You can download the Pdf ➡for this solo and get access to our vault of 350+ saxophone & guitar solo transcriptions for free: www.sharpelevenmusic.com/transcriptions Off you go, go practice some ;) !
Brecker haunts the soul of every jazz sax player. What he did was unbelievable. It's just sheer perfection, great melodies, incredible technique, fantastic ear and badass af.
I was at this concert actually! Was hot as heck and they played their butts off. So much energy. I think Mike was excited to be playing his own stuff after all those side gigs.
@@Steve-mp7by And Steve Coleman would run marathons around Kamasi Washington. Also, add Greg Osby to the list of utter sax gods that y'all don't care about because you cant immediately comprehend their approach.
@@percyvolnar8010 Yes there are others but Michael was still a great player. Saying he's the greatest is incorrect because Coltrane holds that title forever
@@Steve-mp7by No. Michael was a great player. The problem i have isnt with him as much as it is people who are quick to claim hes god when they dont know anything about bebop, its deeply Black American roots and where this vocabulary came from . Not even Coltrane holds the title of Greatest.... BIRD HOLDS THAT TITLE. Jazz hasn't really changed since him and Dizzy brought about bebop. :)
How does your jaw not drop from that. He gave us such an amazing ride that came from seriously practicing almost 24-7 for decades, never feeling he peaked, striving to find different ways to express himself, exploring a phrase inside-out and upside down for months till it was deeply a part of him, etc. Such dedicated decibel of the church of Coltrane who has, like Trane, become musically immortal now. If your a musician and you care to, check out the book "Practice Notebooks of Michael Brecker" to better understand one of the best musicians of our lifetime.
There is still jazz today with plenty of what you call ‘swagger’. But there was only one Michael Brecker!!! One of the greatest musicians (and human beings of my lifetime. Miss you Mike
I've always felt that the entire "Michael Brecker" record, and its follow-up, "Don't Try This at Home," are two of the all-time great jazz records. MB as a composer and soloist was just impossibly good. Awesome that you transcribed this :)
I am glad someone has the same opinion as I do. Especially the first ("Michael Brecker"). It is a smokeshow from the first til the last note played. And the band is a lineup of galactic improvisers (Metheny, Kirkland, Grolnick) and rhythm section players (DeJohnette, Haden). It is an underrated record IMHO.
@JeffJacobsonMusic First MB self-titled album has always been my favorite album of his -- including all the excellent albums where he is a sideman (80/81, Citiscape, Night, Infinity, Double Double You, etc). His solos are absolutely burning -- and the solo on Original Rays on that album blows my mind every time I hear it. Not to mention how good Syzygy, Choices, and Nothing Personal sound. I can still remember the first time I put it on in ~1998.
This solo and generally this entire performance of this song changed my life. I had the opportunity to see Mike Stern this year and ask him about his solo after Brecker because he loops a lot of things over each other and they're having a laugh about it on stage :D.
OK Mr. Stern... Over to you now. Yeesh! I saw them play together many times and it was always SO special... It didn't matter if it was a festival the size of that one or a little club that held 50 people; they always BROUGHT it; great memories...
I am obsessed with this solo. I've been coming back to this video a lot over the past year or so. Thank you for transcribing! It's inspired me to lick my horn back up
the 2004 Middelheim jazz festival appearance was incredible, that was my potential only chance although I didn't know him yet as I got into Brecker when he was already ill
I feel that way about Coltrane. If I had of only been born several years earlier than I was, perhaps that could have been a reality. I did see Brecker a few times, however, and that was an amazing experience. I wish I could have seen him play more.
@@spew2864I did see Potter a couple time, last time was last week in Gent. Don't know if my taste has changed or his playing did but I couldn't make any sense out of the too many notes he played... Also, why is he constantly touching the altissimo E range? Play soprano if you want to play that high 😳
Just jaw dropping display of tone, time, feel, technique and raw talent. Got to see him live in NY up close. Was completely floored then and ever since.
Bro this reeks of 80s jazz. Today, you can kind of stylistically play anything and get away with it so you're right on that front, but this sounds old as hell.
All the best music is kind of like that IMO, it manages to touch a kind of universal musical quality that people will appreciate and eventually rediscover no matter the era they're in.
