Customer Reviews

Pilgrimage

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

. . . hardly like a man suffering from a rare blood disease with less than half a year to live. That's the first thing you notice.

The second thing is the power and precision of his playing. The thirteen-time Grammy winner and premier saxophonist of his generation seems to have lost nothing. Backed by his peers (Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau, piano; Pat Metheny, guitar; John Patitucci, bass; and Jack DeJohnette, drums), playing nine attractive new self-penned compositions, he sounds as energized and expressive as ever.

The third thing is how wonderfully this gathering of absolutely first-rank jazz players works together, setting aside egos, focusing all their attention on making the music sing and ring with beauty and authority. After all, these superstar sessions don't always work. Proof? The gorgeous ensemble playing up to, behind, and following the leader's stunning solo on "Five Months from Midnight." Or on "Anagram," a Shorter-ish piece with a tricky unison head nailed by Brecker and Metheny, then sailing off into the wild blue yonder with another heroic solo by the leader as the band provides provocative comping for him to riff off of, power-driven by some of DeJohnette's finest drumming on disc. When Metheny comes in with his own wonderfully conceived solo statement, the feel's one of tribute, a tip of the hat, to the leader, without the slightest shred of cutting or one-upmanship. Mehldau's solo, one of his finest, also sparkles with wit and approbation. DeJohnette follows with some controlled mayhem on his kit, and it all ends with a reprise of the head and a rousing ensemble send-off.

The churning, chugging "Tumbleweed," with its wild-west feel mapped onto some ur-heartland vibe, shakes things up, nicely framed by a bit of eldritch wordless vocals and Metheny's tasty guitar-synth solo followed by a driving statement from the leader. Mehldau keeps things rolling with a quirky, percussively outrageous solo, and everyone comes back in for a rousing finale. Certainly a high point in a record bursting with passage after passage of brilliant playing.

Even the balladic "When Can I Kiss You Again?" though starting out gently enough, eventually gets the fully energized treatment with an emotionally searing solo by the leader that builds gloriously and then backs into tranquility. "Cardinal Rule" likewise begins innocently enough only to be goosed into overdrive by some killer unison lines from, again, the leader and Metheny and a nimble solo from Patitucci. The mid-tempo, samba-like "Half Moon Lane" shows a mellower side of leader and band, but its pure melody, easy Latin groove, and deft yet heartfelt sensibility maintain the highest level of playing. "Loose Threads," another south-of-the-border tune, but with a little more muscle and a wackily fractured sense of time, nicely caps the previous number.

With "Pilgrimage," the last cut, we're deep into the mystic. Hancock's ethereal electric piano sets the table for this symbolic voyage into the unknown. But there's nothing New Age-y or sentimental about this piece. Instead, we get glorious sound vistas anchored to a hard-headed sense of both one's mortality, and the hope of a better beyond, beautifully expressed in Brecker's magical EWI solo. The sense I get is something akin to C. S. Lewis's vision of the weight of glory, the idea that Heaven is so much more real and substantial than earthly existence that were mere mortals to travel there they would find the grass so sharp as to cut their feet.

One mourns the untimely passing of such an imposing and heroic musical figure as Michael Brecker. But at the same time we can rejoice not only that he has gone on, one hopes, to a better place, but also because of the iridescence of his last musical statement.

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.)

If there's any solace to be gained from the dramatic, heart-rending final months of Michael Brecker's life, it's that perhaps some of the attention bestowed upon this great musician and exemplary human being will be directed to the vital African-American art form that he influenced and contributed to. As recently as 1990, the average life-span of jazz musicians was estimated to be 43, with the cases of saxophone legends Charlie Parker (who died at the age of 34) and John Coltrane (40) more often held up as typical rather than exceptional. It's difficult to recall the case of a jazz musician's premature death (Brecker was 57) that has provoked the outpourings of sympathy, love and respect, along with the unrestrained critical and popular assessments of his music, that this one has. But Brecker was a special case. His courageous battle was played out in full for almost two years (and for good reason because of the urgent search for a matching bone marrow donor for his exceedingly rare cancer). During this time, a larger public became aware of not only an outrageously talented, present-day master of the archetypal jazz instrument, the tenor saxophone, but of a generous and gentle human being--unassuming, personable, a loving father and family man. Finally, his death was neither a sudden shock (the road has taken a severe toll on musicians) nor one that could be implicitly interpreted as "self-inflicted" (drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking, etc.). Then the capper: a recording session that, accurately or not, is being viewed as not simply the "last note" but as a planned valedictory, a final testament, a visionary requiem. Its posthumous release, then, cannot help but take on a significance beyond the commercial, the aesthetic, and the historical: it's become a spiritual journey--from conception, to execution, and finally to its reception as a kind of other-worldly message from Brecker himself. (I can almost see the modest Michael bemused, perhaps even a bit amused, by much of the fanfare and fuss.)

