Posted on 01/15/2007 1:50:42 PM PST by real saxophonist
Michael Brecker Dies at 57; Prolific Jazz Saxophonist
By BEN RATLIFF Published: January 14, 2007 Michael Brecker, a saxophonist who won 11 Grammy Awards and was among the most influential musicians in jazz since the 1960s, died yesterday at a hospital in New York City. He was 57 and lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. The cause of death was leukemia, said Darryl Pitt, his manager.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
May he rest in peace.
The Brecker Brothers headlined the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival a few years back. Mike was doing a clinic, but the Lab Band I was in had rehearsal at the same time. Several members were more than slightly perturbed by this, but we had to do what we had to do.
As soon as the rehearsal ended, we piled in a car and hauled arse to the Civic Center, where the clinic had also just ended.
I did get to meet Mike and talk to him for a while, and get his autograph. I told him I had to miss the clinic because of the rehearsal. He said, 'Well, I'll do the whole thing again, just for you.' 8~)
Wasn't he and his brother in Blood, Sweat and Tears?
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