Marcus G. Miller is a distinguished saxophonist, composer, and Music Curator from South Orange, New Jersey, now based in New York City. He began performing professionally in his teens, later graduating from Harvard University in 2008 with a degree in Mathematics. After a stint at Bridgewater Associates, he returned to music, making a name for himself in New York’s jazz scene. Miller has performed at high-profile venues across the world, including the Obama White House, Madison Square Garden, the World Economic Forum at Davos, Carnegie Hall.
Miller has collaborated and performed extensively with Jon Batiste, including Batiste’s Grammy winning album “We Are”, his documentary American Symphony, and the nationwide Uneasy tour, which included a date opening for The Rolling Stones.
Miller’s life-long fascination with the intersection of math and music has led to residencies at the National Museum of Mathematics, Brown University’s physics department, and TED appearances. In 2022, Miller became the Music Director at Grace Farms Foundation, curating programs like “Voices of Culture,” where he invites, performs with, and interviews some of the world’s best musicians, enabling them to share their deep knowledge of their traditions; and “Beauty & Logic,” where he performs while exploring his shared wonder between mathematics and music. Marcus currently is working on a interdisciplinary project, exploring themes of beauty and humanity via music and design in the age of AI.
Summary
Marcus Miller, a noted jazz saxophonist and music director at Grace Farms, examined and demonstrated the relationship between mathematics, jazz, science, and art. He highlighted how patterns, rhythms, and disruptive elements exist in parallel constructs, though very different forms, across these disciplines, showcasing how creativity and analytical thought intersect or mirror each other.
After positing his observations on the relationships, based on his musical explorations as well as a Harvard degree in mathematics, he demonstrated the phenomenon with audio-video clips of artists performing in genres as diverse as be-bop, pop, blues, and classical Baroque. To make his point, he would accompany these performances on his sax to emphasize for the audience the points he was making—to wit, the expected patterns of the Golden Ratio of mathematics can be used by a musician to disrupt the expectations a listener might have for repetition and pattern so that the listener is drawn into anticipating change rather than continuity in the aural experience.
The presentation was an introduction into Marcus’ current interest in “Beauty & Logic,” an interdisciplinary project exploring themes of beauty and humanity via music and design in the age of AI. To reassure the audience, he acknowledged during the Q&A that he is drawn to jazz experiences first by its intuitive “tasty” appeal before looking more deeply into the armature of the piece to continuously improve his own understanding of his discipline.