Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. During his 40-year career, he recorded many songs in jazz and popular music and was on more than 900 albums as a leader and sideman. He won 15 Grammy Awards from the Recording Academy, was added to the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 2007, and received an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music in 2004. He died in New York City in 2007 because of leukemia complications after being diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome in 2005.

Early life and education

Brecker was born on March 29, 1949, to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Cheltenham Township, a suburb of Philadelphia. His father, Bob (Bobby), was a lawyer who also played jazz piano. His mother, Sylvia, was a portrait artist. Michael was introduced to jazz music when he was young by his father. At age 6, he began learning the clarinet. In eighth grade, he switched to the alto saxophone. By his sophomore year in high school, he chose the tenor saxophone as his main instrument.

He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1967. That summer, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the fall of 1967, he went to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, following his older brother, Randy. There, he formed a jazz rock group with trumpet player Randy Sandke and others. The group was named Mrs. Seamon's Sound Band, after a dormitory staff member who did not like students with long hair.

Career

Mrs. Seamon's Sound Band reached the final round of the Spring 1968 Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival but were disqualified for their performance of The Doors' song "Light My Fire." The band also performed outdoors on campus for a benefit event supporting presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy during that year's election. After that semester, the band accepted a management offer and moved to Chicago. There, drug use and a romantic conflict led to a suicide, which caused the Chicago police to visit the manager's apartment. All band members except Sandke and Brecker were arrested, as neither of them was present at the scene. These events caused significant emotional distress, and according to Randy Sandke, they had a negative effect on Brecker's mental health, contributing to later substance abuse.

During the fall 1968 semester at Indiana University, Brecker formed a trio that included the drummer from Mrs. Seamon's Sound Band. The group performed at a club called The Owl, located in a church basement. Some of their music was recorded. Brecker left the group before the semester ended, spent a month in Mexico City, and then returned to Philadelphia, where he played with musicians such as Eric Gravatt and Billy Paul.

In 1969, Brecker moved to New York City, where he became known as a skilled jazz saxophonist. At age 20, he joined the jazz-rock band Dreams, which included his older brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombonist Barry Rogers, drummer Billy Cobham, keyboardist Jeff Kent, and bassist Doug Lubahn. Dreams was active from 1969 to 1972, and Miles Davis attended some of their performances before recording his album Jack Johnson.

Brecker's early work combined influences from rock guitar and R&B saxophone. After Dreams, he worked with musicians such as Horace Silver and Billy Cobham before reuniting with his brother Randy to form the Brecker Brothers. The band followed jazz-funk trends but focused on structured music, strong rhythms, and rock elements. The Brecker Brothers remained together from 1975 to 1982, achieving consistent success. In 1977, Brecker and his brother founded the Seventh Avenue South jazz club.

Brecker was highly sought after as a soloist, sideman, and session musician. He performed with groups ranging from traditional jazz to rock. He appeared on nearly 900 albums as a band member or guest artist. He contributed saxophone solos to pop and rock recordings, including work with artists such as James Taylor, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Lou Reed, Dire Straits, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and Bruce Springsteen. He also performed with many famous jazz musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, Jaco Pastorius, and Pat Metheny, as well as the French band Magma.

Brecker played tenor saxophone on two Billy Joel albums. In 1983, he contributed to three tracks on An Innocent Man: "Careless Talk," "Tell Her About It," and "Keeping The Faith." In 1986, he played on "Big Man on Mulberry Street" from The Bridge.

In the early 1980s, Brecker was part of NBC's Saturday Night Live Band. He appeared in the background during Eddie Murphy's parody of James Brown. After co-leading the group Steps Ahead with Mike Mainieri, Brecker released a solo album in 1987. This album, which shared his name, marked his return to traditional jazz and featured the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), an instrument he had previously used with Steps Ahead. He performed this album at the JVC Newport Jazz Festival in 1987. Brecker continued to release albums as a leader throughout the 1990s and 2000s, earning multiple Grammy Awards.

In 2001, Brecker toured with the group Hancock-Brecker-Hargrove, which honored jazz pioneers John Coltrane and Miles Davis. He performed Coltrane's famous piece "Naima" during the tour. The concert CD from the tour, Directions in Music: Live At Massey Hall (2002), won a Grammy in 2003.

In 2004, Brecker felt sudden back pain while performing at the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival. In 2005, he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a blood disorder. A global search for a stem cell donor, including efforts within the Ashkenazi Jewish community, did not find a match. In late 2005, he received an experimental stem cell transplant. By late 2006, he seemed to be improving, but the treatment did not cure his condition. His final public performance was on June 23, 2006, when he played with Herbie Hancock at Carnegie Hall. Brecker died from complications of leukemia in a Manhattan hospital. His funeral was held on January 15, 2007, in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Instruments

Early in his career, Brecker played a Selmer Super Balanced Action saxophone. Later, he used a Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone with a lacquer finish, a silver-plated neck, a Dave Guardala MB1 mouthpiece, and LaVoz medium reeds. Before this, he used a metal Otto Link 'New York' STM mouthpiece during the mid-1970s and a metal Dukoff mouthpiece in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

From 1986/7 onward, Brecker played the EWI. He first used a Nyle Steiner EWI "Steinerphone," one of only a few made. A few years later, he switched to the first Akai EWI1000, which had built-in MIDI. By 1991, his EWI connected to two racks of modules, including a Lexicon Jam-man and an Oberheim Matrix 12 synth. This setup was seen in the 1991 Paul Simon's Concert in the Park. Nyle Steiner continued to create and adapt instruments for Brecker, such as the 2004 Rad EWI (played with hands side-by-side) and a newer in-line model. Later, Brecker used a wireless PowerBook/Logic system instead of sound module racks.

