The Soundboard

[Miles Osland]

Here's a short article that I was asked to write for the North American Saxophone Alliance newsletter.

Any other thoughts/reflections? Or tell us what you favorite Brecker tune/CD is.

Reflections on Michael Brecker
by Miles Osland

I personally had a wonderful (though too brief) encounter with Michael. A few years back he came to perform a concert on our "Spotlight Jazz" concert series at the University of Kentucky. This was truly one of the most outstanding performances I have ever experienced. Jeff Tain, Calderazzo & John Patitucci! They were leaving the next morning for a tour in Japan, so they used this opportunity to REALLY stretch. Incredible! The best part of the day was the master class that took place before the concert. Mike arrived late, there were problems with the bus, and he hadn't gotten much sleep. He was cranky, to say the least. He really didn't want to be there, I'm sure, but I had a full recital hall (over 300 attendees), and my students had prepared for months for the opportunity to play for their "Sax God". Needless to say, Michael rose to the occasion, and what was supposed to be an hour event turned into a fascinating two and half hour total Brecker experience: he played solo, he played drums with the students and addressed many topics in a Q & A. We literally had to drag him off the Recital Hall stage so he could make his sound check.

I also had the opportunity to get two of Michael's solo transcriptions published in Downbeat magazine. One was from his Grammy award winning solo on Impressions off of the McCoy Tyner recording titled Infinity. The second was his a capella intro and melody to his well-known and often emulated Delta City Blues from his Two Blocks From the Edge CD. The transcription and analysis of this solo can be found (and downloaded) on my website at: http://www.milesosland.com/articles/brecker/brecker1.html During his master class at the University of Kentucky, the question of the practicality of the study of transcribed solos was posed to Michael. His answer was that he is aware of the advantage that younger students have with the use of improv and transcription books. He did not have access to the many volumes of transcribed solos that are available today, and he completed all of his transcribing the old fashioned way: with concentrated listening and the destruction of a lot of grooves in the old vinyl LP’s. He wants to make sure that students never lose their curiosity and enjoy the magic of listening to improvisation. In his words: The problem is if you rely on the books too much, it seems to me that you’re stamping out your own individuality and it makes it harder to erase the information from your subconscious. I’m glad, in a way, that Coltrane didn’t explain everything that he did because it left a lot to my imagination. It’s nice to have mystery and not have everything presented scientifically. On the other hand, there is a place for it. But if every artist, every painter explained everything he did every step along the way, then to me it sort of loses the magic of the piece.

Michael Brecker – the magic of this iconic saxophonist will live forever in the hearts, mind and ears of many.

[solzano]

While in college in the early 80's I first heard of Michael Brecker. I couldn't believe my ears. His fire and energy was contagious and intoxicating. Probably the first album I had was "Back to Back" Followed immediatley by East River, Heavy Metal Bebop, Straphangin... Oh my god I couldnt' get enought of this guy. One late night I was sitting at a restaurant in Long Beach, CA and Robert Plant was singing a song from the Honeydrippers on Saturday Night Live and all of a sudden Michael played a solo on the blues. I stopped what I was doing and ran to the TV. He is on fire. I'd love to see a clip of that again. Little did I know that that's how he showed up. Playin with groups like Dreams and with Sly Stone when Michael was just in his early 20's.

What more can be said about this guy? Here's a clip on You Tube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOxOsskR-sU where he's sitting in with the Letterman Band at a jazz fesitval in Jacksonville Florida. I know there are very very many videos but this one stands out for me because there wasn't too much in the way of the tune. Remember it's just the blues.

I heard him play live a number of times here in Los Angeles, clubs, big venues, the Hollywood Bowl. Never met him but I understand he was sweetheart.
_________________
Sal Lozano www.sallozano.com

[JPSaxMan]

Miles, great article. I think you'll do the alliance well with something as well written as that.

Sal, thanks for the clip. That was amazing.

