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Michael Brecker
Nearness of You
The Ballad Book
 Verve 549 705
2
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Chan's Song
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Don't Let Me be Lonely Tonight
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Nascente
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Midnight Mood
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The Nearness of You
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Incandescence
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Sometimes I See
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My Ship
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Always
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Seven Days
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I Can See Your Dreams
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Michael Brecker - Tenor Pat Metheny - Guitar Herbie
Hancock - Piano Charlie Haden - Bass Jack DeJohnette - Drums
James Taylor - Vocals (2&6) Recorded New York December 2000,
Produced by Pat Methany.
Crotchet
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When I read of the release of this album, I could not wait to hear it, the
people involved are all 'out of the top drawer' and I have not heard Michael
Brecker on a record dedicated to ballads. It is a however a quirky album,
I sometimes wonder if my expectations go so high that no one could fill them.
Good a singer as he is, what is the point of the two James Taylor tracks
on an album of Michael Brecker playing ballads? It is not even as though
he solos at length on them, they sound like two tracks from a James Taylor
CD, that have got into the wrong album. As you would expect the musical ability
of the Quintet is stunning, Michael Brecker has tone and technique that has
rarely been matched by anyone, Herbie Hancock has been for sometime, the
current most outstanding pianist. Pat Metheny is a genius of the guitar,
even if like me you feel he makes too much use of effects and Charlie Haden
and Jack DeJohnette are known to best the best around. I suspect that the
problem is to do with the choice of the programme, when you review all the
wonderful ballads that are around, how did a 4/4 version of 'Always' make
it a top choice? As a ballad 'My Ship' is a better choice, but even that
would not make most peoples favourite list of ballads. 'Midnight Mood' I
enjoyed, it should be played more often, but 'Incandescence' and 'Sometimes
I See' don't grab me as premier ballad material, even if the group members
wrote them.
Overall this is a very good album, but somehow from musicians of this calibre
I expected more, I listened again recently to the album the Stan Getz Quartet
made in Copenhagen, on a live session on Stan's last tour before he died.
There are ballad performances to die for. I feel sure that Michael Breckers
band is capable of music of equal quality or perhaps even more. It is also
interesting that on that album the Getz and Brecker tones are similar, who
influenced whom? Or is that the way the Tenor Sax should sound!
Don Mather
Don Mather is a saxophone player and Bandleader in Coventry
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