I saw Michael Brecker live a few years ago a year or two before he died (with Herbie Hancock)...I was not impressed.. he seemed to be trying to make a lot of noise a la John Coltrane.. I love Coltrane but not the far out crazy dissonant stuff.. but Brecker's sax solo on Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years couldn't be a more perfect exercise in use of notes, restraint, and economy in setting up the "punch line" and song's goose bump moment: "...but I wouldn't be convicted by a jury of my peers.."
Couldn't agreed more.
ReplyDeleteI caught Michael live in Hong Kong two times in the 90s when he was still contactually obligied to play a few songs usoing that plastic yamaha(?) thing and just could not connect with his music depite the fact that he was very getting the best reviews in downbeat and other magazines.