This week at Black lotus we put a spotlight on the music of The Brecker Brothers. Needless to say, I've been preoccupied with this task the past few weeks! It's been a lot to prepare for starting with putting the tunes down on 'paper.' You won't find much of their stuff in any of the fake books, and the ones that are in there are not too accurate or helpful. We had to build this set from the bottom up. And of course once getting the charts written, we had to spend time individually practicing them. We got together once to rehearse them and man is it sounding good!!! I can't wait to perform them!
A few things I have picked up by listening a bunch and shedding their stuff: They make everything sound so easy and relaxed when in actuality, it's pretty intricate. The technical demands are quite high and is pushing us all to our limits. It's a lot of fun reaching further and I am sure that the cats in the band have all grown musically because of it.
Randy Brecker did most of the writing for the group...I didn't realize that until digging deeper into their repertoire. And man can he write s tune! Beauty, sophistication and grit. And of course he's just a beast on the trumpet taking crazy good solos and playing essentially lead trumpet parts with ease. Such a great musician!
I also have been checking out multiple performances of single tunes at different times during their career. They constantly change up the forms and solo spaces where every performance is truly different than the next. The smallest nuance is incorporated and flawlessly executed...what a tight band!
Well thats all for now folks! I am thoroughly inspired by these two titans of music and I hope you are too! And I hope we do their tunes justice!!!!