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Recording of May 2007: Pilgrimage Your E-mail

Dan Ouellette, May, 2007

Zip Code Michael Brecker Pilgrimage Michael Brecker, tenor sax, EWI; Pat Metheny, guitars; Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, keyboards; John Patitucci, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums Ads by Google Heads Up International HUCD 3095 (CD). 2007. Michael Brecker, Gil Goldstein, Steve Rodby, Pat Metheny, prods.; Darryl Pitt, exec. prod.; Joe Ferla, eng. DDD. TT: 77:57 Study Jazz Improv Online Performance ****½ Online jazz improvisation courses and programs Sonics ****½ from Berklee College. www.berkleemusic.com When, following the superb Wide Angels (2003), recorded with his 15-piece Quindectet, Michael Brecker decided to end his long-term contract with Impulse!/Verve and hook up with Heads Brilliant Jazz Up International, part of his goal was to Alle prachtige jazzmuziek van dit label is hier adventurously expand his repertoire in a jazz direction more oriented toward world verkrijgbaar! music—specifically, an album influenced www.Kruidvat.nl/jazz by Bulgarian music, which had forced him to harmonically reconceptualize how he played his tenor sax. However, his Bulgarian speed-jazz project, which was to include Bulgarian artists, was shelved in 2005 when Brecker was stricken with the rare bone-marrow cancer > Recent Additions Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which > Budget Components > Floorstanding Loudspeakers ultimately led to his death, at 57, in early > Standmounted/Bookshelf January 2007. > Tube Preamps Loudspeakers > Tube Power Amps > Subwoofers > Solid-State Preamps Despite long periods of complete inactivity enforced by the severity of MDS, Brecker > Solid-State Power Amps found pockets of time to begin working on a compositional journey that would entail > CD Players/Transports > Integrated Amps/Receivers the enlistment of some trusted longtime collaborators, including guitarist Pat > Hi-Rez Disc > Phono Preamps Metheny, pianist Herbie Hancock, and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Pianist Brad Players/Transports Mehldau alternates with Hancock, and bassist John Patitucci anchors the entire > Digital Processors album. Initially titled This Just In, this appropriately changed to Pilgrimage following > Cables > Computer Audio Brecker's death, the CD, released four months after that passing, is Brecker's > Phono Accessories > Media Servers/MP3 Players brilliant final hurrah, a nine-tune swan song written and recorded in his last few > Powerline Accessories months. Well aware that this could indeed be his ultimate outing, Brecker > Room Acoustics Treatments > Turntables meticulously composed music that teems with complex arrangements and a soulful > Stands/Racks > Tonearms urgency in which every note counts. > Headphones/Headphone > Phono Cartridges Accessories > FM Tuners > Miscellaneous Brecker didn't quite complete the project. He recorded and mixed all of the tracks but was unable to master them, a task painstakingly carried out after his death by coproducers Metheny, Gil Goldstein, and Steve Rodby, executive producer Darryl Pitt, and engineer Joe Ferla. Their labor of love and dedication to detail makes Pilgrimage a sonic treat that wholly reveals the crystal in Brecker's clarion sound. > As We See It > Special Features Also impressive is the impeccable instrumental mix: each player is given equal > Listening / Art Dudley > Reference weight, most notably Patitucci's affective mélange of bass lines and grooves. Case > The Fifth Element / John > Interviews in point: his slow, sad steps on the melancholic ballad "When Can I Kiss You Again." Marks > Think Pieces > Music in the Round / Kal > Historical The performances are inspired. All participants rise to the occasion, obviously fired Rubinson up that Brecker had new musical ideas and was healthy enough to express and > Fine Tunes / Jonathan Scull > Recording of the Month document them. Although Pilgrimage features, in essence, a studio supergroup, the > Records 2 Die 4 cumulative effect is that of a celebratory band with a deeply ingrained > Music/Recordings improvisational chemistry. The playing is lofty—everyone listens and responds, spurring each other on and clearing the sound space for instrumental showcasing.

