News
- Michael Brecker, 1949 · 2007
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January 21, 2007
Acute and sharp with the sax with smooth and charming manners. This was Michael Brecker, one of the most influential sax players of contemporary jazz who died of leukaemia at the age of 57 last Saturday. A great loss not only for the jazz community but also for the people who met him (musicians, festival promoters, agents, …) it is more than the death of a great musician, it is the loss of a great human being. The memory we have Michael Brecker of somebody extremely amiable, extremely likeable and it was very easy to make friends with him. One of these musicians who never gave a problem and everything was easy with them.
The first time Brecker performed in Vitoria was in 1984 as part of Steps Ahead (Michael Brecker, Mike Mainieri, Warren Bernhardt, Tom Kennedy and Peter Erskine) and each one of the six times he came back to Vitoria it was a real privilege, in fact, he was called sometimes “the perfect sax player”.
I believe he left his mark on Vitoria. First of all, because he played the incredible electronic sax EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), that he performed until the end of his days. It received the surname of “atomic txistu” in Vitoria and also because every of his concerts had something special.
One year after his debut in Mendizorrotza, he performed again with Steps Ahead, and he came back with the Herbie Hancock Quartet with Bobby McFerrin in 1988, in a concert that Brecker almost could not play because he spent so much time laughing at the antics of McFerrin. In 1993 he came back with his brother Randy, one of the most valued studio musicians who always supported him in his career in the Brecker Brothers. In the year 2000 he shared the stage with the Pat Metheny Special Quartet, with Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart, in a concert that ended with a second encore, a cover of “Summertime” performed by himself and Metheny that still resonates in the ears of all those who were there. His last concert in Vitoria was in 2002 and he returned again with Herbie Hancock, but this time also with Roy Hargrove, George Mraz and Willie Jones, under the name “Directions in Music”.
It was planned that he would come back to Mendizorrotza again with Steps Ahead in 2005 in a come back tour. He was very enthusiastic but he had to cancel because of his illness. It was the first time that the leukaemia prevented him from performing and he personally chose Bill Evans as his substitute.
It is very curious that Brecker, one of the heirs of the school of Coltrane (of who he was a great fan), also finished becoming a teacher of sax players. In such a distinctive instrument as sax, his sound was very special and recognizable in the thousands of recordings he played on. He performed in recordings of Paul Simon, John Lennon, Frank Zappa, Aerosmith, James Brown, Joni Mitchell, Lou Reed, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, … in which he left his knowing of the European classic music, of the great rock musicians, and his devotion to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.
He had been fighting against his disease for the last couple of years while he tried to lead as normal a life as possible and continue working. One month ago he made an appearance in a concert in New York that was his last live performance, and three weeks ago he finished his last recording. A recording to keep in the memory together with his friendship.
Iñaki Añua
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