RIP Michael Brecker

I have not had access to good current events news, particularly of jazz, since we moved and had our second child. I just found on by reading the International Musicians union "Taps" section that Michael Brecker passed away. I immediately went to his website, http://www.michaelbrecker.com, and found out that the bone cancer that was diagnosed two years ago finally took him from us.

I fully believe that Brecker was as important and influential as Coltrane, and most of my peers in the jazz community who are my age would have trouble denying it. However, most of the pundits/critics older than me just hate his playing, and don't consider it much more than some misplaced talent.

You see, Brecker had some things going against him when it came to acceptance in the jazz community. His drug habit was a problem, but others have had drug habits. No, the two things that made some critics discount him was that he experimented with electronics and jazz rock in the 70s, and that he would appear as a sideman with just about anybody who would pay him.

For some reason, jazz snobs (I am thinking of a certain New Orleans trumpet player who also made a living as a classical trumpeter) seem to think that the only music you can play and stay pure is either "real" jazz (Louis Armstrong, swing, bepop, post-bop, West Coast Jazz) or classical. Playing avant-garde, electronic music, pop music, rap, hip-hop, reggae, or "smooth" jazz automatically invalidates the musician as a serious musician, as they could not imagine playing that music under any circumstances, and they think the musician is just out for a buck.

Bull pucky.

I personally love "real" jazz, but I also love a lot of other music. My favorites include Peter Gabriel, Celia Cruz, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Suzanne Vega, Bill Bruford, Magenta, Sabine Meyer, Asleep at the Wheel, The Beatles, Blood Sweat and Tears, Fairport Convention, Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Police, Santana, and Yes, among others. None of these are classical or "real" jazz musicians. I think that a well-rounded musician tries to listen to everything in music with an open mind. There are genres that I still don't like after years of trying (hip-hop, Indian classical, belly dance, as examples), but I will still try every once in a while.

I approach playing the same way. One of my biggest regrets is not playing guitar or piano, so that I could play in a rock and roll band. The guys on the streets working with their horns or violins or voices or whatever should not restrict what they play to stay "pure"; they play stuff that they like, and they play stuff to put food on the table.

The Brecker Brothers exploded on the scene in 1975 with their first album, The Brecker Brothers. This album went through my high school like wildfire. The live version, Heavy Metal Bebop, is simply amazing (aside from one stupid top 40ish cut). The solos are dazzling, the electronics are effective, and the rythm section just flat out rocks. I bought this album new on LP from the cutout bin at Cactus Records in 1980, and was completely and totally floored. This album, and a recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, were constantly playing at my house, much to my parents' chagrin!

When I was at Universiy of Miami the one year I was a music major, every sax player was listening to Brecker. I was no exception. Transcriptions were flying, but at that time, I had no hope of playing most of them (I could probably work them up now if I had time, but it would be tough). Brecker was simply the most technical saxophone player that ever lived, and I would be hard-pressed to find any other woodwind player who could compete with him. Maybe James Galway. Anyway, the head grad student sax player at UM, Ed Calle, broke it down for us poor underclassmen, and presented an analysis of Brecker's solos, firmly rooted in the playing of the 1960s John Coltrane solos. Brecker always played in three keys at once, the I, IV and V of whatever chord was going on. He also had complete mastery of the highest notes that a sax can play, the altisimmo register.

Early in his career, Brecker seemsed to lack a certain confidence in his composing and leading ability, and hid behind many musicians as the consumate side man. There is an apocryphal story that as Brecker was in rehab for his drug habit, he took a side date with jazz legend, McCoy Tyner. On this date, Tyner had Brecker play one of Coltrane's standards, Impressions, as well as some other tracks. (The album is called Infinity) Anyway, the story goes that Tyner told Brecker that he should get his act together and make albums as a leader, as he was ready to assume his place with the great ones in jazz. Soon after, Brecker's first album (Michael Brecker) came out. While it did not win the Critics' Poll in DownBeat, it certainly won the Readers' Poll.

I personally saw him play the following times: 1987 at Fitzgerald's in Houston, 1992 at the old Yoshi's in Oakland, 1995 at Kimball's East in Emeryville and at the old Yoshi's in Oakland, 2002 at Yoshi's in Jack London Square, and 2004 and 2005 at Cal Performances in Berkeley. All but the last were amazing concerts. The last, a thing called Directions in Music, I reviewed in this blog, and it was terrible.

Not knowing the man at all, I am not really broken up about his passing on an emotional level, but I am very sad that we are not ever going to hear anything new by him ever again.

If you have favorite musicians, and have a chance to see them live, GO DO IT! You never know when a car accident (Clifford Brown, Scott Lafaro), murder (Lee Morgan), cancer (Brecker), heart attack, suicide, drug overdose (Janice Joplin, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday) will take them from us.

Support live music. It is essential.