On many tracks, the operative word is uptempo. The album opens with the robust "The Mean Time," which features Hancock's unmistakable dashes across the keys, > Wes Phillips > Record Reviews Metheny's soft-toned but molten droplets of glee, and Brecker's fine-tuned > Stephen Mejias > Groove Migrations excitement. "Anagram" has irregular tempos, but its gallop carries the day as > Robert Baird Brecker ecstatically wafts articulate leads above Patitucci's imaginative bass lines, > Audio News which move from a walking gait to reflective pulses. In "Tumbleweed," Metheny > Forums > Past eNewsletters leaps, rolls, and somersaults on his synth guitar, and rocks with a trace of funk. > Galleries > CES 2006 Reports > Vote > FSI 2006 Reports While Pilgrimage afforded Brecker the rhythmic license to juxtapose sounds and > Previous Votes > HE 2006 Reports colors in his time-shifting flights, the saxophonist also gave himself ample space to > CEDIA 2006 Reports muse, including his inspired end statement on "Cardinal Rule," and his moving > Hi-Fi News 2006 Reports > Dealer Locator prelude on "Pilgrimage," on which Hancock dances on electric keys. > RMAF 2006 Reports > AV Links > China 2006 Reports > Current Issue > CES 2007 Reports The most remarkable characteristic of Pilgrimage is how potent and flawless > Master Article Index > FSI 2007 Reports Brecker's performance is, given how ill he was. He's absolutely fierce in his blowing, > Audiophile Societies > HE 2007 Reports wailing on "Tumbleweed" and, on the playful, midtempo "Loose Threads," elatedly > Contact Us sketching an angular architecture while bursting at the seams with gravity-defying > Customer Service buoyancy. Purportedly, after completing one tune in the session, Hancock expressed amazement at Brecker's strength and stamina, then joked, "Hey, I thought you've been sick." In an interview, Mehldau observed that Brecker's vital and at times intense playing didn't reflect ill health. In reality, according to those close to the sessions, much of the time Brecker was playing in pain. You can hear and feel > Recordings > Phono Preamp that in his horn. > Backissues > Hi-Fi http://www.stereophile.com/recordingofthemonth/507rotm/ 18-5-2007 Stereophile: Recording of May 2007: Pilgrimage pagina 2 van 3

Over time, Michael Brecker will be counted among the few giants in the jazz > More . . . > Phono Cartridge pantheon as the singular-voice tenor saxophonist who took the baton from his > Digital Subscription > Amplifiers mentor, John Coltrane. > Stereo Speakers > AV Marketplace Throughout his career Brecker made many excellent recordings, beginning in the mid-'70s as a member of the Brecker Brothers, the seminal skunk-funk fusion band. Later, during his stint at Verve, he sought to establish a closer musical connection to Coltrane, first by linking up with Trane's pianist, McCoy Tyner, for his 1995 masterwork, Tales from the Hudson. He then furthered the connection by employing > Ultimate AV > Shutterbug Trane's drummer, Elvin Jones, for Time Is of the Essence (1999). The Nearness of > Home Theater You: The Ballad Book (2001) was inspired by Coltrane's classic Ballads. Other > Audio Video Interiors > Home Entertainment Show Coltrane projects ensued, including Brecker's collaboration with Hancock on Directions in Music: Celebrating Miles Davis & John Coltrane (2002, Verve), and the Saxophone Summit project with Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman, which focused on Coltrane's later material and resulted in Gathering of Spirits (2004, Telarc).

While he carried on the Coltrane tradition in a respectful way, Michael Brecker did so in his own distinctive voice. That voice is in full frontal view on Pilgrimage, a captivating disc of jazz elevated to a fine art, and the apex of a too-short career.— Dan Ouellette

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http://www.stereophile.com/recordingofthemonth/507rotm/ 18-5-2007