Album is legacy of great tenor saxophonist

By Kevin L. Carter For The Inquirer

DARRYL PITT Rehearsing in New York last August for Michael Brecker's last album, "Pilgrimage," (from left) Gil Goldstein, Herbie Hancock, Brecker, John Patitucci, Pat Metheny and Jack DeJohnette. Brecker died Jan. 13 at 57.

Michael Brecker, one of the greatest tenor saxophonists of our time and of all time, left this existence on Jan. 13 at the age of 57.

But those who knew him and played with him believe that his musical and personal legacy will live on with the posthumous album Pilgrimage (Heads Up Records), which was released last week.

"It is a testament to the awesome drive Michael had for his life, and his incredible will to live," Brecker's widow, Susan, said by telephone from her family home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., about an hour's drive north of Manhattan. She added that a posthumous release "was not what we all had in mind for Michael. It is an incredible statement, but we are all, still, devastated."

The record is a moving and monumental testimony to and from Brecker, who won the last two of his 13 Grammy Awards this year (for jazz instrumental solo and jazz large-ensemble album) for Some Skunk Funk, a collaboration with his brother, Randy, a trumpeter.

Pilgrimage is a showcase, workshop and epitaph for Brecker, made with some of his most illustrious longtime collaborators - pianists Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau, drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist John Patitucci, and guitarist Pat Metheny.

Brecker's manager, Darryl Pitt, who knew the Philadelphia-born, Cheltenham-raised musician for more than 25 years, said, "When I hear this record, I hear the phrases of hope and sadness, and musical genius and peace and angst, and love. I find Pilgrimage to be deeply moving, and this is why critics have said it is among the finest jazz recordings. It is extraordinary."

Neither DeJohnette nor Hancock were surprised to hear that sentiment. That couple of days last August in Manhattan were not your typical recording session. All of the musicians on the session wanted to put in a little extra effort on the gig.

It was simple, Hancock said - all of the musicians were happy to see Brecker in his element again.

"It was an amazing experience, very heartfelt and inspiring," Hancock said from his office in Southern California. "We wanted to give our best, because we knew that he had this life-threatening disease, and nobody knew what the future held. We were amazed and shocked at the life force and energy that he had at the session, and of his courage and bravery.

"I believe all of us at that session were at the top of our game. Certainly Michael was," Hancock said.

In 2004, Brecker was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone-marrow disorder that developed into leukemia by the following year, when Brecker and his family publicly disclosed the illness.

Brecker had not really played the sax for almost two years after his diagnosis, Hancock said. At the time of the recording session, Hancock had not seen or heard Brecker play since he had been sick. "I was astounded that Michael was going to record," he said.

Brecker, who had been undergoing chemotherapy, was weakened and in pain, but he insisted on driving himself to the recording sessions in Manhattan.

"I noticed that he was in a whole lot of pain when he was there," DeJohnette said. "He would play and then have to stop because his legs were hurting."

"I think the idea of making this record kept him alive," Susan Brecker said.

According to Pitt, Pilgrimage, which has nine tracks, all Brecker's compositions, was mixed and mastered just before the end of 2006. Michael Brecker died about two weeks later.

The genesis of Pilgrimage came during Brecker's illness, Susan Brecker said. Since he was stricken he had stopped playing the sax, but had continued writing music.

One of his newest loves was Bulgarian music, and Brecker had been exploring the idea of recording a disc of Bulgarian and Bulgarian-inspired tunes. He had planned to put together a collaboration that included Bulgarian musicians, but the project never got off the ground due to his disease.

But in subtle ways, the Bulgarian influence is there in Pilgrimage. Brecker, said DeJohnette, had always been interested in different time signatures and odd meters, and his solo passages, some with only DeJohnette accompanying him, emphasized the rhythmic understanding the two men developed over more than two decades of collaboration.

The compositions - some with poignant titles like "When Can I Kiss You Again?", a question posed by Brecker's teenage son, Sam, while Brecker was undergoing treatment, as well as "The Mean Time" and "Five Months From Midnight" - were inspired, Hancock said.

"They were amazing compositions," he said. "I feel as if Michael felt a need to take his music to another level."

Susan Brecker said Michael had written many more compositions before his death. She doesn't yet know what will happen with the music, most of it saved on computers, because she hasn't even looked at or heard some of the work he had done in his last months.

"At this point, I haven't delved into the computer," she said. "Right now I am trying to help my kids [Sam and Jessica] through this tragedy, and I am not sure what I am going to do. There have been so many things that we've had to deal with."