Here is my unofficial Anthem for Jazz, if I got to vote for one. It has everything needed: an anthem-like theme, blistering Brecker solo and the energy of all band members is through the roof! (by the way, find yourself a partner that loves you as intense as Adam Nussbaum hits that snare like at 1:11) You can download the Pdf for free by joining our mailinglist (no spam, we're sharing free content and lessons in there, can be fun, otherwise just desubscribe - that's not a word, but now it is-) here: www.sharpelevenmusic.com/transcriptions /Jorre
yeah, exactly! That Fm is so strong on it's own, but placed on the C7 you get a kind of sus4 b13 vibe. That's what is the "uncanny valley" here is imo, it's sound so recognisable (duh, Fm..) and so hip cause it's over the C7 with some altered notes.
Absolutely, feel exactly the same. I'm was just a few years to young to have bee n able to catch him, which makes it even a bit more painful with Brecker than say older heroes of mine. I got into his music and pretty much obsessed aged 14 (2005) and I remember checking his websites homepage where they put that he was ill and getting treatment. I visited weekly, just to expect to find an announcement that he'd recovered an would be touring soon, until one day his website in early 2007 said he passed away. Now aged 16 and being so motivated by his playing at that point to try and persue a carreer in saxophone playing, I absolutely couldn't believe it. My naive teenager braing assumed everything would be fine at some point, as the traditional Hollywood films always said. That year I made my endwork in high school on his life and transcribed Straphanging from live with the Wdr Big Band as a case study. That gigantic struggle to play and transcribe (it really was way too hard) was the prelude to what this channel would become.
Once (somwhere in the beginnig of 2000) LeClub (a jazz club in Moscow, Russia) announced a Brecker Brothers show, we bought tickets, and to my great regret Mike wasn't participating (he was badly ill at that time already) but his name (what a cheat!) was written on the bill board.
This fella was a monster hell this band was full of monsters on a side note could you do some Jack Wilkins to help keep his passion alive he was one of my biggest influences
Gives me so much stank-face this excerpt made me go in for facial surgery... that intro's (sub)diatonic and pentatonic gospel-americana theme is Bernstein quality with Michael's subtle melodic variations creating a beguiling complexity, while the two-to-the bar changes allow Jeff to summon that NY bounce - like half-time walking feel - that I just cannot get enough of (hear Greg Howe's NAMM giant steps)... Nussbaum is astonishing with his kick drum on the one in the intro going NOWHERE, like an ANVIL, while he adds telling light syncopations, then, when the solo begins he owns the feel with his aggressive pushes and unwavering time, I would have sped up to about 3x original, wow, .. and come on, Michael's hot salty festival vibe makes it simply INSPIRING when he grabs his horn and lets us hear how black and American, he is inside, that's the most soulful i'v heard him on this whitest of days lol, .. Pity Carl Sagan couldn't have put this on Voyager-1 : Finally I already commented on the sound you got off that old tape , amazing.. and that's all WITHOUT the transcription - Absolutely Top Tier Post, thanks !!
Thanks for that wonderful reply! To answer you on the VHS quality... that is not to my credit. I got it here on UA-cam from another channel, that person would probably be the one to convert it high quality from vhs to digital. There is plenty more video of this Festival performance if Im not mistaken. What a treat
I was AT this concert, as a wee little band nerd just getting into jazz. As amazing as his sax solo was, Mike Stern immediately followed up and blew the fucking roof off the place, soloing over a million choruses. Oh yeah, and Kenny G was also the headliner :/
If I understand rite, then I somewhat and respectfully disagree with the premise of the title... the 'swagger' is, I take it, the two-chords-to-the-bar feel annihilated by the Brecker band that day...and the shifting diatonic americana/gospel tenor exhortations..., but in fact this feel is now the standard gospel / neo-soul pulse, (tho in fact it is becoming a 'one'-feel), and is still extremely prevailant and hip, i love it...
There are levels, and levels,.... this is Mike Stern's tune, tho' a cut from a M.B. album, and he [Stern] pales, if you watch the whole number, into insignificance with his chorused tele-twanging second solo.., Brecker (M.) is a god-like player who was part of NASA's secret 'music to the universe' project organised by Carl Sagan which saw Newport '87 beamed to distant star systems.....
