30 Days of NYMF on BroadwayWorld Day 6: No Boundaries

Acclaimed Grammy-winning songwriting and performing artists Marcus Miller and Speech venture into theatre, finding No Boundaries

The six songwriting and performing artists who wrote the score of No Boundaries had never written for the theatre before. It was their first experience writing for a voice other than their own – writing for a character created by someone else. Here's what Marcus Miller and Speech had to say:

Marcus Miller: I enjoyed writing music that I knew would be a "first listen" for audiences over and over. When we your as artists, the audiences have usually heard the CD, so there's a level of familiarity there. Here we have to out these songs across cold! That's cool. It makes you write in a more direct manner - like "I want them to get this right away!"

Speech: It was cool writing for another character, we put up the character names up on the wall, their background and what they were about. Then we talked about their personalities etc. Then we started to write. It was a musical think tank session with about 6 of us musicians in a room sorting it out. We recorded our ideas on a 8trk recorder and went from there. I knew (as a producer) the type of product I wanted to come up with in the end. But the extra part is also making Liz happy. … [She's] VERY focused, passionate and driven about the piece, she knew exactly what she wanted once she heard it. No Boundaries was by nature a very experimental production musically. She was taking a chance on us, but she had faith! And with that we were able to shine better.

Marcus Miller is a 2001 Grammy winner for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Miller is a premier jazz bassist who's produced, performed and collaborated with such music legends as Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, and Eric Clapton . For film, he has written the scores for House Party and Head of State, and composed the club smash hit "Da Butt", featured in Spike Lee's School Daze Speech, the musical and political force behind the multi-platinum hip-hop group Arrested Development, is the recipient of two Grammy Awards, two MTV Awards and an NAACP Award.