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JazzDigger Home > E - Jazz Artists > Kurt Elling > Item 16
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Pilgrimage
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by Michael Brecker
Price:$13.97
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Listener Reviews & Comments
. . . hardly like a man suffering from a rare blood disease with less than half a year to live. That's the first thing you notice. The second thing is the power and precision of his playing. The thirteen-time Grammy winner and premier saxophonist of his generation seems to have lost nothing. Backed by his peers (Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau, piano; Pat Metheny, guitar; John Patitucci, bass; and Jack DeJohnette, drums), playing nine attractive new self-penned compositions, he sounds as energized and expressive as ever. The third thing is how wonderfully this gathering of absolutely first-rank jazz players works together, setting aside egos, focusing all their attention on making the music sing and ring with beauty and authority. After all, these superstar sessions don't always work. Proof? The gorgeous ensemble playing up to, behind, and following the leader's stunning solo on "Five Months from Midnight." Or on "Anagram," a Shorter-ish piece with a tricky unison head nailed by Brecker and Metheny, then sailing off into the wild blue yonder with another heroic solo by the leader as the band provides provocative comping for him to riff off of, power-driven by some of DeJohnette's finest drumming on disc. When Metheny comes in with his own wonderfully conceived solo statement, the feel's one of tribute, a tip of the hat, to the leader, without the slightest shred of cutting or one-upmanship. Mehldau's solo, one of his finest, also sparkles with wit and approbation. DeJohnette follows with some controlled mayhem on his kit, and it all ends with a reprise of the head and a rousing ensemble send-off. The churning, chugging "Tumbleweed," with its wild-west feel mapped onto some ur-heartland vibe, shakes things up, nicely framed by a bit of eldritch wordless vocals and Metheny's tasty guitar-synth solo followed by a driving statement from the leader. Mehldau keeps things rolling with a quirky, percussively outrageous solo, and everyone comes back in for a rousing finale. Certainly a high point in a record bursting with passage after passage of brilliant playing. Even the balladic "When Can I Kiss You Again?" though starting out gently enough, eventually gets the fully energized treatment with an emotionally searing solo by the leader that builds gloriously and then backs into tranquility. "Cardinal Rule" likewise begins innocently enough only to be goosed into overdrive by some killer unison lines from, again, the leader and Metheny and a nimble solo from Patitucci. The mid-tempo, samba-like "Half Moon Lane" shows a mellower side of leader and band, but its pure melody, easy Latin groove, and deft yet heartfelt sensibility maintain the highest level of playing. "Loose Threads," another south-of-the-border tune, but with a little more muscle and a wackily fractured sense of time, nicely caps the previous number. With "Pilgrimage," the last cut, we're deep into the mystic. Hancock's ethereal electric piano sets the table for this symbolic voyage into the unknown. But there's nothing New Age-y or sentimental about this piece. Instead, we get glorious sound vistas anchored to a hard-headed sense of both one's mortality, and the hope of a better beyond, beautifully expressed in Brecker's magical EWI solo. The sense I get is something akin to C. S. Lewis's vision of the weight of glory, the idea that Heaven is so much more real and substantial than earthly existence that were mere mortals to travel there they would find the grass so sharp as to cut their feet. One mourns the untimely passing of such an imposing and heroic musical figure as Michael Brecker. But at the same time we can rejoice not only that he has gone on, one hopes, to a better place, but also because of the iridescence of his last musical statement.
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Pilgrimage
by Michael Brecker
Price:$13.97
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