Michael Brecker In Late-1960s Bloomington, Indiana

[ghost of miles]

Hey all, here's a segment from my weekday afternoon jazz program that includes some previously-unknown recordings of Michael Brecker's late-1960s Bloomington, Indiana trio, as well as an interview with William Paterson University jazz curator David Demsey and Bloomington-area musician and promoter David Miller, who knew Brecker during his time at IU:

Michael Brecker In Late 1960s Bloomington, Indiana

[Mark Stryker]

Fascinating stuff here, folks. A tape of Mike Brecker as a college sophomore (age 19) playing "Night in Tunisia" and parts of "A Love Supreme" with just bass and drums on a gig in Bloomington, Ind., in the fall of 1968. It's wild to hear him in a raw state, with a a ton of technique but before he had his machine-like precision over chord changes really together. At times a late-Trane spirit wanders in and almost takes over on "Tunisia" -- in some ways, I wish more of that openness and looseness would have remained in his playing. I think he literally practiced those elements out of his conception. Late in his career he tried to reintroduce some of them back into his playing, but it was not easy by then to break out of the box because certain fundamentals were too deeply embedded in his DNA,Iin terms of his pure sound, the core of Brecker's identity is certainly here in 1968,. 

 "Night in Tunisia" starts at the 52:42 (timer counts backward). The trio plays part of a "Love Supreme" starting at 40:22. At the 11:55 mark is a rather infamous tape of the Randy Sandke Septet with Michael Brecker from the 1968 Notre Dame Jazz Festival. 

Also, did you know that one of Brecker's classmates in high school in suburban Pennsylvania was ,,, (checks notes) ... um, Benjamin Netanyahu? Seriously.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Mark Stryker

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, Mark Stryker said:

Fascinating stuff here, folks. A tape of Mike Brecker as a college sophomore (age 19) playing "Night in Tunisia" and parts of "A Love Supreme" with just bass and drums on a gig in Bloomington, Ind., in the fall of 1968. It's wild to hear him in a raw state, with a a ton of technique but before he had his machine-like precision over chord changes really together. At times a late-Trane spirit wanders in and almost takes over on "Tunisia" -- in some ways, I wish more of that openness and looseness would have remained in his playing. I think he literally practiced those elements out of his conception. Late in his career he tried to reintroduce some of them back into his playing, but it was not easy by then to break out of the box because certain fundamentals were too deeply embedded in his DNA,Iin terms of his pure sound, the core of Brecker's identity is certainly here in 1968,. 

 "Night in Tunisia" starts at the 52:42 (timer counts backward). The trio plays part of a "Love Supreme" starting at 40:22. At the 11:55 mark is a rather infamous tape of the Randy Sandke Septet with Michael Brecker from the 1968 Notre Dame Jazz Festival. 

Also, did you know that one of Brecker's classmates in high school in suburban Pennsylvania was ,,, (checks notes) ... um, Benjamin Netanyahu? Seriously.

And Mike's combo bandmate at Bloomington was Randy Sandke. Mike appears on Randy's excellent first album.
https://www.amazon.com/Randy-Sandke-New-York-Stories/dp/B00XPX7R8M/ref=sr_1_43?keywords=randy+sandke&qid=1556059018&s=music&sr=1-43

[JSngry]

I'd be negligent if I didn't point out that Brecker's most famous "pop" solo might well be this one. Depends on whose pop we're talking about.

Don't be like UTube Jazz Kids and just know about the first solo.

[Mark Stryker]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

I'd be negligent if I didn't point out that Brecker's most famous "pop" solo might well be this one. Depends on whose pop we're talking about.

Don't be like UTube Jazz Kids and just know about the first solo.

New to me. Thanks

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

did not know this!  like cann-dayyyy!

[BillF]

Interesting, David! I saw the Brecker brothers as the front line of the Horace Silver quintet at Ronnie Scott's in 1969. With Billy Cobham on drums it was a great session!

[JSngry]

I've heard that Candy solo in so many clubs, with so many dancers...if you played on a Cameo record back in those days, your audience was guaranteed. And huge. I don't know how many people knew that it was Michael Brecker playing it, but I can't tell you how many times I hear people say hey, you play sax? can you play like that guy on that Cameo record? And shit...on any given Saturday, you would find MASSES of people jamming to that record. I've had nights where I'd play it with the band, and then the DJ would play it again on the break.

I mean, Cameo in general should not be overlooked, that was a great band that made KILLER records for a good long time. But if it's a race to "most heard Brecker solo" between the JT side and this one...I don't know if I'd bet one way or the other.

Cameo, y'all, CAMEO!

[ghost of miles]

Miles Davis did a Cameo side as well, right?

[Rooster_Ties]

35 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Miles Davis did a Cameo side as well, right?

Yup, just one tune (iirc).  I actually had this on CD at one time, which I swear I found for $1 like 20 years ago...

 

[ghost of miles]

25 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Yup, just one tune (iirc).  I actually had this on CD at one time, which I swear I found for $1 like 20 years ago...

 

It's included in this set of Miles' Warner Brothers recordings, which I highly recommend--in part because disc 5 gathers a number of his 1980s sideman one-offs as well as four tracks from the Rubber Band sessions:

Miles Davis 1986-1991 The Warner Years