Michael Brecker

Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Over a four‑decade career, he recorded widely in jazz and popular music and appeared on more than 900 albums as a leader and sideman.^[3] He received 15 Grammy Awards from the Recording Academy,^[4] was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 2007,^[5] and received an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music in 2004. He died in New York City in 2007 from complications of leukemia following a 2005 diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome.^[3][6]

Brecker was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, on March 29, 1949, and raised in the local suburb of Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania. He was raised in an artistic household: his father, Bob (Bobby), was a lawyer who played jazz piano and his mother, Sylvia, was a portrait artist.^[7] Michael was exposed to jazz at an early age by his father. He began studying clarinet at age 6, then moved to the alto saxophone in the eighth grade, settling on the tenor saxophone as his primary instrument in his sophomore year of high school.

He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1967 and spent that summer at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In Fall 1967, he followed his older brother, Randy, to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he formed a jazz rock group with trumpet player Randy Sandke and others called Mrs. Seamon's Sound Band, named after a dormitory official who disliked longhaired students.^[8]

Mrs. Seamon's Sound Band were finalists in the competition at the Spring 1968 Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival, but were disqualified for their interpretation of The Doors song "Light My Fire".^[9] The band also performed outdoors on campus in a benefit for presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy in that year's presidential election.^[10] Following that semester, the band accepted a management offer and moved to Chicago, where drugs and a love triangle led to a suicide, which brought Chicago police to the manager's apartment, where all of the band except Sandke and Brecker, neither of whom were at the scene, were arrested. More trauma followed, and according to Randy Sandke, these events had an adverse psychological impact on Brecker which led to later substance abuse.

During the fall 1968 semester at Indiana University, Brecker formed a trio, which included the drummer from Mrs. Seamon's Sound Band, and played gigs at a church basement club called The Owl. Some of that was recorded.^[11] He dropped out before the end of the semester, spent a month in Mexico City, then returned to Philadelphia, where he played with Eric Gravatt, Billy Paul, and others.^[12]

Brecker moved to New York City in 1969, where he carved out a niche for himself as a dynamic and exciting jazz soloist.^[13] He first made his mark at age 20 as a member of the jazz-rock band Dreams,^[13] a band that included his older brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombonist Barry Rogers, drummer Billy Cobham, keyboardist Jeff Kent and bassist Doug Lubahn. Dreams was short-lived, lasting only from 1969 through 1972, but Miles Davis was seen at some gigs prior to his recording Jack Johnson.^[14]

Most of Brecker's early work is marked by an approach informed as much by rock guitar as by R&B saxophone. After Dreams, he worked with Horace Silver and then Billy Cobham before once again teaming up with his brother Randy to form the Brecker Brothers.^[13] The band followed jazz-funk trends of the time, but with more attention to structured arrangements, a heavier backbeat, and a stronger rock influence. The band stayed together from 1975 to 1982, with consistent success and musicality. In 1977 he founded the Seventh Avenue South jazz club with his brother Randy.^[15]

Al principio de su carrera, Brecker tocaba un saxofón Selmer Super Balanced Action, y más tarde pasó a un saxofón tenor Selmer Mark VI con acabado lacado ^{[ 19 ]} con cuello plateado, equipado con una boquilla Dave Guardala MB1 y cañas LaVoz medianas. ^{[ 20 ] [ 21 ]} Sus primeras boquillas incluyeron una Otto Link 'New York' STM de metal (a mediados de la década de 1970) y una Dukoff de metal a finales de la década de 1970 y principios de la de 1980.

Desde 1986/87, tocó el EWI , comenzando con un Nyle Steiner EWI "Steinerphone", uno de los pocos fabricados. Un par de años después, pasó a la primera versión de Akai , el EWI1000 con MIDI integrado. Para 1991, su EWI controlaba dos racks de módulos, incluyendo un Lexicon Jam-man y un sintetizador Oberheim Matrix 12; esta configuración se puede apreciar en el Concierto en el Parque de Paul Simon de 1991. Nyle Steiner continuó desarrollando y adaptando instrumentos para Brecker, incluyendo el Rad EWI de 2004 (que se toca con las manos juntas) y un modelo en línea más reciente, mientras que Michael dejó de usar racks de módulos de sonido para adoptar un sistema inalámbrico basado en PowerBook/Logic.

