About Me
Masthead Banner Made with MyBannerMaker.com! Click here to make your own!Michael Brecker, saxophonist, born March 29 1949; died January 13 2007. The world has lost an extraordinary musician and a beautiful human being. R.I.P. and God Bless.
Michael Brecker - BiographyFollowing a two-and-a-half year illness, Michael Brecker passed away at the age of 57 in January 2007. As a result of his stylistic and harmonic innovations, Brecker is the most influential saxophonist of the last 30 years and is among the most studied contemporary instrumentalists in music schools throughout the world today. He is also a 13-time Grammy winner.Born into a musical household in 1949, Michael Brecker's father--a lawyer and jazz pianist--played jazz on the record player for his young sons and took Michael and older brother Randy to see Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington perform live. While Randy took up trumpet, Michael launched his studies on clarinet and then alto sax. Moved by the genius of John Coltrane, Brecker switched to tenor sax in high school. After studying at the University of Indiana, as did his brother, Brecker moved to New York City, landing work with several bands before co-founding the pioneering jazz-rock group Dreams in 1970. Three years later, Brecker joined his brother in the frontline of pianist/composer Horace Silver's quintet. The following year, the siblings branched off to form the Brecker Brothers--one of the most innovative and successful jazz-funk fusion bands of the decade.The brothers owned the popular downtown Manhattan jazz club, Seventh Avenue South, where jam sessions with keyboardist/vibes player Mike Mainieri, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Steve Gadd led to the 1979 formation of Steps Ahead. With Peter Erskine later replacing Gadd, the all-star quartet recorded seven albums.In the '70s and '80s Brecker recorded and performed with a virtual Who's Who of jazz and pop giants, including Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Aerosmith, Chet Baker, George Benson, Quincy Jones, Charles Mingus, Joni Mitchell, Jaco Pastorius, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, McCoy Tyner, Bruce Springsteen, Steely Dan, Pat Metheny and Frank Zappa.Brecker cut his first record as a leader in 1987. That solo debut, Michael Brecker, was voted "Jazz Album of the Year" in both Downbeat and Jazziz magazines. The follow-up recording, Don't Try This At Home, garnered Brecker his first Grammy. After investigating new rhythmic concepts on 1990's Now You See It... Now You Don't, and subsequently being a featured soloist for a year and a half with Paul Simon, Brecker reunited with his brother for 1992's Return of the Brecker Brothers. The Breckers' Out of the Loop (1994) and Michael's Tales From the Hudson (1997) put additional Grammys on the saxophonist's shelf, leading to Brecker being named "Best Soloist of the Year" by JazzLife and "Jazz Man of the Year" by Swing Journal. Around the same time, Brecker appeared on Herbie Hancock's The New Standard and McCoy Tyner's Infinity, followed by extensive touring with each piano titan.Following Two Blocks from the Edge (1998) and Time Is of the Essence (1999) was Brecker's Nearness of You: The Ballad Book, which featured a dream ensemble of fellow jazz giants--Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette--who never before recorded an album together. Produced by Metheny, with James Taylor on two tracks, Nearness of You was named "Record of the Year" and Brecker was named "Artist of the Year" in both the Critics' and Readers' Polls of Japan's Swing Journal--which has the largest circulation of any jazz magazine in the world.In June 2002, Brecker, Hancock and trumpeter Roy Hargrove released Directions in Music, a live concert at Toronto's Massey Hall which celebrated the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Brecker began 2003 by creating a large ensemble record, Wide Angles, which featured Brecker's 15-piece quindectet. Wide Angles appeared on dozens of "Best Jazz Recordings of the Year" lists and also won two Grammys.In August 2004, Brecker was in a great deal of pain during a performance at the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival. Following an initial diagnosis of a cracked vertebra, Brecker was subsequently diagnosed with the bone marrow disorder myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Despite an exhaustive search for a matching bone donor (during which tens of thousands of new bone marrow donors registered at Brecker-sponsored donor drives throughout the world) and an experimental blood stem cell transplant, Brecker passed away from leukemia on January 13, 2007.Although he was extremely ill at the time, Brecker was able to complete a final album before he died. Pilgrimage, his first recording consisting entirely of his original compositions--with Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, John Patitucci and Jack DeJohnette--received stellar reviews upon its release in May 2007.More than a dozen lives have been saved so far as a result of Brecker-inspired blood stem cell donors--and his professional accomplishments assure Brecker being forever intertwined with the history of music. Said Jazziz magazine: "You'll find no better example of stylistic evolution than Michael Brecker, inarguably the most influential tenor stylist of the past 25 years."_____________________________________________________
________Commentary by Scott YanowA remarkable technician and a highly influential tenor saxophonist (the biggest influence on other tenors since Wayne Shorter), Michael Brecker took a long time before getting around to recording his first solo album. He spent much of his career as a top-notch studio player who often appeared backing pop singers, leading some jazz listeners to overlook his very strong improvising skills.
Brecker originally started on clarinet and alto before switching to tenor in high school. Early on, he played with rock- and R&B-oriented bands. In 1969, he moved to New York and soon joined Dreams, an early fusion group. Brecker was with Horace Silver during 1973-1974, gigged with Billy Cobham, and then co-led the Brecker Brothers (a commercially successful funk group) with his brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, for most of the 1970s. He was with Steps (later Steps Ahead) in the early '80s, doubled on an EWI (electronic wind instrument), and made a countless number of studio sessions during the 1970s and '80s, popping up practically everywhere (including with James Taylor, Yoko Ono, and Paul Simon). With the release of his first album as a leader in 1987 (when he was already 38), Brecker started appearing more often in challenging jazz settings. He recorded additional sets as a leader (in 1988 and 1990), teamed up with McCoy Tyner on one of 1995's most rewarding jazz recordings, and toured with a reunited Brecker Brothers band. Two Blocks from the Edge followed in 1998, and a year later Brecker returned with Time Is of the Essence. The early 2000s saw the release of Nearness of You: The Ballad Book and Wide Angles in 2001 and 2003, respectively. However, after experiencing some mysterious back pain during a concert in 2005, Brecker was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a cancer of the blood marrow. A failed search for a matching bone marrow donor eventually led to an experimental partially matching blood stem cell transplant via his daughter in late 2005. He passed away on January 13, 2007. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music GuideThe Essence of Michael Brecker by Steve Sax
