Brecker Extras, Part I: A Remote Video Lecture About Mike

To augment the writing in my latest book, "Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker," a labor of love that took me two and a half years to complete, I have compiled some website "Brecker Extras" for fans of Michael and fans of the book. These are things that for one reason or another I couldn't fit into the book, whether they are personal testimonies by Michael's colleagues and disciples, comprehensive discographies or video chats/lectures about the book and the Tenor Titan himself. To start things rolling, here's a video lecture that I did as an introduction to a concert in San Francisco by the band Charged Particles, which has a Michael Brecker tribute album coming out in October (more on that in a later post). This chat was done remotely from my home in Connecticut and was purely off the cuff. But I think it does get across the idea that Michael Brecker was indeed a very special player and person, the likes of which we may never see again.