[Late 1979 – early 1980s Miles Davis] gradually assembled his current lineup: Al Foster, on the drums, was the only player left over from the old band. This didn't surprise me: It reflected Al's position as the interpreter of Miles to the rest of the band. Miles drew strength from Al; he was the rock that Miles needed, always steady and in the pocket, both musically and personally. Marcus Miller, the bass player, was a New York whiz kid, very young and incredibly talented. He was a graduate of the "Saturday Night Live" band, and had played on hundreds of ad jingles. He was fairly conservative musically compared to Miles's bands in the seventies, but he was one of the first to use the "popping" technique of bass playing, whereby the player slaps the strings with the side of his thumb to create a percussive sound. Marcus was fast and good, and always a pleasure to be around. Bill Evans, Miles's saxophonist… played keyboards as well as sax, and his chops were excellent… The band's guitarist was Mike Stern. Mike was a Berklee graduate who had played with ‘Blood, Sweat, and Tears at one time’. Mike could play anything from Bach to rock. He could even play be-bop, which the guitarists I knew from Miles's old band couldn't do. Miles didn't choose Mike for his jazz chops, though. As usual, Miles wanted a strong rock-blues guitar behind him, and Mike could easily give him that. Mino Cinelu, on percussion, was a gifted player from Martinique. Part of his gift was knowing when not to play, which is always essential in Miles's music. He could lay back or drop out in a heartbeat, and he was almost as sensitive to Miles's direction as Al was. Miles, of course, would play trumpet and keys. We started out with his old two-keyboard Yamaha organ; later we switched to a Fender Rhodes 88 piano and added an Oberheim OBX8-A synthesizer, which Miles loved. << less