Michael Brecker - Pilgrimage
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Free Music Notes for Pilgrimage
Free Music Review: HALL OF FAMER MICHAEL BRECKER'S BRILLIANT FINAL PERFORMANCES, WITH FRIENDS!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Five WONDERFUL Stars!! These brilliant, complex, touching performances are jazz tenor saxophone titan Michael Brecker's final recorded testaments in a brilliant multiple Grammy-winning career. Indeed, "Anagram", on this very CD, won the Grammy in February 2008 as the Best Instrumental Jazz Solo and this entire CD was the winner of Best Jazz Instrumental Recording. Sadly, the 57 year old succumbed to a form of leukemia in January 2007, but these performances, like many others, will endure forever. Surrounded by equally brilliant friends like Herbie Hancock or Brad Mehldau on keyboards, along with Pat Metheny, John Patitucci, and Jack DeJohnette as the core group, Downbeat Magazine tells us he was playing with pain but obviously without technical limitations (trust me, Michael was at the top of his game, blazing away and lovingly coloring the ballads). He was not able to 'mix' or 'master' the final recordings, but he had decided this, as we hear it, is what he wanted and it is SPECTACULAR as it is: the final mix was a task faithfully completed by empathetic friends, as the listener will readily hear in this first-rate CD package. These facts make this recording bittersweet, but never maudlin: it is fiery and heartfelt music from beginning to end, with as cohesive a group as you'll ever hear. As DeJohnette said in the DownBeat cover story, "we celebrated him".
The 'Pieces De Resistance', the best of the best, begin with the swirling twin tornados of "The Mean Time" with great unison Brecker & Metheny and with Michael getting off one of his characteristically powerful tenor solos. The enigmatic "Five Months From Midnight", "Tumbleweed", "Loose Threads" and his Grammy award-winning solo on "Anagram" have some of the best Michael Brecker solos you'll ever hear, certainly the rivals of his amazing solo on "Carolyn Keki Mingus" with the Charles Mingus Big Band decades ago (my personal favorite until now). Hancock's solo on "Loose Threads" along with Jack's fabulous muscular drumming is flat out amazing, as is Patitucci: you will reap benefits by reserving time to focus on the drum and bass exclusively throughout the recording as they operate beautifully in the background. The low-burning "When Can I Kiss You Again?" is beautiful and touching with Michael and Herbie turning up the heat and soaring above it all. The pure fire of "Cardinal Rule" is one of the best performances with great Patitucci and Mehldau solos, and at the coda Michael's high-octane solo with DeJohnette in hot pursuit gives an affectionate wink-back at Coltrane and Elvin. Of special note is Metheny who is a 'monster' throughout the proceedings in both solo and uncanny unison passages where he almost sounds like a pitchrider on Michael's lead notes. These are brilliant, beautiful performances and this is how we should remember Michael. A fitting end to a wonderful, storied career.
Thank goodness, Michael Brecker left a huge discography for us to enjoy, stretching all the way back to his days with his brother Randy in the Horace Silver Quintet, thru the various incarnations of the 'Brecker Brothers', to this very CD. Another great player has left the bandstand and he will be missed. My Highest Recommendation. Five TREMENDOUS Stars!!
(*This review is based on an iTunes digital download.
* Michael Brecker was elected to the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in October 2007.)
Free Music Review: Sweet Swan Song
Hit: 5 Stars
As a long standing Michael Brecker fan I would've bought this album anyway. The fact that it's the last one he made before he sadly passed away last year makes it all the more poignant and all the more desirable. The A-list cast he chose to play with - Pat Metheny on guitars (electric guitar & guitar synth), Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums - just tipped it over the edge and made it all the more of a must-have. The album is produced by Brecker, Gil Goldstein, Steve Rodby and Pat Metheny.
There's not much else I can say that hasn't already been said. Brecker is his usual precise and expressive self and his playing (on tenor saxophone and EWI) is full of energy and passion, which is quite ironic considering when the album was recorded. He sounds nothing like a man struggling with a debilitating and life-threatening illness. What incredible courage and artistry.
I had so much fun trying to work out (without looking) which of the tunes Hancock played on and which ones featured Mehldau. It wasn't very difficult; their unique styles are so clearly and immediately identifiable. I found the fast paced tune "Anagram" rather difficult to comprehend but when things were slowed down a tad, for me, the magic literally jumps out the speakers. Tunes like "Five Months from Midnight", "Tumbleweed" (with its world music-like chants), and the ballads "When Can I Kiss You Again?" & "Half Moon Lane", all won me over on first listen. But I also like the opener, "The Mean Time" and I was pleased to see that on the cryptic "Cardinal Rule", Patitucci finally gets to say something, and there's also a very interesting 'call and answer' between Brecker and Mehldau right in the middle there.
And then there's the very interesting stop and start rhythms of "Loose Threads". Hancock turns to the electric piano for the closing title tune and an earlier reviewer who noted his playing as "ethereal" is spot on. Brecker's turns on both sax and EWI lend additional complexity to the tune. It's a wonderful way to end the proceedings.