Jazz has always had, and will always have swagger. We've lost some great musicians, it's heartbreaking. But the music lives, check out Hiromi Uehara and Snarky Puppy. a sample of worthy performers.
The late Jeff Andrews on bass. He was, like Michael, a wonderful player and a great personality. The only person I didn't like in the band was Adam Nussbaum, but that's (in a sort of paradox contrast to the tune) "a personal thing" between him and me. He sounds great, though, I just don't like his attitude
You can download the Pdf ➡for this solo and get access to our vault of 350+ saxophone & guitar solo transcriptions for free: www.sharpelevenmusic.com/transcriptions
Off you go, go practice some ;) !
Brecker haunts the soul of every jazz sax player. What he did was unbelievable. It's just sheer perfection, great melodies, incredible technique, fantastic ear and badass af.
the final boss of tenor sax
1:09 "We'll just need a subtle cue leading into the next section."
My thought!
So rippin
Classic Mike Brecker sound!
I was at this concert actually! Was hot as heck and they played their butts off. So much energy. I think Mike was excited to be playing his own stuff after all those side gigs.
Can tell, Brecker was sweating like a lot while he was playing the solo in this video.
show-off... i hope you dropped your hot-dog.... lol only joking dude....
Such a fantastic performance, wow! Must have been amazing!
@@DylanEichenbergTahoe ha it was other worldly for sure!
Imagino que foi muito legal mesmo!!
Brecker’s work has been studied and dissected for decades and still nobody can get close. What a solo, drove the entire band!
I wouldn't say that. MIchael was great but Kamasi Washington can run circles around him
@@Steve-mp7by And Steve Coleman would run marathons around Kamasi Washington. Also, add Greg Osby to the list of utter sax gods that y'all don't care about because you cant immediately comprehend their approach.
@@percyvolnar8010 Yes there are others but Michael was still a great player. Saying he's the greatest is incorrect because Coltrane holds that title forever
@@Steve-mp7by No. Michael was a great player. The problem i have isnt with him as much as it is people who are quick to claim hes god when they dont know anything about bebop, its deeply Black American roots and where this vocabulary came from . Not even Coltrane holds the title of Greatest.... BIRD HOLDS THAT TITLE. Jazz hasn't really changed since him and Dizzy brought about bebop. :)
@@percyvolnar8010 Tenor sax greatest is Coltrane. Alto sax is Bird. Everybody knows that
The courage required to take on this transcription is exactly what we want in office. #SharpEleven2024
haha, 😂 you need sometimes challenges in life, and Michael Brecker is a lovely one
Probably the most beautiful segment of sax soloing I have ever heard, and of course it's Brecker. We all miss him so much.
1:54 Wow. Just cannot believe he thought of that line.
Bingo! Mind blowing.. so perfectly placed.. takes it to the next level -> jaw dropping😮
You mean that Ab pentatonic broken up over the C dominant?
Yes, that's a young Louis CK on the drums. Wish he never would have given up the jazz.
Yes Louis CK was a jazz drummer, then he was the teacher from the Incredibles before becoming a comedian.
Perverted those drums
That’s adam nussbaum on the drums
No, ot's Adam Nussbaum
How does your jaw not drop from that. He gave us such an amazing ride that came from seriously practicing almost 24-7 for decades, never feeling he peaked, striving to find different ways to express himself, exploring a phrase inside-out and upside down for months till it was deeply a part of him, etc. Such dedicated decibel of the church of Coltrane who has, like Trane, become musically immortal now. If your a musician and you care to, check out the book "Practice Notebooks of Michael Brecker" to better understand one of the best musicians of our lifetime.
will never ever be matched and always remembered. Thanks Michael Brecker for your unreal musicianship!
There is still jazz today with plenty of what you call ‘swagger’. But there was only one Michael Brecker!!! One of the greatest musicians (and human beings of my lifetime. Miss you Mike
Brecker was simply in a class of his own.
I've always felt that the entire "Michael Brecker" record, and its follow-up, "Don't Try This at Home," are two of the all-time great jazz records. MB as a composer and soloist was just impossibly good. Awesome that you transcribed this :)
These two are indeed smashing albums! the sound of a true voice on the instrument
I am glad someone has the same opinion as I do. Especially the first ("Michael Brecker"). It is a smokeshow from the first til the last note played. And the band is a lineup of galactic improvisers (Metheny, Kirkland, Grolnick) and rhythm section players (DeJohnette, Haden). It is an underrated record IMHO.
