30 Facts About Michael Brecker

Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Michael Brecker was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2004, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.

Michael Brecker was raised in a Jewish, and artistic, family: his father, Bob, was a lawyer who played jazz piano and his mother, Sylvia, was a portrait artist.

Michael Brecker was exposed to jazz at an early age by his father.

Michael Brecker began studying clarinet at age 6, then moved to the alto saxophone in the eighth grade, settling on the tenor saxophone as his primary instrument in his sophomore year of high school.

Michael Brecker graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1967 and spent that summer at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Michael Brecker dropped out before the end of the semester, spent a month in Mexico City, then returned to Philadelphia, where he played with Eric Gravatt, Billy Paul, and others.

Michael Brecker moved to New York City in 1969, where he carved out a niche for himself as a dynamic and exciting jazz soloist.

Michael Brecker first made his mark at age 20 as a member of the jazz-rock band Dreams, a band that included his older brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombonist Barry Rogers, drummer Billy Cobham, keyboardist Jeff Kent and bassist Doug Lubahn.

Michael Brecker was in great demand as a soloist, sideman and session musician.

Michael Brecker performed with bands whose styles ranged from mainstream jazz to mainstream rock.

Michael Brecker put his stamp on numerous pop and rock recordings as a soloist, including notable work with James Taylor and Paul Simon.

In 1983, Michael Brecker played on three tracks on the album An Innocent Man.

Michael Brecker can be seen in the background sporting sunglasses during Eddie Murphy's James Brown parody.

That eponymously titled debut album marked his return to a more traditional jazz setting, highlighting his compositional talents and featuring the EWI, which Michael Brecker had previously played with Steps Ahead.

Michael Brecker continued to record albums as a leader throughout the 1990s and 2000s, winning multiple Grammy Awards.

Michael Brecker went on tour in 2001 with a collaborative group, Hancock-Brecker-Hargrove.

Michael Brecker paid homage to Coltrane by performing Coltrane's signature piece, "Naima".

Michael Brecker made his final public performance on June 23,2006, playing with Herbie Hancock at Carnegie Hall.

Michael Brecker died from complications of leukemia in a Manhattan hospital.

Michael Brecker's funeral was held on January 15,2007, in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Early in his career, Michael Brecker played a Selmer Super Balanced Action saxophone, later moving to a lacquer-finished Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone with silver-plated neck, fitted with a Dave Guardala MB1 mouthpiece and LaVoz medium reeds.

Michael Brecker played the drums as he often talked about time, or rhythm, being musically the most important.

Michael Brecker displayed his drum prowess during shows with his own ensembles or accompanying students during masterclasses.

On February 11,2007, Michael Brecker was awarded two posthumous Grammy awards for his involvement on his brother Randy's 2005 album Some Skunk Funk.

Michael Brecker was critically ill when it was recorded, but the other musicians involved praised the standard of his musicianship.

Michael Brecker was again posthumously awarded two additional Grammy Awards for this album in the categories of Best Jazz Instrumental Solo and Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group, bringing his Grammy total to 15.

Michael Brecker was featured in a film directed by Noah Hutton, named More to Live For.

Herbie Hancock said that around nine months before his death, Michael Brecker had started practicing Buddhism and three months later joined Soka Gakkai International, a group associated with Nichiren Buddhism.

The Michael Brecker Archive was established in 2013 at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, in collaboration with Susan Brecker, and Randy Brecker acting as advisor.