Brecker also played drums, often emphasizing that rhythm is the most important musical element. He demonstrated his drum skills during performances with his own groups and while helping students during masterclasses.

Legacy

On February 11, 2007, Brecker received two Grammy awards after his death for his work on his brother Randy's 2005 album Some Skunk Funk.

On May 22, 2007, Brecker’s final recording, Pilgrimage, was released and received praise from critics. It was recorded in August 2006 with Pat Metheny on guitar, John Patitucci on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau on piano. Brecker was very sick when the recording happened, but the other musicians praised his skill. He was later given two more Grammy awards for this album in the categories of Best Jazz Instrumental Solo and Best Jazz Instrumental Album, bringing his total Grammy count to 15.

Brecker’s search for a bone marrow match led his wife and manager to organize bone marrow drives at events like the Red Sea, Monterey, and Newport Jazz Festivals. He was later in a film called More to Live For, directed by Noah Hutton, which showed his fight against leukemia and the making of his final recording. By sharing his illness publicly, Brecker helped raise money for testing and added many donors to the registry, but he never found a match.

Herbie Hancock said Brecker began practicing Buddhism about nine months before his death and joined Soka Gakkai International, a group linked to Nichiren Buddhism, three months later. At Brecker’s memorial service, Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Buster Williams, and Brecker’s son, Sam, sat in a line facing a scroll called a Gohonzon inside a wooden shrine called a Butsudan while chanting “Nam myoho renge kyo” for five minutes.

Brecker’s wife, Susan, organized two benefit concerts in 2015 and 2017, named The Nearness of You. The events took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room and aimed to support cancer research at Columbia University Medical Center and the work of doctors Azra Raza and Siddhartha Mukherjee. Guest performers included James Taylor, Paul Simon, Chaka Khan, Randy Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Bobby McFerrin, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, Will Lee, Gil Goldstein, Antonio Sanchez, John Patitucci, Adam Rogers, Mike Mainieri, Andy Snitzer, Jack DeJohnette, Chase Baird, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Robert Glasper, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Nir Felder, Eli Degibri, and others.

The Michael Brecker Archive was created in 2013 at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, with help from Susan Brecker and Randy Brecker as an advisor. The archive includes original music manuscripts from Brecker’s solo work and collaborations with Elvin Jones, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and others; three EWIs; musical equipment like mouthpieces and reeds; over 250 commercially released LPs and CDs; over 1200 hours of unreleased recordings on cassettes, DATs, and digital media; nine practice journals from Brecker’s time at Indiana University to the late 1990s; music books from his personal collection; a large collection of clippings; business materials; tour itineraries; record company and tour promotional materials; and over 1500 unreleased photographs.

Selected discography

• 1975: The Brecker Bros. with the Brecker Brothers
• 1976: Back to Back with the Brecker Brothers
• 1976: Don't Stop the Music with the Brecker Brothers
• 1978: Heavy Metal Be-Bop with the Brecker Brothers
• 1980: Detente with the Brecker Brothers
• 1981: Straphangin' with the Brecker Brothers
• 1982: Cityscape (Michael Brecker and Claus Ogerman) with Marcus Miller, Eddie Gómez, Steve Gadd, and Paulinho da Costa
• 1983: Steps Ahead with Mike Mainieri, Eddie Gómez, Peter Erskine, and Eliane Elias
• 1984: Modern Times with Mike Mainieri, Eddie Gómez, Peter Erskine, and Warren Bernhardt
• 1986: Magnetic with Steps Ahead, inc. Victor Bailey, Mike Mainieri, Peter Erskine, Chuck Loeb, Kenny Kirkland, Hiram Bullock, Paul Jackson, Peter Schwimmer, Mitchel Forman, and Diane Reeves
• 1987: Michael Brecker with Pat Metheny, Kenny Kirkland, Charlie Haden, and Jack DeJohnette
• 1988: Don't Try This at Home
• 1990: Now You See It… (Now You Don't)
• 1992: Return of the Brecker Brothers with the Brecker Brothers
• 1994: Out of the Loop with the Brecker Brothers
• 1996: Tales from the Hudson with Pat Metheny, Joey Calderazzo, McCoy Tyner, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and Don Alias
• 1998: Two Blocks from the Edge with Joey Calderazzo, James Genus, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Don Alias
• 1999: Time Is of the Essence with Larry Goldings, Pat Metheny, Elvin Jones, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Bill Stewart
• 2001: Nearness Of You: The Ballad Book with Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, and James Taylor
• 2003: Wide Angles
• 2007: Some Skunk Funk with Randy Brecker
• 2007: Pilgrimage with John Patitucci, Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, and Brad Mehldau