@JeffJacobsonMusic First MB self-titled album has always been my favorite album of his -- including all the excellent albums where he is a sideman (80/81, Citiscape, Night, Infinity, Double Double You, etc). His solos are absolutely burning -- and the solo on Original Rays on that album blows my mind every time I hear it. Not to mention how good Syzygy, Choices, and Nothing Personal sound. I can still remember the first time I put it on in ~1998.
This solo and generally this entire performance of this song changed my life. I had the opportunity to see Mike Stern this year and ask him about his solo after Brecker because he loops a lot of things over each other and they're having a laugh about it on stage :D.
OK Mr. Stern... Over to you now. Yeesh! I saw them play together many times and it was always SO special... It didn't matter if it was a festival the size of that one or a little club that held 50 people; they always BROUGHT it; great memories...
Great transcription and playing ! Thanks for sharing !
This is why it’s the highest form of music, but that’s just me 😊. Absolutely wonderful and enthralling. Great transcription too, bravo!
I am obsessed with this solo. I've been coming back to this video a lot over the past year or so. Thank you for transcribing! It's inspired me to lick my horn back up
Oh great, so nice to hear! By the way, best typo (I suppose) ever. Glad it inspired you to "lick" your horn back up
Ah yes, the Newport Jazz 1987 performance.
The EWI intro to this is an odyssey.
The mistake of my life is never to have seen Brecker live!
the 2004 Middelheim jazz festival appearance was incredible, that was my potential only chance although I didn't know him yet as I got into Brecker when he was already ill
I feel that way about Coltrane. If I had of only been born several years earlier than I was, perhaps that could have been a reality. I did see Brecker a few times, however, and that was an amazing experience. I wish I could have seen him play more.
@bob_dubois go see Chris Potter, it's a similar feel for me as someone who saw Brecker 3 times.
@@spew2864I did see Potter a couple time, last time was last week in Gent. Don't know if my taste has changed or his playing did but I couldn't make any sense out of the too many notes he played... Also, why is he constantly touching the altissimo E range? Play soprano if you want to play that high 😳
Blessed to have seen him in London in 93 with the Brecker Brothers, wonderful stuff!
What an awesome musician is Mike Brecker!
The audio quality is far better than the original😳
Just jaw dropping display of tone, time, feel, technique and raw talent. Got to see him live in NY up close. Was completely floored then and ever since.
Whats so interesting for me how this solo is decades old at this point but sounds like someone could of played it today and not at the same time.
Bro this reeks of 80s jazz. Today, you can kind of stylistically play anything and get away with it so you're right on that front, but this sounds old as hell.
All the best music is kind of like that IMO, it manages to touch a kind of universal musical quality that people will appreciate and eventually rediscover no matter the era they're in.
@@ryno4ever433is just like Kenny g
Thats the kinda awesome Thing that Jazz doesn't get Bad over The Years Like Pop or Rock Music. And they try it then we think Back at Electro Swing 😂😂
Could have* and wtf do you mean not at the same time?
Here is my unofficial Anthem for Jazz, if I got to vote for one. It has everything needed: an anthem-like theme, blistering Brecker solo and the energy of all band members is through the roof!
(by the way, find yourself a partner that loves you as intense as Adam Nussbaum hits that snare like at 1:11)
You can download the Pdf for free by joining our mailinglist (no spam, we're sharing free content and lessons in there, can be fun, otherwise just desubscribe - that's not a word, but now it is-) here: www.sharpelevenmusic.com/transcriptions
/Jorre
Wtf! Lol the theme/motif sounds almost exactly like the recorder part on that one ATHF episode w/ the furries hahahahaha
To me this melody sounds like an 80s sitcom theme, so I'll vote differently LOL :)
I love how everyone on the stage was vibing hard. They knew what they were hearing
2:10 - 2:20 is just 🔥
Fantastic 😮. Huge Michael. 🎉🎉🎉🎷🎷🎷🎷
The greatest off all time MB rest and fly high ...
thank you for this!
I watched this video of this jam so many times back in the day, they were awesome as hell. ^_^
Saw this band in Oct 87 at the Bottomline NYC. Joey Calderazzo on keys. 80’s NYC/LA Jazz scenes were amazing times.
