Jazz Articles about Michael Brecker

Michael Brecker: Pilgrimage

by Troy Collins
May 29, 2007

Tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker lost his ongoing bout with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare bone marrow cancer, in January 2007. Pilgrimage provides one last chance to hear him in the company of like-minded souls. Joined by a who's who of mainstream jazz royalty, guitarist Pat Metheny, pianists Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Jack DeJohnette accompany the saxophonist on this superlative session.

Brecker began his career as a session player in the early 1970s, ...

Michael Brecker: Pilgrimage

by C. Michael Bailey
May 24, 2007

The importance of saxophonist Michael Brecker's final recording, Pilgrimage, is densely multidimensional. The romantically inclined will attach significance to the fact that the nine compositions were conceived and recorded while Brecker was aware of the gravity of his final illness. Pilgrimage falls into an artistic/musical category that includes such disparate music as Mozart's Requiem, Puccini's Turandot, Billie Holiday's Lady In Satin and Johnny Cash's American Recordings, Volumes 5 & 6. All of these examples were conceived during the artists' autumnal ...

Michael Brecker: Pilgrimage

by John Kelman
May 16, 2007

Michael Brecker's tragic death in January 2007, at the age of fifty-seven, robbed the world of perhaps the most influential saxophonist to emerge since the equally untimely passing of John Coltrane. It's easy to forget that he was one of the pop/rock world's most called-upon studio players, recording on hundreds of albums with artists including James Taylor, Paul Simon and Eric Clapton. But it's his prodigious body of work in the jazz realm that will be his most enduring legacy.

Michael Brecker: Celebration of a Healer

by Bill Siegel
March 1, 2007

Michael Brecker Memorial Town Hall New York, NY February 20, 2007Town Hall was the scene for a spirited memorial service for Michael Brecker, universally acclaimed as one of the most influential jazz sax players since John Coltrane—and certainly among the most productive and ubiquitous: think of a name in innovative jazz or pop, and chances are Brecker's sax has been in the studio or on stage with them—from McCoy Tyner to Paul ...

Memories of Michael Brecker: Town Hall Tribute

by Ralph A. Miriello
March 1, 2007

Michael Brecker Memorial Town Hall, Manhattan February 20, 2007Last night, my companion Stefania and I took a train ride from Connecticut into Manhattan to pay homage to a fallen musician. Michael Brecker, the prolific and well respected saxophonist, had passed away five weeks prior at a hospital in New York after a long-standing battle with MDS (myelodyplastic syndrome). It was a little publicized memorial at Town Hall in midtown Manhattan, and I for one, ...

Essential Michael Brecker

by Jason West
January 18, 2007

This article was originally published at All About Jazz in November 1999. Michael Brecker's contributions to music are generous and, like the pregnant ideas that flow from his tenor horn, they continue to grow. At 50, the saxophonist has found acceptance in a wide variety of musical settings, having performed with pop stars like John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, and jazz heavyweights the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and Jaco Pastorius. Brecker's resume includes extensive work ...

Michael Brecker: Wide Angles

by Elliott Simon
November 15, 2003

Assembling fifteen top jazz musicians to play complex original material is risky business. The session could turn into a repetitive solo showcase or conversely lose its sharpness amidst overproduced arrangements. However, Wide Angles, from tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, comes off as an adventurous presentation of new music in a format rife with possibilities. With a string section, English horn, bass clarinet, flute, French horn and oboe among the traditional big band mix of drums, bass and brass, Brecker keeps things ...