Michael Brecker: a playlist and tribute

MICHAEL BRECKER: a playlist and tribute

At the time of this writing (2011), only one tenor saxophone player has gone beyond John Coltrane to a truly higher level of playing. Many have tried, some have come close, but Michael Brecker is the only one to make that quantum leap. He added polytonality, outside voicings, wider range, vibrato-less tones (like Miles), while never substituting pure technique for emotion or musicianship (as can sometimes happen with jazz players). He also introduced the world to the full potential of the Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI). Tenor players, of course, know this already.

  

If you want to hear Michael Brecker at his absolute best, forget about the phenomenal career he had—over 600 studio collaborations and more than twenty-five albums as leader or co-leader—and go to NOW YOU SEE IT…NOW YOU DON’T (1990). This is Brecker at the indisputable zenith of his career (though he was just as good before and continued to grow after). Explosive in energy and emotion, it is an album of totally inspired playing and compositions. Four tracks are MUST-LISTEN tracks:

Track 5: Peep. This Brecker composition starts with a tight, up-tempo melody over sizzling ride cymbal by Adam Nussbaum. Two minutes into it, Brecker begins a solo that quickly morphs into a saxophone/drum duet that is some of the purest, driving tenor playing ever recorded in history. Up-tempo Brecker doesn’t get any better than this.

Go to Track 2, entitled Minsk, a mysterious medium-slow tune by Don Grolnick that begins cautiously as if exploring rooms in a haunted castle, punctuated by startling, staccato punches of electronic polytonal chords. The first tenor solo is chill, as is Joey Calderazzo’s piano solo, but all of this is mere titillation, a build up to Brecker’s unbelievable solo (7 minutes in) during the vamp that takes the tune out. His solo has the intensity of a space shuttle lift-off. Play it loudly.

Track 3: Jim Beard’s playful synthesizer-rich composition Ode to the Doo da Day, is a hipified calypso-funk beat like I’ve never heard before or since. Calderazzo’s piano solo is très tasteful and Brecker’s solo is one of his most melodic and skillful, full of soaring arpeggios. Absolutely great tune.

Last Track: The Meaning Of The Blues: a straight-ahead acoustic quartet rendition of this classic standard. Brecker’s tenor saxophone may have sung as sweetly in other recordings but certainly never more so than in this one.

 Okay, now we can go back and review some of the other MUST-LISTEN tracks of BRECKER’s career.

For a taste of what Brecker could do in a studio session as a sideman, listen to the solo from Maxine, off the 1982 Donald Fagan album NIGHTFLY.

Pat Metheny’s album 80/81 contains the earliest of the career-long collaboration he had with Brecker. Listen to Every Day (I Thank You) for a great example of Brecker’s sensitive playing. Interestingly, Brecker’s final studio album (PILGRIMAGE) was also a collaboration with Pat Metheny.

MICHAEL BRECKER (1987). First album as leader with an all-star band of Pat Metheny (g), Kenny Kirkland (p), Jack DeJohnette (d), Charlie Hayden (b). The primary MUST-LISTEN track is Nothing Personal (Grolnick). It starts out with a Bauhaus-like melody reminiscent of Freedom Jazz Dance and evolves first into a tasteful straight-jazz guitar solo by Metheny. Then Brecker enters with searching notes at first before the rhythm section kicks in with a hard swinging jazz rhythm and Brecker slays that dragon with a masterful, yet contained solo.

Original Rays (Brecker, Grolnick, Stern) introduces the EWI and what it can do, the synthesized polychords Brecker uses in subsequent albums. But it is the tenor solo later in the mid section of this folk rock ballad at about 5 minutes into the tune that is quintessential Brecker at his best on tenor.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME (1988). The MUST-LISTEN track is Itsbynne Reel (Brecker/Grolnick) which kicks off with Brecker on EWI and Mark O’Connor on violin in an electrified Irish reel that climbs to an up-tempo melody punctuated by wonderfully intrusive, harmonically ‘out’ chords. The tune gradually builds energy over a continuo of bass or piano until Brecker starts driving the group hard with his tenor, building toward a solid sheet of free sound that ultimately crosses the finish line with an awe-inspiring G major chord. Insane, great tune. Be sure also to check out YouTube videos of this tune.

