016 he started his current project, M & M...the Afro-Persian Experience, with fellow musician
Mehdi Bagheri.