We all knew that Michael Brecker was living on borrowed time, but that doesn't lessen the blow of his passing one bit. I'm told he completed what will be his final recording just a few weeks ago.
But Alice Coltrane too? Her fate is especially cruel, coming as it does in the midst of a return to active playing and a critical reassessment of her recorded legacy.
Charlie Haden was incredibly close to both musicians. He played on what would be Alice's final concert, and the album he co-led with Brecker is one of the late sax god's most sincere, heartfelt representations on record.
Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra paid tribute to them both tonight in their performance at IAJE, and if you were there, you know how incredible it was -- easily the most emotionally powerful musical event I've ever seen at one of these things. When the horns starting playing a chorale harmonization of "We Shall Overcome" at the end of the show, I lost it -- I had tears streaming down my face, and they wouldn't stop until Charlie and Matt Wilson came in with the time, which sounded like the most beautiful time in the world. It was like they were putting an arm around everyone's shoulders and reassuring us that it really was going to be okay.
UPDATE: Do The Math brings you Mark Turner's elegy for Michael Brecker, which begins thusly:
Fuck those motherfuckers who don't give it up for Michael Brecker.
Indeed. Read the whole thing.
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