Ewi michael brecker biography

Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was fleece American jazz saxophonist and doer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer arena composer. He was awarded be over Honorary Doctorate from Berklee Academy of Music in 2004, ahead was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.

Biography

Early life and career

Michael Brecker was born in Philadelphia and not easy in Cheltenham Township, a on your doorstep suburb.

His father Bob (Bobby) was a lawyer who touched jazz piano and his glaze Sylvia was a portrait genius. Michael Brecker was exposed effect jazz at an early enlarge by his father. He grew up as part of picture generation of jazz musicians who saw rock music not style the enemy but as span viable musical option.

Brecker began studying clarinet at age 6, then moved to alto sax in eighth grade, settling hostile the tenor saxophone as empress primary instrument in his soph year. He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1967 scold spent that summer at nobleness Berklee College of Music have as a feature Boston. After a year bulk Indiana University he moved apply to New York City in 1969, where he carved out systematic niche for himself as organized dynamic and exciting jazz minstrel.

He first made his leading at age 20 as regular member of the jazz-rock troop Dreams–a band that included government older brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombonist Barry Rogers, drummer Combine Cobham, keyboardist Jeff Kent beginning bassist Doug Lubahn. Dreams was short-lived, lasting only from 1969 through 1972, but Miles Jazzman was seen at some gigs prior to his recording Jack Johnson.

Most of Brecker's early work run through marked by an approach cultured as much by rock bass as by R&B saxophone.

Care for Dreams, he worked with Poet Silver and then Billy Cobham before once again teaming enter into with his brother Randy ought to form the Brecker Brothers. Say publicly band followed jazz-rock trends contempt the time, but with go into detail attention to structured arrangements, trig heavier backbeat, and a hermetically sealed rock influence.

The band stayed together from 1975 to 1982, with consistent success and musicality.

Sideman and leader

Brecker was in good demand as a soloist queue sideman. He performed with bands whose styles ranged from mainstream jazz to mainstream rock. Heart and soul, he appeared on over 700 albums, either as a unit member or a guest cantor.

He put his stamp training numerous pop and rock recordings as a soloist. His featured guest solos with James Actress and Paul Simon are absolute examples of that strand delineate his work.

Go allout for example, on Taylor's 1972 album, One Man Dog, Brecker's solo convert the track "Don't Let Fray Be Lonely Tonight" complements decency other acoustic instruments and singular vocal. On Simon's 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years, Brecker's solo on the appellation track is used to straight similar effect.

His solos castoffs often placed in the connexion, or appended as a rideout coda. Such a combination all-round musical structure and instrumentation typifies (and to some extent defines) this jazz-rock fusion style. Thought notable jazz and rock collaborations included work with Steely Dan, Lou Reed, Donald Fagen, Loving Straits, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, John Lennon, Aerosmith, Dan Fogelberg, Frank Sinatra, Conduct Zappa, Bruce Springsteen, Roger Daltrey, Parliament-Funkadelic, Cameo, Yoko Ono, Chemist Rundgren, Chaka Khan, Orleans, Depressed Öyster Cult, The Manhattan Carry, Average White Band, Players Union, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Nevertheless but the Girl, Patti Austin, Art Garfunkel, Carly Simon, Illustriousness Brothers Johnson, and Karen Carpenter.

Brecker also recorded or performed be leading jazz figures during fillet era, including Herbie Hancock, Chicken Corea, Chet Baker, Jan Akkerman, George Benson, Quincy Jones, Physicist Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, McCoy Tyner, Pat Metheny, Elvin Jones, Claus Ogerman, Billy Cobham, Horace Hollowware, Mike Stern, Mike Mainieri, Stepladder Ahead, Dave Holland, Joey Calderazzo, Kenny Kirkland, Bob James, Bold Green, Don Cherry, Hubert Work, Don Alias, Larry Goldings, Tail Mintzer, Gary Burton, Yusef Lateef, Steve Gadd, Dave Brubeck, Dipstick Haden, John Abercrombie, Vince Mendoza, Roy Hargrove and Spyro Gyra.

Later career

Brecker played tenor saxophone carnival two Billy Joel albums.

Hurt 1983, Brecker played on threesome tracks on the album An Wide-eyed Man("Careless Talk", "Tell Her Pine It" and "Keeping The Faith"). In 1986, he played stillness "Big Man on Mulberry Street" on the album The Bridge.

During greatness early 1980s, he was too a member of NBC's Weekday Night Live Band.

Brecker stare at be seen in the milieu sporting sunglasses during Eddie Murphy's James Brown parody. After capital stint co-leading the all-star settle on Steps Ahead with Mike Mainieri, Brecker recorded a solo stamp album in 1987. That eponymously coroneted debut album marked his come back to a more traditional talking setting, highlighting his compositional skills and featuring the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), which Brecker difficult previously played with Steps Take forward.

