My definition of “Jazz I Like” is sort of like the the definition of obscenity:\u00a0 I know it when I see it.<\/p>\n
And among the scattering of names in post-Duke-Ellington jazz I have ever really liked was saxophonist Michael Brecker<\/a>.\u00a0 Brecker died this past January at 57.<\/p>\n Scott at Powerline, who may be the best music critic in the Twin Cities, directs us<\/a> to this piece by the NYTimes’ Corey Kilgannon<\/a>, on Breckers’ last recording sessions, for his Pilgrimmage <\/em>album, which has been out for a couple of weeks now:<\/p>\n Mr. Brecker\u2019s favorite collaborators \u2014 the guitarist Pat Metheny, the bassist John Patitucci, the drummer Jack DeJohnette and the pianists Herbie Hancock<\/a> and Brad Mehldau \u2014 all agreed to attend the session on short notice. Mr. Brecker had played on more than 900 albums, including familiar pop solos on Paul Simon<\/a> and James Taylor tunes, but now it was apparent that his days were numbered. A reporter was invited to document a day of recording.<\/p>\n Not that there was anything morbid about Mr. Brecker. He became energized immediately upon reuniting with his longtime sidemen. He cast off his cane and began zipping around the studio taking care of logistics.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the first day in the studio, we didn\u2019t know if the whole thing was going to happen,\u201d said Mr. Brecker\u2019s manager, Darryl Pitt. \u201cBut Mike just kept getting stronger and stronger in spirit, and it carried through him physically.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0Of course, I have a soft spot in my heart for Brecker, who – along with his trumpet-playing brother Randy, David Sanborn and Wayne Andre, served as the horn section on Bruce Springsteen’s original “Tenth Avenue Freezeout”, from Born to Run, <\/em>which served as my introduction to the Brecker brothers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My definition of “Jazz I Like” is sort of like the the definition of obscenity:\u00a0 I know it when I see it. And among the scattering of names in post-Duke-Ellington jazz I have ever really liked was saxophonist Michael Brecker.\u00a0 Brecker died this past January at 57. Scott at Powerline, who may be the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memoriam","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}