Michael Brecker RIP

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Grammy award winning US jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker has also passed away, aged 57. His death followed a long battle with a cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome which, as in Brecker’s case, often results in leukemia.

New Yorker Brecker said he was inspired to pursue the saxophone by the work of John Coltrane. In 1970 he founded jazz-rock group Dreams, later joining his trumpet playing brother Randy in Horace Silver’s quartet, and subsequently joining with his brother again to form the Brecker Brothers. The duo also ran their own New York jazz club for a while at Seventh Avenue South. He began his much acclaimed solo career in 1987, while regularly guesting on a number of rock and pop tracks, working with the likes of Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell.

2004 album ‘Wide Angles’ won two Grammys and, despite his ill health, he continued to record, with a final album still to be released.