We'll be mourning the loss of Michael Brecker for some time, I'm sure but wherever he is now I'm equally sure it's a better place. I'm also pretty confident that he'll be very happy indeed, not least because he has left behind a vast catalogue of beautiful music just like the music on this CD to ensure that the world will never forget him, and always have love for him.
Five stars. I still don't get "Anagram" by the way, but I see that as a minor hiccup in a long and wonderful narrative. What a sweet swan song.
Free Music Review: Inspite of the circumstances, one of the greatest jazz cds ever
Hit: 5 Stars
The Grim Reaper tends to sharpen the focus a little. George Harrison, Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, all benefitted from the silent partner-ghost writer of eternity, if you will. No such partnership is in evidence here. This is simply one of the greatest jazz saxophone cds ever, and all the reactionary tradition-nazis, ensconced in their coca-cola lounges should sit up, listen carefully to Brecker, who, along with Wayne Shorter, is likely the best saxophone player, best creative jazz musician since John Coltrane.
And even if Brecker were to live another hundred years, this would still be such a significant career statement, that you would find yourself sitting up and paying attention from the first note to last. I have been through this record 8 times now and find new stuff with every listening, find new directions with every consideration, and find renewed gratitude for the creative quality that Brecker has represented all through his career. On this disc, he has assembled the most protean of jazz colleagues and they deliver the goods sumptuously and with a sense of urgent fire. I believe it is only in retrospect that they allowed their awareness of Micahel's demise to weigh in on their thoughts about these sessions. At the moment of playing, it was only and ever about the music.
DeJohnette and Pattitucci are absolutely as mystically connected as Ron Carter and Tony Williams ever were. Pat Metheny shows why there is absolutely no one else anywhere near the galaxy he inhabits with his 6 string. To have both Brad Mehldau and Herbie Hancock on board defies the imagination and as unique as each of them plays, they also play exactly the right thing to take the compositions into the realm of the phenomenally inspired. The CD is full of life. This is not, inspite of the sentimental title of "When Can I kiss you Again?", sentimental or fatalistic. No, Michael seems to have accomplished a detachment from his suffering that allows him to willingly assume the Pilgrimage he is about to undertake, and he does so with all of his creative forces flowing. No sniffling here. This is inspired!
This is an essential disc for any jazz fan, and required listening for anyone named Marsalis. This is jazz, W.
Free Music Review: Inspiring
Hit: 5 Stars
I just got done listening to Michael Brecker's final album, "Pilgrimage." It was a very intense listen. He recorded this album in August 2006, only five months before his death due to MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome). You can hear the disparity in his playing. He knows that the show must go on. And we, his fans, are very grateful that this tenor titan could end on a high note.
This is a man who never held back throughout his entire life. He lived the dream. He practiced constantly, and was not afraid of change. He was continuously searching for a new and better sound. His playing never really changed, you could still tell it was him playing, whether it was with the Brecker Brothers on their electric album, "Heavy Metal Bebop," or his more recent material with a more standard post-bop era jazz combo instrumentation, although it was definitely not a post-bop sound; it was a modern sound with a new edge.
There is so much amazing work on this album, such as some excellent soloing and chord work by pianist Brad Mehldau. He really adds a unique perspective to this album. Herbie Hancock is also featured on this album. I have always been a huge fan of guitarist Pat Metheny, who is playing guitar on here. John Patitucci has got to be one of the greatest bassists around today. Jack DeJohnette is on the drums, and no one could've been a greater match for the sound Brecker was going for. The melodies, all original compositions by Michael Brecker, arranged by jazz arranger Gil Goldstein, range from haunting to forward driving. Each song exudes a sense of hope, accomplishment and perseverance.
His sound has evolved. He took it up to the next level for this album. He had to. The emotion of knowing that the end is near must have catapulted him forward so that he could create one more great work before his passing. Either that, or he is just plain great, and even finding out that he had a life-threatening disease did not phase him emotionally or even physically.
I am going to continue to listen to this album in my car for at least a few more days. I will move this album up on my list of "desert island" CD's. Michael Brecker's amazing sax playing deserves no less.
Free Music Review: The best album I own!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This cd is without doubt the best cd that I have. Every musician is at the top of their game.
Every melody is beautifully composed. Very catchy tunes and I'm constantly singing them in my head all day. I have even transcribed a few of the melodies just to figure out what is going on.
There are many highlights which include Brecker and Metheny's solo on "The Mean Time". Metheny's solos on "Anagram" and "When Can I Kiss You Again?". The duet between Brecker and DeJohnette on "Cardinal Rule". The Hancock solo on "Loose Threads". The unforgettable melodies of "Half Moon Lane" and "Pilgrimage".
Though the biggest highlight is the last chorus on the title track when the key changes and every musician is giving it everything they've got.
So in conclusion, Michael Brecker has left us with his best compositions. Everyone must hear it!!!