Gracious! Such buoyancy and clarity in those nots. Bless you, Breck. Thanks for the show. (RIP)
Oh my lord. Amazing. Thank you.
1:37 nothing like a nice clean diminished upwards modulation🔥
Great choice and great work, Jorre. Funny, it's mostly either Fm natural or chromatic scales he uses on C7, but it sounds so completely off limits...
yeah, exactly! That Fm is so strong on it's own, but placed on the C7 you get a kind of sus4 b13 vibe. That's what is the "uncanny valley" here is imo, it's sound so recognisable (duh, Fm..) and so hip cause it's over the C7 with some altered notes.
@@SharpElevenMusic So full analysis when ;D?
Perhaps the greatest musician I seen in my life
Those WERE the days, my friends. I wish they would have never ended.
This is madness
Tenor madness?
Love that tune ❤ thank for sharing
That's the power of the Breck, he influenced pretty much all sax players, both directly and indirectly.
Incredible solo, mindblowing🤯
Absolutely mind blowing 🎷🎶💪
Chills man, chills.
What this man was able to do on the horn was absolute insanity. I do not understand how some people still dont get it.
Never got to see Mike Brecker live, to my continuing regret.
Absolutely, feel exactly the same. I'm was just a few years to young to have bee n able to catch him, which makes it even a bit more painful with Brecker than say older heroes of mine. I got into his music and pretty much obsessed aged 14 (2005) and I remember checking his websites homepage where they put that he was ill and getting treatment. I visited weekly, just to expect to find an announcement that he'd recovered an would be touring soon, until one day his website in early 2007 said he passed away.
Now aged 16 and being so motivated by his playing at that point to try and persue a carreer in saxophone playing, I absolutely couldn't believe it. My naive teenager braing assumed everything would be fine at some point, as the traditional Hollywood films always said.
That year I made my endwork in high school on his life and transcribed Straphanging from live with the Wdr Big Band as a case study. That gigantic struggle to play and transcribe (it really was way too hard) was the prelude to what this channel would become.
I did catch Mike Stern once somewhere downtown sometime in the mid '80s... those years are, um, pretty fuzzy for me lol. Helluva guitarist.
@@SharpElevenMusic Ah well. You still hear Brecker all the time, sort of, he changed the very vocabulary of the instrument.
Once (somwhere in the beginnig of 2000) LeClub (a jazz club in Moscow, Russia) announced a Brecker Brothers show, we bought tickets, and to my great regret Mike wasn't participating (he was badly ill at that time already) but his name (what a cheat!) was written on the bill board.
@@Chess4Net that's too bad!
This fella was a monster hell this band was full of monsters on a side note could you do some Jack Wilkins to help keep his passion alive he was one of my biggest influences
You can see it's an oldie when MiGoat Brecker still had almost all his hair.
One of my fav !!! a pure chef d'oeuvre ! thanks for this !
I think it's the album before, Brecker's first solo album is called just "Michael Brecker".
@@SharpElevenMusicho yes you're right :( my awful mistake, sorry :(
Wow. Adam crushing it as hard or harder than all the other guys you'd expect to be in that chair, and swinging more than any of them. Bad dude...
He's in top form! WOW!
Buaa.. Mister Mike brecker.. El más grande de los últimos colosos del saxo.. Que dios te tenga tocando en el cielo...
When something old still punches as good as the day, it first hit you in the face
This is the best solo
It always sounds to me like he gets it spinning in a circle, love it
Louis C.K. killin’ on drums.
Michael Brecker the best sax ever❤
Smokin!!!🎷🔥🎷🔥🔥🔥🔥
beautiful
I thought it was sweat in his glasses but it's actually the reflection of an audience in the multiples of hundreds watching this man play
Holy moly!
