Marcus Miller's band was in great form Wed night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. He left his guitar player by the wayside and took the stage with Patches Stewart trumpet and flugelhorn, Mark Anderson saxes, Gregoire Mamet on harmonica, Bobby Sparks on keys and the awesome Poogie Bell on drums. Plus vocalist Jean Baylor

SET LIST
Blast!
Jean Pierre >"Who Knows" tease
Panther (switches to bass clarinet) "When I Fall in Love"> "Happy Birthday" tease for basstech>Funk Joint
Free *
People Make the World Go Round *

Encore break

What Is Hip

* with Jean Baylor



From the opening punch of "Blast!" it was clear a guitar axman wasn't necessary. Marcus is a proponent of the bass as lead instrument school. He thumps, plucks and rolls the bass strings and provides melody as well as rhythm. He directs his more than capable band with hand gestures and sly nods.

The set list was mostly tunes from his current release MARCUS on CONCORD JAZZ. During funk fave "Panther", Marcus strolled into the audience playing bass clarinet, switching to the Tin Pan Alley hit "When I Fall in Love". He paused to tease with "Happy Birthday" for his bass tech. There was a cover of Miles Davis' "Jeanne Pierre" notable for Miles doing "so much with a simple melody." Vocalist Jean Baylor, one-half the duo Zhane that had the hit "Hey Mr. DJ" in '93, took vocal turns on the Deniece Willams’ classic "Free" and the Stylistics deep cut groove "People Make The World Go Round". After an encore break, the band closed with a cover of Tower of Power's "What is Hip?", closing the set at about 65 minutes.

The vendor table had discs from Marcus and band members Mark Anderson and Poogie Bell and Jean Baylor's mini-EP. Also were tee shirts and a live double disc feature concert.