Honestly, I've played sax for eight years, which isn't that long, and it's just only been within the past two weeks that I've really started to love and appreciate Brecker for what he is. I did get ahold of a couple of his singles (Brecker & Kenny Barron - Round Midnight, Brecker & Mintzer - The Saxophone, and Brecker - Giant Steps) a year or two ago and were probably the first real jazz clips I was ever exposed to. At the time, I really didn't appreicate them but now that I've got some years under my belt, I re-listen and find all the beauty in them. I've found some earlier Brecker Bros stuff that I'm lovin' too, like Funky Sea Funky Dew, Straphangin', Steps Ahead, It's Bynne Reel, and of course...Some Skunk Funk. Delta City Blues is another single of his that I love. His EWI stuff on "Song for Barry" is absolutely amazing too! I need to buy some Brecker albums now...I'm hooked.

Michael truly has been one of the most inspirational sax players in the past 20 years, he sure has made his mark on me - and I'm sure on millions of other tenor players too.
_________________
JP
Joel Perkosky
BM.ME Major
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania '11

[Jeffrey Stewart Newton]

I first met Michael Brecker when he was playing with the band “Steps Ahead.” I think it was the summer of 1983. The venue (“P Jazz,” atop Detroit’s Hotel Pontchartrain) was outside on a rooftop and conducive to being able to talk to the band members. I’m a couple of inches taller than Mike was (was...) and we “hit it off” quite well. We ended up hanging after the gig for several hours – we went up to his hotel room and out to a club, where we saw the great (and also now late…) Detroit alto player Larry Nozero. Mike was quite impressed with Larry and it was a very special evening for me. Mike’s dad was an attorney (as am I) and Mike told me that he actually wanted a legal career! I always had the chance to meet him at shows after that. The last time I saw him was at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall with the Miles/Trane 75th Birthday tribute gig with Herbie. My seat was on the main floor, about half way back. The band opened with (as Mike put it) “a very deconstructed version of Dolphin Dance” that sent the folks sitting “front row center” scurrying for the door, so I and a friend hurried down the isle to grab those seats! Mike sounded great and had the newest version of the EWI and we discussed it backstage. I didn’t know he was ill at the time but he, of course, did. I’ve just discovered “YouTube” and there are many great Brecker videos there. Check out “James,” “In A Sentimental Mood,” “Some Skunk Funk” and and “Original Rays.”

When I learned that Mike had MDS, I contacted some doctors at Wayne State University, where there was an experimental program set up by a grant from the estate of J.P. McCarthy, a Detroit media personality who had MDS and who couldn’t find a donor either. The program sought to essentially self-transplant one’s own marrow, but was not a success and was abandoned.

I still can’t quite come to terms with his untimely death….

[ddm]

Saxophonist Completes Final Pilgrimage
June 4, 2007

Associated Press
Charles J. Gans

As the new year began, Michael Brecker's life was coming to an end.

But the tenor saxophonist, suffering from acute leukemia, was still thinking about his music. He went downstairs to his home studio to perform the last notes on an electronic wind instrument for what would be his final album. The 57-year-old died in a Manhattan hospital on Jan. 13, just four days after telling his manager that the record was ready for mixing.

That album, Pilgrimage, was released in May — an inspiring coda to the career of a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane, whether playing straight-ahead acoustic jazz or electronic jazz-rock in seminal fusion bands like the Brecker Brothers.

It's the first of the 800-plus albums the13-time GRAMMY winner recorded as a leader and a sideman — with such pop icons as Paul Simon, James Taylor and Aerosmith — consisting solely of his original compositions.

Brecker's wife, Susan, considers it "a miracle" that her husband managed to record "Pilgrimage" — the title of the last track he ever recorded, a 10-minute musical journey with a deeply spiritual prelude that evokes memories of his main inspiration, Coltrane.

"I believe it was his spirit, his wanting to complete the record...that kept him alive a lot longer than really was humanly possible given his physical condition," she said, interviewed with his manager Darryl Pitt in a midtown Manhattan restaurant.

For nearly 2 1/2 years Brecker had battled myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a cancer in which the bone marrow stops producing enough healthy blood cells, that eventually progressed into acute leukemia. He had to stop publicly performing in March 2005 and could not practice his saxophone more than five minutes at a time. But he used the time remaining to him to write the album's tunes at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, north of New York City, in between lengthy hospitalizations.