Gives me so much stank-face this excerpt made me go in for facial surgery... that intro's (sub)diatonic and pentatonic gospel-americana theme is Bernstein quality with Michael's subtle melodic variations creating a beguiling complexity, while the two-to-the bar changes allow Jeff to summon that NY bounce - like half-time walking feel - that I just cannot get enough of (hear Greg Howe's NAMM giant steps)... Nussbaum is astonishing with his kick drum on the one in the intro going NOWHERE, like an ANVIL, while he adds telling light syncopations, then, when the solo begins he owns the feel with his aggressive pushes and unwavering time, I would have sped up to about 3x original, wow, .. and come on, Michael's hot salty festival vibe makes it simply INSPIRING when he grabs his horn and lets us hear how black and American, he is inside, that's the most soulful i'v heard him on this whitest of days lol, .. Pity Carl Sagan couldn't have put this on Voyager-1 : Finally I already commented on the sound you got off that old tape , amazing.. and that's all WITHOUT the transcription - Absolutely Top Tier Post, thanks !!
Thanks for that wonderful reply! To answer you on the VHS quality... that is not to my credit. I got it here on UA-cam from another channel, that person would probably be the one to convert it high quality from vhs to digital. There is plenty more video of this Festival performance if Im not mistaken. What a treat
@@SharpElevenMusic Love your channel man thanks !
Of course he's wearing a Casio Databank. God-tier stuff all around.
Amazing video
Michael Brecker could a kill a man with just his solos
The best times are gone
masterpiece💯
Jaw on the floor - this is my first time. Daaaaaang
Mike Stern always looks at his hands.
So do all the guitarists in the audience
I was AT this concert, as a wee little band nerd just getting into jazz. As amazing as his sax solo was, Mike Stern immediately followed up and blew the fucking roof off the place, soloing over a million choruses.
Oh yeah, and Kenny G was also the headliner :/
GOAT! 😯
Just want to praise the sound you managed to get off that old VHS wow what sort of processing kit you got ..??
Yeah, exactly.
DEAR GOD
Joey Calderazzo on the 88s doin' everything right and having a ball....
I stopped playing because of Brecker. There was no longer anything to strive for. There is nowhere else to go. He was perfect.
Everyone tries to play like brecker or Trane. I would be refreshing to hear a modern player who didn't.
Sure people choose who they want to emulate, but people will always sound like themselves.
There are many! Check out someone like Melissa Aldana.
[................nothing]
The best comment on Mike solos and scenarios and solo building is simply remain silent and listening!!!!!
Eric Wareheim crushing it
06:10 The entrance to Valhalla opens.
Is that Louis CK playng the drums? 😂
Thats adam nussbaum
If I understand rite, then I somewhat and respectfully disagree with the premise of the title... the 'swagger' is, I take it, the two-chords-to-the-bar feel annihilated by the Brecker band that day...and the shifting diatonic americana/gospel tenor exhortations..., but in fact this feel is now the standard gospel / neo-soul pulse, (tho in fact it is becoming a 'one'-feel), and is still extremely prevailant and hip, i love it...
There are levels, and levels,.... this is Mike Stern's tune, tho' a cut from a M.B. album, and he [Stern] pales, if you watch the whole number, into insignificance with his chorused tele-twanging second solo.., Brecker (M.) is a god-like player who was part of NASA's secret 'music to the universe' project organised by Carl Sagan which saw Newport '87 beamed to distant star systems.....
This needs more cowbell😉
😂
@@SharpElevenMusic Laughter is good medicine and if the recipient is not receptive, then increase dosage 👊🏽
во были времена!
cool to see louis ck before comedy playing drums here
Nice they got louis ck on drums
Jazz has always had, and will always have swagger. We've lost some great musicians, it's heartbreaking. But the music lives, check out Hiromi Uehara and Snarky Puppy. a sample of worthy performers.
People walking by eating funnel cake
Whew, when Jazz swag??? Your talking about a looooong time ago
❤❤😢
I play piano but makes me want to learn sax ;_;
Mike's (Stern)hair is interesting in this clip.
1:54 e 2:12 MUITA IGNORÂNCIA!🔥
This is not Stern's composition - at least, not entirely. It's credited to Michael Brecker, Mike Stern and Don Grolnick.
Hello and thank you for your excellent and huge contributions
Is it Normal that the scores is one tone higher than the music played ?
Brgds
Hi, yes, its a Bb transposed score to match the tenor saxophone key
The late Jeff Andrews on bass. He was, like Michael, a wonderful player and a great personality. The only person I didn't like in the band was Adam Nussbaum, but that's (in a sort of paradox contrast to the tune) "a personal thing" between him and me. He sounds great, though, I just don't like his attitude
Hmmm, he's not bad.