Customer Reviews

The Michael Brecker Collection: Tenor Saxophone

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This book includes solos from Brecker's later solo albums such as Tales from the Hudson and Two Blocks from the Edge. The author includes pages on suggested alternate fingerings, suggested altissimo fingerings, multiphonics, and overtones. These pages are as insightful as the solo transcriptions themselves. The music is very cleanly notated in a traditional font, not handwritten.

Michael Brecker was very careful about transcription books of his solos. I had the honor of meeting him on a couple occassions long before this book was published. When asked about why there were no transcription books available at the time, he replied that there had been one floating on the black market, but it had mistakes and was done illegally. He said if a book like this was ever published, he would want to make sure it was done right. I don't know (and the book doesn't say) if Brecker was personally involved with this book, but my impression is that it's about as good as it gets in terms of books of its kind.

Michael Brecker is a genius. I sat down with this book and was blown away by how difficult it was to play. The transcriptions seemed to be spot on but, buyer beware, unless you are a very gifted sax player, it is going to take some serious practice time if you want to play this anywhere near the level that Brecker did.