Year of Release: 1994 (recorded November 1989 in Belgrade)
| Selections:
Istbynne Reel (9:35) | Musicians: Michael Brecker: Tenor Saxophone, EWI |
Liner Notes:
For more than 20 years of his professional career, Michael Brecker was busy playing other people's music before he first appeared as a leader in his own right. At that time he had been heard on about 400 records that demonstrated his remarkable stylistic diversity as a studio musician. His "list of customers" included the likes of Horace Silver, Frank Zappa, Chick Corea, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Dire Straights, Steely Dan, George Clinton, Charles Mingus, Eric Clapton and Frank Sinatra. With Dreams, Brecker Brothers and Steps Ahead he had been co-leader of some of the most influential super-groups in the electric jazz-rock-fusion field.
In 1987, his first album as a leader showed hium playing more acoustically -- though at times employing the EWI -- in a freer setting provided by Pat Metheny, Kenny Kirkland, Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette. On the release of that album, Brecker promptly formed his working band, which made its record debut on Michael's second album in1988. it already included Joey Calderazzo and Adam Nussbaum. On tour the following year, the line-up was completed by Jay Anderson, who appears on this live recording.