Brecker también tocaba la batería, pues solía hablar de que el tiempo, o ritmo, era lo más importante en la música. Demostró su destreza con la batería durante sus actuaciones con sus propios grupos o acompañando a sus alumnos en clases magistrales.

El 11 de febrero de 2007, Brecker recibió dos premios Grammy póstumos por su participación en el álbum de su hermano Randy de 2005, Some Skunk Funk .

El 22 de mayo de 2007, se publicó su última grabación, Pilgrimage , que recibió una buena acogida por parte de la crítica. Fue grabada en agosto de 2006 con Pat Metheny en la guitarra, John Patitucci en el bajo, Jack DeJohnette en la batería y Herbie Hancock y Brad Mehldau en el piano. Brecker se encontraba gravemente enfermo cuando se grabó, pero los demás músicos participantes elogiaron su calidad musical. ^{[ 22 ]} Brecker recibió póstumamente dos premios Grammy adicionales por este álbum en las categorías de Mejor Solista Instrumental de Jazz y Mejor Álbum Instrumental de Jazz, Individual o de Grupo , lo que elevó su total de Grammys a 15.

Brecker's search in the International Bone Marrow Registry for a match prompted his wife and manager to organize a series of bone marrow drives throughout the world, including the Red Sea, Monterey, and Newport Jazz Festivals. Brecker was subsequently featured in a film directed by Noah Hutton (son of Debra Winger and Timothy Hutton), named More to Live For. It documents Brecker's battle with leukemia, and the production of his final recording. By going public with his illness, Brecker raised tens of thousands of dollars for testing, and signed up many thousands of donors, but was unable to find a match for himself.

Herbie Hancock said that around nine months before his death, Brecker had started practicing Buddhism and three months later joined Soka Gakkai International, a group associated with Nichiren Buddhism. At Brecker's memorial service, Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Buster Williams (who all practice the same form of Buddhism) as well as Brecker's son, Sam, sat in a line with their backs to the audience while facing an inscribed scroll (Gohonzon) hanging in a wooden shrine (Butsudan) and chanted, "Nam myoho renge kyo" for five minutes.^[23]

Brecker's widow Susan organized two benefit concerts, the first in 2015 and the latter in 2017. The events were dubbed "The Nearness of You" concert and were held at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Appel Room. The concerts aimed to support cancer research at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and the work of doctors Azra Raza and Siddhartha Mukherjee. Guest performers included James Taylor, Paul Simon, Chaka Khan, Randy Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Bobby McFerrin, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, Will Lee, Gil Goldstein, Antonio Sanchez, John Patitucci, Adam Rogers, Mike Mainieri, Andy Snitzer, Jack DeJohnette, Chase Baird, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Robert Glasper, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Nir Felder, Eli Degibri and others.^[24][25][26]

The Michael Brecker Archive was established in 2013 at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, in collaboration with Susan Brecker, and Randy Brecker acting as advisor. The archive contains: original pencil and ink tune manuscripts covering Brecker's solo career and collaborations with Elvin Jones, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and others; three EWIs; mouthpieces, reeds and other equipment; over 250 commercially released LPs and CDs; over 1200 hours of unreleased live recordings and studio mixes on cassettes, DATs and other digital media; nine practice journals spanning from Brecker's time at Indiana University to the late 1990s; music books from his personal collection; an extensive clippings file; business materials; tour itineraries and record company/tour promotional materials; and over 1500 unreleased photo images.

• Sitio oficial
• grabaciones en directo
• Discografía completa archivada el 4 de mayo de 2021 en Wayback Machine .
• Enlace afortunado al sitio antiguo
• Michael Brecker en IMDb
• Archivo de Clark Terry, Michael Brecker, Thad Jones, James Williams y Mulgrew Miller. Archivo de Michael Brecker.
• The Independent – ​​Obituario en Wayback Machine (archivado el 5 de febrero de 2007)