Customer Reviews

Michael Brecker

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an Album where the music just gets better and better. I started out being somewhat sceptical, when I heard the Smooth Jazz tone of Sea Glass, the first track, but by the time I had listened to the incredible Syztgy, Choices and Nothing Personal I was convinced about this album.

Michael Brecker's Tenor playing is so rich and warm. His speed and clarity are extraordinary.

The line up on this album top notch. It is really a "best of the best" with Jack de Johnette on Drums, Charlie Haden on Bass, Kenny Kirland on Piano and Pat Metheny on Guitar. I always enjoy Jack de Johnette's fast and sweet drumming; a particular feature on the album for me. The entire group is really "tight" and it is really impossible to say anyone is better than the other. It works!

Don't be put off by track 1 Sea Glass which I consider the least good, because the next three tracks in particular are great. I enjoyed a very interesting rendition of "My One and Only Love" which is on Track 7. On this track there is a solo by Pat Metheny that is sublime. Track 5 The Cost Of Living is a slower number, but is a nice change of pace that is well performed and allows Charlie Haden to shine.

This is a terrific album. It showcases Michael Brecker's virtuoso sound.

This album sent shock waves through the jazz community when it came out, and I love every song, and every thing about it: it has Brecker on the EWI, Brecker on soulful tenor, fantastic drumming by DeJohnette, an absolute monster cool hit tune, Nothing Personal, haunting ballads (Sea Glass, Cost of Living), and the tongue in cheek Original Rays. Although I am a total Brecker fan, and the man can do no wrong, trust me when I say this must be in your collection...

I've got all of M.Brecker's releases, and I always come back to this, his debut. This artist keeps growing and his sound ever-evolving into new and exciting terrain (see all successive albums). I pull this cd out and it consistently sounds fresh. Great compositions, great band, great solos, and inspiring music.

Powerful -- that's really the only way to describe this album. Mike has put out many great recordings since but none quite capture the emotion in this one. He leaves everything on it. There's nothing left for him to play when he's done. You'll have to listen and experience for yourself.

For more great albums with Mike check out Chick Corea's Three Quartets and Steps Ahead - Smoking in the Pit.

In the wake of the staggering loss of Michael Brecker, his first album as a leader is a great introduction to his work for anyone interested in finding out what he was to the world of jazz. Every one of these tracks is remarkable and worthwhile, and since Sea Glass is getting knocked in some of these reviews I'll address it. To me, Sea Glass is perhaps the best expression of Brecker's talent and courage as a musician. Yes, the phrasing of the melody and use of electric keyboards are elements that remind one of smooth jazz. Still, it's frustrating that a jazz listener would dismiss it because of this. Try turning off those critical wheels in your little brain for a moment and just listen to the damn tune. It's excellent and straight ahead throughout, and undeniably so. It boggles my mind that listeners who would no doubt consider themselves discerning are so quick to bash something that I know they would love if they could suspend their snobbishness long enough to open up their ears. The music of Michael Brecker - and for that matter Pat Metheny who also appears on this album - is full of recordings that fall into this category and which you'll never appreciate if you can't get past knee jerk criticism. Give it a shot.

Michael's best album in my opinion--His use of the EWI(electronic wind instrument) in Original Rays is unlike anything you have ever hear-I highly recomend this album.

This album is fantastic from start to finish. I am biased b/c the lineup contains some of my favorite instrumentalists - DeJohnette, Metheny, Haden, etc. I have many of Brecker's recordings, both his solo stuff, Brecker Brothers, and tons as a sideman, but I always come back to this album a lot. There are many stand out tracks on this album but my favorite is "the cost of living" - a melancholy tune with a haunting melody -- Haden's solo is sparse and perfect. Dejohnette is a painter, unpredictable, unorthodox, but everything resolves in his playing like a circle.

I had this record on vinyl when it came out in 1986. Just added it to my collection on disc and it has me wondering where I've been all this time. This was the first solo release by Brecker, and he can only be termed a GIANT of the tenor sax. I saw him live four or five times, and all his genius is on display here. So sorry to say that Brecker succumbed to cancer last year, and that brilliant pianist Kenny Kirkland, who is all over this record, succumbed to a heroin overdose in 1998. The musicians, also including guitarist Pat Metheny and drummer Jack DeJohnette, are uniformly stupendous on this record, but more than that, the compositions are simply inventive jazz genius. Curious about jazz? Want to check out a great saxophone record? BUY IT.

The CD album notes indicate this was Michael Brecker's first solo project, after a prolific career as a sideman and group participant. Perhaps this experience partially explains the very complete development of Brecker's style and skill, which is fully established in this first solo project. If one follows the career of most great jazz musicians, for example, Coltrane or Miles Davis, one can readily see development and changes, but on Brecker's first solo album its all there in the first place. In the first number,"Sea Glass" , Brecker opens with a slow ballad style reminiscent of David Sanborn, but then greatly elaborates on it with complex composition requiring great tone control and range. The second number, "Syzygy" shows a frequent Brecker technique of opening with fragments of a theme, here a Coltrane-like segment -- later well complemented by a McCoy Tyner-like solo from Kenny Kirkland -- with the basic melody not appearing until over two minutes into the piece. Magnificent balladeering appears on the last number, "My One and Only Love", which also opens with a naked sax solo of melody fragments, with the sax joined by the other instruments a couple of minutes into the number. Excellent ballad work is also shown on "Cost of Living" (#5), with a great basic tone complemented with variety of rhytym and timing, creating high emotive quality. "Original Rays" , like "Syzygy" , is a number with everything, showing imagination of composition. It opens with a fun rhythmic timing EWI segment, followed by a sensational tenor sax solo, a great guitar solo from Pat Metheny, and closing with the EWI. Brecker's solo work on "Choices" (#3) demonstrates his great ability to control and vary rhythm and timing in his sax solos, an attribute of his work which separates him from even some of the greatest sax players.

BUY THIS CD!!! I'm a tenor saxophonist myself (and a good one, at that), so I think that I can comment with some authority. I've played for nearly thirty years and bought this record --- on vinyl --- when it first came out. Mike's a complete master of the tenor saxophone --- in the view of many in the saxophone community, he may be the finest player currently working. Furthermore, a significant percentage of that community believes that he has actually pushed the tenor saxophone past John Coltrane. I share that view. He's won 7 Grammys including two for his latest effort - Nearness.

As to this particular CD, Mike waited until he was 38 to put it, his first solo effort, out (he's on about 500 other peoples' recordings.....) It shows; it's thoughtful, glorious (his tone is awesome), buy the CD. There are transcription books containing solos to some of the tunes, which every tenor cat is buying --- the solos are THAT GOOD!!!!! His a capella introduction to "Syzygy" is worth the money alone!!! By the way, the tenor and EWI unison lines were overdubbed.