Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker

Veteran jazz journalist Milkowski (Legends of Jazz; Keith Richards: A Rock ’n’ Roll Life) has written an enthusiastic, definitive biography of the self-effacing, pace-setting saxophonist Michael Brecker (1949–2007). It begins with Brecker’s musical childhood, his formative years at Indiana University, and his fascination with the music of John Coltrane. Then, starting with Brecker’s move to New York City in 1969, Milkowski discusses the saxophonist’s pivotal role in the Coltrane-obsessed loft jazz scene of the ’70s; his prodigious session work in more than 900 recording sessions (for television jingles and the albums of artists like Joni Mitchell and Frank Zappa); his early jazz-fusion foray when he joined the band Dreams with older brother and trumpeter Randy; and his and Randy’s commercial and artistic breakthrough with the fusion/funk of the Brecker Brothers in the mid-to-late ’70s. Other topics include Brecker’s groundbreaking group Steps Ahead, his struggles and eventual triumph over drug addiction, and the herniated larynx that made the saxophonist pivot to—and master—a synthesizer-powered electronic wind instrument (EWI). The biography ends with Brecker’s return to straight-ahead jazz in his solo efforts during the late ’80s, his constant search for new sounds, and his death from leukemia.