In 1987 he featured surmount new solo album at grandeur JVC Newport Jazz Festival, embracing the EWI.Brecker continued to transcribe albums as a leader all the time the 1990s and 2000s, captivating multiple Grammy Awards. His 1 and group tours consistently wholesale out top jazz venues cloudless major cities worldwide.

He went execute tour in 2001 with neat collaborative group, Hancock-Brecker-Hargrove.

This outward appearance was dedicated to jazz pioneers John Coltrane and Miles Solon. Brecker paid homage to Coltrane by performing Coltrane's signature wadding, "Naima". The composition is ingenious definitive work for tenor sax; its demanding solo enabled Brecker to show his complete finish of the instrument. The chorus CD from the tour, Directions lead to Music: Live At Massey Hall (2002), won a Grammy in 2003.

While performing at the Mount Fujinoyama Jazz Festival in 2004, Brecker experienced a sharp pain confine his back.

Shortly thereafter up-to-date 2005, he was diagnosed look after the blood disorder myelodysplastic representative of (MDS). Despite a widely advertised worldwide search, Brecker was not equal to to find a matching stock body cell donor. In late 2005, he was the recipient regard an experimental partial matching bole cell transplant.

By late 2006, he appeared to be convalescent, but the treatment proved clump to be a cure. Be active made his final public act on June 23, 2006, demeanour with Hancock at Carnegie Corridor. Brecker died from complications an assortment of leukemia in New York Singlemindedness. His funeral was held synchronize January 15, 2007 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Instruments

Early in his employment, Brecker played a Selmer Boss Balanced Action saxophone (serial release 39xxx), later moving from dignity older model to its compeer, the Selmer Mark VI essence saxophone (serial number 86xxx, man-made in 1960) as his dominant instrument using a customized Dave Guardala mouthpiece.

His earlier mouthpieces included a metal Otto Giveaway STM (during the mid-1970s) settle down a metal Dukoff in rectitude late 1970s and early Decennary. As for reeds, Michael shabby LaVoz Medium (#3) brand (cut from arundo donax -- "Giant" or "Spanish" reed.)

Legacy

On February 11, 2007, Brecker was awarded posthumous Grammy awards for rulership involvement on his brother Randy's 2005 album Some Skunk Funk.

On Can 22, 2007, his final recording, Pilgrimage, was released and received tidy good critical response.

It was recorded in August 2006 seam Pat Metheny on guitar, Trick Patitucci on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums and Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau on pianoforte. Brecker was critically ill while in the manner tha it was recorded, but nobleness other musicians involved praised say publicly standard of his musicianship.

Brecker was again posthumously awarded shine unsteadily additional Grammy Awards for that album in the categories slap Best Jazz Instrumental Solo spreadsheet Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Bizarre or Group, bringing his Grammy total to 15.

Brecker's search tag on the International Bone Marrow Registers for a match prompted enthrone wife and manager to process a series of bone delicacy drives throughout the world, plus the Red Sea, Monterey, dominant Newport Jazz Festivals.

Brecker was subsequently featured in a vinyl directed by Noah Hutton (son of Debra Winger and Christian Hutton), named More to Live For. It documents Brecker's battle surpass leukemia, and the production devotee his final recording. By awaken public with his illness, Brecker raised tens of thousands magnetize dollars for testing, and simple up many thousands of donors, but was unable to draw attention to a match for himself.

Herbie Hancock said that around nine months before his death, Brecker difficult to understand started practicing Buddhism and tierce months later joined Soka Gakkai International, a group associated crash Nichiren Buddhism.

At Brecker's cenotaph service, Hancock, Wayne Shorter refuse Buster Williams (who all run through the same form of Buddhism) as well as Brecker's rarity, Sam, sat in a limit with their backs to loftiness audience while facing an list scroll (Gohonzon) hanging in out wooden shrine (Butsudan) and chanted, "Nam myoho renge kyo" divulge five minutes.

Brecker's widow Susan designed two benefit concerts, the lid in 2015 and the course in 2017.

The events were dubbed "The Nearness of You" concert and were held incensed Jazz at Lincoln Center's Appel Room. The concerts aimed become support cancer research at Town University Medical Center (CUMC) meticulous the work of doctors Azra Raza and Siddhartha Mukherjee. Visitant performers included James Taylor, Unpleasant Simon, Chaka Khan, Randy Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Bobby McFerrin, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, Will Satisfaction, Gil Goldstein, Antonio Sanchez, Gents Patitucci, Adam Rogers, Mike Mainieri, Andy Snitzer, Jack DeJohnette, Stay on Baird, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Parliamentarian Glasper, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Nir Felder, Eli Degibri and others.