The title track (Don’t Try This At Home) is more about the heavy-hitting ensemble than Brecker himself. And no wonder. It features  Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Mike Stern and Charlie Haden. At 8’30” into it, there is one short melody that introduces a theme that eventually evolves into the melody in Peep from the subsequent album NOW YOU SEE IT…NOW YOU DON’T.      

Don’t miss Suspone by Mike Stern, a straight jazz tune with electric guitar and synthesized EWI, a tasteful solo by Stern and solid playing by Brecker and Joey Calderazzo.

TALES FROM THE HUDSON (1996), released after a six year hiatus, this is a formidable album with Pat Metheny (guitar), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Dave Holland (Bass), Joey Calderazzo (piano), and guests McCoy Tyner (piano) and Don Alias (percussion). The MUST-LISTEN track is Metheny’s tune Song For Bilbao, not for the superb tenor playing or piano by Tyner, but for Pat Metheny’s explosive solo on synth guitar. The other track I cannot get out of my head is Midnight Voyage, by Caldarazzo. It is a strolling tune with a behind-the-beat melody from Brecker and Metheny, sweet tenor and guitar solos, and a refreshing piano solo at the end of the piece to take it out.

BRECKER BROTHERS LIVE IN BARCELONA (1992): This entire concert is phenomenal. A VHS video was made, but no DVD and no CD that I have been able to find. The band is superb, with Michael on tenor and EWI, Randy Brecker on trumpet and flugelhorn, Dennis Chambers on drums, Mike Stern on guitar, James Genus on bass and George Whitty on keyboards (and he's very good). Several Barcelona cuts are available on YouTube.

Above and Below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Pg7x52khk&feature=related

Spherical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMHpOTSIfmo&feature=related even though there is some fraudulent filler footage during Mike Stern’s solo.

Some Skunk Funk: Michael Brecker rips his tenor to pieces in this solo! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG_tzhHd3vo&feature=related

Song For Barry: this clip is Mike Stern’s solo on the tune but it is an insane solo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PJe--Ssmok&feature=related

TWO BLOCKS FROM THE EDGE (1998)

Cat’s Cradle: Beautiful restrained ballad. Also see the live performance on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-PJLclH1XI&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL5A13ED94ECD30E19

Madame Toulouse (Brecker) is ultimately a straight 12-bar blues in which Brecker lays down two minutes of totally swinging solo that is so, so tasteful over the wonderful walking rhythm.

PILGRIMAGE (2007). A beautifully recorded and mixed album produced while Michael Brecker was in the throes of his illness, this is possibly the most composition-based of Brecker’s works. The top of world jazz players join him in this last effort, with his long time collaborator Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Brad Meldeau, Jack DeJohnette, and John Patitucci. The entire album is a treat. I recommend Loose Threads, a high energy tune in which one can imagine Brecker fighting his illness through his horn. Herbie Hancock’s solo adds momentum to that battle with an intense solo before the out head with its triple... punch... ending!

Unaccompanied SOLO performances of note by Brecker:

Round Midnight: this is an absolute MUST-LISTEN video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQ1jmoxAUA&feature=related

Naima, off DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC: LIVE AT MASSEY HALL, recorded October 2001. Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Roy Hargrove (trumpet), Brian Blade (drums), John Patitucci (bass). Brecker’s solo, a tribute to Coltrane’s famous tune, is a tour de force.  

My One And Only Love, off MICHAEL BRECKER. The solo playing is in the first 2’30” of this straight quintet version of the tune Coltrane recorded with Johnny Hartman.

Voilà: a playlist of a mere twenty-two tunes that barely scratches the surface of the prolific career of Michael Brecker, the best tenor player of his time.  Nevertheless, these tunes incorporate some of his absolute best playing. Use them as a jumping off point to explore the music of this man who contributed so much and was forced to leave us long before he was finished. We thank you Michael. We miss you Michael.