"What I would like people to take from this record is that it is one man's testament to the human spirit," said Susan Brecker, her voice choking with emotion. "This music is just one man's response to hearing he is going to die...and there can be nothing more honest or more vibrant than that, nothing."

Just two weeks after Brecker died, his wife and children, manager and jazz musician friends gathered in a midtown Manhattan recording studio for the mixing of Pilgrimage.

"Hearing Mike playing so vibrantly in the studio it was literally as if he were conjured back to life," said the album's executive producer Pitt, Brecker's close friend and manager for 20-plus years. "It was deeply moving and profoundly touching and sometimes deeply upsetting."

The 78-minute CD respects Brecker's wishes by including all nine original tunes he recorded with a jazz all-star lineup of guitarist Pat Metheny, pianists Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

"The compositions are among the best Mike had ever written," said Metheny, who appeared on Brecker's first solo album in 1987, in an e-mail response. "I have always contended that he was one of the best modern jazz composers of our time. He had a strong individual voice."

Pitt says the album would not have been possible were it not for Brecker's 18-year-old daughter Jessica. Brecker was close to dying in November 2005 when she volunteered as the half-match donor in an experimental clinical trial at a University of Minnesota hospital involving a new stem cell transplant procedure. The operation alleviated the pain by killing off large growths of leukemia cells, but the transplant failed to engraft, leaving the disease free to spread again.

Last June, Hancock, at Pitt's suggestion, coaxed a reluctant Brecker into making a surprise appearance at a JVC Jazz Festival concert at Carnegie Hall honoring the pianist. He received a standing ovation after performing the tune "One Finger Snap," his last public performance. The experience encouraged Brecker to go ahead with the recording session that had already been postponed twice.

"When he asked me to be on the record, I was really thrilled because I just didn't expect it to happen," said Hancock. "And when we actually started working on the record...I said, `Wait a minute Michael, are you sure you're still sick?' ...What was exuding from him was so much power, conviction and enthusiasm to do this record, and it was just a joy to experience that."

During the August recording session at the Manhattan studio, Pitt and Brecker intentionally masked from the other musicians just how poorly Brecker felt in order to keep the focus on the music.

But none of that frailty is reflected in Brecker's performances, whether its his rapid-fire arpeggio runs on "Anagram" with its shifting tempos or his deeply emotional, soulful playing on the poignant ballad "When Can I Kiss You Again?" — a question asked by his son Sam during a hospital visit when physical contact was prohibited to avoid infection.

"No one would ever think when they listen to this recording that this guy's fighting for his life. ...You get the feeling of somebody who's at the top of their game," said Patitucci.

After the session, Brecker was optimistically planning for future albums. He took a family vacation in Florida and attended his son's Bar Mitzvah. He was diagnosed with acute leukemia in October, but kept working on the record.

It was bittersweet for those closest to Brecker when just days after the mixing session ended in early February, he won two GRAMMYs for the CD Some Skunk Funk, recorded in 2003 with older brother Randy on trumpet.

On Feb. 20, Brecker's family, fellow musicians and fans filled Manhattan's Town Hall for a memorial celebration. Hancock and Paul Simon performed "Still Crazy After All These Years," one of the many classic pop tunes with a memorable Brecker solo.

"His efforts to get this final message out to all of us [on Pilgrimage] will go down as one of the great codas in modern music history," Metheny said in his eulogy.

Brecker's legacy also includes his efforts to encourage people to enroll in the national marrow donor registry. The introverted saxophonist went public about his illness after realizing how many thousands of people die every year waiting to find a genetically matched blood stem cell donor.

More than 30,000 people have been added to the registry since 2005 as the result of Brecker-sponsored events at jazz festivals, concerts and synagogues, said Pitt, who with Brecker's wife founded the Time Is of the Essence Fund, named after a Brecker album, to pay for blood tests for potential donors.

"Mike was a hero through the whole thing," said Hancock. "He used the challenge of a life-threatening disease to express his compassion for human beings and was able to express it with his music."

© 2007Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.