Michael Brecker Biography
29 March 1949, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 13 January 2007, New York City, New York, USA. Like many musicians of his generation, saxophonist Brecker was attracted in equal measure to R&B and the music of John Coltrane. In 1970, he left home for New York and joined his older brother Randy Brecker in the jazz rock band Dreams, led by drummer Billy Cobham. Subsequent gigs included work with Horace Silver, James Taylor and Yoko Ono. With his brother he formed the Brecker Brothers, which became one of the pre-eminent fusion units. In the early 80s he toured and recorded with David Sancious and joined Mike Mainieri in Steps Ahead, for many the definitive jazz rock group. Much in demand, Brecker also freelanced with a wide variety of jazz and pop artists, including Charles Mingus, John Lennon, Pat Metheny, Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock and John Abercrombie. In 1991, he was a featured soloist on Paul Simon's Rhythm Of The Saints tour.
In 1986, at the prompting of Impulse! Records, Brecker started recording as a leader, issuing an acclaimed solo album the same year. Brecker's smooth, strong version of Coltrane's middle-period playing was much imitated by mainstream and session players. Tales From The Hudson became a major success for him in 1996 and he won a Grammy the same year for Best Instrumental Solo (from the previous year's McCoy Tyner collaboration Infinity). He picked up another award the following year for Best Jazz Performance (Tales From The Hudson). Brecker made his debut for Verve Records in 1999 with the excellent Time Is Of The Essence. Equally impressive was the ambitious quindectet (15 piece) project Wide Angles, which won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2004. The arrangements were written by Gil Goldstein and members of the quindectet included Robin Eubanks, John Patitucci and Erik Friedlander (violin). Brecker died in January 2007 following a long battle with myelodysplastic syndrome and leukemia. His final album Pilgrimage recorded a few months before his death his certainly one of his finest. It features some superb contributions from Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Jack DeJohnette and John Patituci.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
|
