This was the first time I ever had the chance to see Michael Brecker
perform live. Being an avid Brecker listener, I really looked forward to
attending this concert.
The concert was the "Directions in Music" concert, if you are interested,
the recording is called "Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall". So, in
addition to getting to see Michael Brecker, I also got to see Roy Hargrove
and Herbie Hancock.
After attending this concert, I realized that live music is so much better
than anything on CD. I was totally blown away by the level of playing I
heard that night.
As far as Michael Brecker's playing - he is absolutely amazing. My favorite
part of the whole night was when he played EWI alone. He was using a
computer to save these little two to four bar ideas he was playing and then
would loop them. He ended up creating this awesome funk chart. The last
thing he did was put an electric guitar sound on his EWI, and soloed over
the other parts he played. It was crazy, I was very impressed.
Overall another cool thing Brecker did was whenever he would play a line,
at the end, he would stop and wait until he knew where he was in the form
before he would play a new line. This is something everyone should steal
from him so that you never sound like you are meandering over the changes
when you solo!
I really enjoyed this concert and I look forward to the next time I have the
chance to see Michael Brecker perform live.
