{"id":54123,"date":"2018-10-15T10:09:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T14:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=54123"},"modified":"2022-11-16T12:34:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T17:34:23","slug":"the-michael-brecker-archive-at-william-paterson-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/the-michael-brecker-archive-at-william-paterson-university\/","title":{"rendered":"The Michael Brecker Archive at William Paterson University"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dr. David Demsey at William Paterson University contacted me a few years ago to tell me about the “Living Jazz Archives<\/a>” that the University was building and how they were adding a Michael Brecker Archive<\/a> to the already existing archives that they already had.\u00a0 \u00a0The Living Jazz Archives are:<\/p>\n

A TEACHING TOOL<\/strong>\u00a0for William Paterson University Jazz Studies majors, for classes in other academic areas across campus, and for visiting groups of students of all ages from public schools, from other colleges and universities, and the general public.<\/p>\n

A RESEARCH CENTER<\/strong>\u00a0for professional scholars, authors and researchers and for faculty from other institutions.<\/p>\n

A MINI-MUSEUM<\/strong>\u00a0honoring the lives and careers of these great jazz artists and their important contribution to the history of jazz, by displaying their music, artifacts and memorabilia using audio, video and multi-media.<\/p>\n

AN ARCHIVE<\/strong>, containing the archived collections of Clark Terry, Thad Jones, James Williams, Michael Brecker, Mulgrew Miller and other collections, maintaining and preserving those materials in perpetuity.<\/p>\n

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Michael Brecker Photo from Archive<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Here is some information from Dr. David Demsey about his relationship with Michael Brecker as well as some of the materials the archive contains:<\/p>\n

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“I knew Mike (proud to say) for 30 years.\u00a0 We were both Joe Allard students, he finished his study before I started with Joe in the late 70s, but Joe introduced the two of us.\u00a0 Mike was always so supportive, had such thoughtful answers to my then naive questions about improvising, studying, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

We first met when I was a masters student at Juilliard.\u00a0 When I proudly told him how many of his solos I’d transcribed, he said, “Thanks, but stop doing that.” I was shocked – had I offended him? He said that although he appreciated the effort, “If you listen to me, you’ll just become another guy attempting to sound like me; but if you listen to who I listened to, you become my peer.” That’s some very heavy advice that I’ve passed on to my students for decades now, along with numerous other gems from Mike. One of my favorites: “Worry about your time, not notes. A wrong note only lasts an instant, but bad time goes on all night long!” Hah! Anyone who knew Mike loved his dry, sometimes silly sense of self-deprecating humor.<\/em><\/p>\n

I kept in touch with Mike while I was at University of Maine Augusta for 12 years, bringing up Steps Ahead, Mike himself, and actually presenting his first-ever concert as a leader in March 1987 when his first album came out.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once I moved to NYC area in 1992, I was looking forward to seeing him more and that was true, but I now regret that I didn’t keep in closer touch – who knew that we’d lose him so young?\u00a0 In January, he’ll have been gone twelve\u00a0years already.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Michael Brecker Photo from Archive<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that’s the reason for the archive.\u00a0 It’s amazing and sad to realize that, in order to have heard Mike Brecker live (he\u00a0stopped touring\u00a0regularly\u00a0in ’05), a young student would have to be at least in their late twenties, and that’s if they were hip enough at age 15-16 to go hear him.\u00a0 Nobody who’s at college age (18-22) would have ever heard him live.\u00a0 That legacy of his amazing energy, his huge technical command, and his harmonic genius has to be preserved and communicated to these students, many of whom might write him off as merely a “pop player.”\u00a0 Wrong!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Michael Brecker 80\/81 with Pat Metheny<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have Randy Brecker\u00a0here as a guest quite often in our program at William Paterson.\u00a0 On one visit, Randy asked to see Clark Terry’s Archive (we also have the collections of Clark, Thad Jones, James Williams, and Don Sebesky and Jim McNeely,\u00a0with more planned).\u00a0 Clark was a major mentor for Randy, gave him a lot of his first NYC gigs when he moved here after his college study.\u00a0 When Randy saw the Living Jazz Archives, and learned about our educational mission, he said he really hoped that Mike’s collection could be here.\u00a0 I said, “Don’t say that unless you mean it!”\u00a0 It was a dream at that time.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Sheet from Brecker’s Practice Journal<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The mission of the Archive, actually conceived by Clark Terry, is to store all of these materials at the highest archival levels – but to also get copies of those materials into the classes and ensembles here, literally into the hands and minds of our students and visitors here.<\/em><\/div>\n
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When Mike’s wonderful wife Susan spent a day with us and saw how much we are dedicated to that mission, she was convinced that this is the best route. I will always be grateful she made that choice, and hope we can live up to that trust.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Sheet from Brecker’s Practice Journal<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Michael Brecker Archive is now a bit over two years old, adding new material all the time, thanks to Susan’s wonderful energy. We first prioritized the music (paper and recordings); we have 16 archival boxes of all of the original sheet music parts from the recording sessions of all of the Brecker solo albums, the “early” and “later” editions of the Brecker Brothers, from Steps Ahead, score and parts from the Claus Ogerman Cityscape album, from his tours and projects with McCoy, Elvin, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon, and many others. Every object in the collection is catalogued, so a visit to the website will list exactly what is here. The archive contains:<\/em><\/p>\n