As I'm listening to the music now, it's clearly apparent that he's playing like a giant in full possession of all his considerable powers (much as was pianist Bill Evans on the sixteen CDs' worth of music recorded less than a week before his death). The ensemble playing on "The Mean Time" is rhythmically and melodically intricate, tightly executed yet replete with inspired interplay and freeness. And for all the energy being expended, the musicians are listening to each other, working with dynamics and tension-release techniques over modal scales and within textures that are polyphonic, bringing as much attention to the group as to the individual soloist. "Tumbleweed" is another example of a high-intensity, intricate and polyphonically rich piece. On this composition Metheny's synthesizer-processed guitar solo might seem risky (should it ever come to be seen as dated, period-piece gadgetry) because it precedes a majestic Brecker solo, which sets up a two-handed, almost equally exhilarating turn by Brad Mehldau on acoustic piano.

It's an impressive session by exceptional players who are on their game. Is it a "work of art"? Is it a "classic"? Is it the "best" jazz album of the new millennium? Of Brecker's career? Maybe we'll know--in time. For now, best to enjoy it. Brecker's assimilation of Coltrane's innovations was not unlike Sonny Stitt's translation of Parker's new language. And there's always room for yet another flawless Stitt session.

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.

I've always struggled with Mike Brecker. As a huge fan of his regular cohorts Pat Metheny, Jack de Johnette, Charlie Haden & Herbie Hancock, I religiously buy his albums but, in the same way that I can't get into Coltrane I just couldn't get into Brecker. His music always seemed rather too "frenetic" &/or "strident" for my tastes. But then of course came the sad news of his passing and the news that he'd made this one last recording with three of the above-named (w. John Pattituci on bass & Brad Mehldau alternating with Herbie) so I just HAD to buy & try really hard to get into it - & goddam it I have!! If you can listen to it alone (& either loud or with headphones) immediately the things that strike you are that Brecker really is in top form, the interplay amongst these top notch musicians is simply fabulous (the opening track being a perfect example) & the writing with all its excellent arrangements (some credit to Gil Goldstein here) & ever changing rhythms & syncopations is both ingenius & superb. Standout highlights are the pulsating, churning "Tumbleweed" (which some have correctly likened to Metheny's 1983 "Song for Bilbao" except that this is a far more mature arrangement & product - the bringing together of all the treble parts at the end is wonderful!) & the melancholy (but never maudlin) "When can I kiss you again?" with beautiful solos by Pat, then Herbie & finally Brecker. "5 Months to Midnight" & "Half Moon Lane" could almost be companion pieces with sweet, soulful saxophone refrains embellished by moderato (almost laid back but still intricate) solos from Metheny & Mehldau. "Anagram" is a track that took a number of listens to appreciate - on the one hand its rather frenetic propulsion at the outset nearly had me reaching for the "skip" button but there's a nice, almost imperciptible, change of tempo into Metheny's excellent solo (which again shows he can really swing) followed by brilliant rhythm section work in & around Mehldau's solo, finished off by great synchpoated drum & bass work into the conclusion. Weak spots (& hence only 4.5 stars)?? Well, apart from being a good showcase for Pattituci's skills (& more fine work from Brecker) I think "Cardinal Rule" is a bit of "bits 'n' pieces" composition with not a lot of coherence. Also "Loose Threads" has such great melodic ideas up front that Brecker's solo seems a little too "straight-ahead" for my tastes. Finally, I think the title (& last) track, which is a bit too "into the mystic" at first, whilst exhibiting on the one hand a fabulous Brecker solo which could have made for a truly sensational closer is spoilt by some awful, rambling electric piano & synthesiser "noodling" from Hancock. But seriously, these are but minor quibbles (& only intended to justify knocking off half a star) because if you only ever buy one Michael Brecker album then this is definitely it!!

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.

Dying, he dared to live to the last with and in his music. Surrounded by the best of the best, he performed with passion and grace.

I lament the loss; I celebrate the achievement.

What you could have better asked to hear in jazz music; excellent music, excellent performers, complete package

I think other reviewers have said it better than I could when it comes to Michael Brecker's final album "Pilgrimage" so, I'll be brief. This is his best album ever. The playing as well as the musicianship between Brecker and his all-star line-up of Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci and Brad Mehldau is stellar on every track here. There isn't one weak track recorded here.
"Pilgrimage" features his best playing and his best compositions - truly a testament and high mark in the legacy of this respected sax player. If you don't believe me, read the other reviews here and then buy this CD.
An Instant Classic for 2007.
Rest in Peace, Michael.

If you are a fan of Michael Brecker this is a must have. As if the fact that it will be the last cd he ever releases isn't enough reason to purchase it, it is also a remarkable musical masterpiece. I honestly do not know how he managed to play at a level that is above the usual while practically on his death bed. The accompanying musicians are as good as they get as well, so the interaction between players and overall playing is just spectacular throughout.