Tributes to Michael Brecker, Alice Coltrane

Jazz lost a couple of significant musicians over this past weekend with the deaths of Michael Brecker and Alice Coltrane. And while StLJN doesn't usually do tributes or obituaries for jazz musicians without a St. Louis connection - to attempt to do so would be beyond the focus of this site, too time-consuming, and, frankly, too depressing for yr. humble editor - in this particular case, I would like to pass along a couple of links.

The fine folks at Destination Out have done a very nice tribute to Alice Coltrane, complete with several free MP3s for downloading, here. As someone who just never got around to spending much time with her music, I can't add much to what they've written, but if you have any interest in learning more about her, check it out.

As for Brecker, I first encountered his playing in the early 1970s, was a big fan of the first several Brecker Brothers releases, and have continued to follow his work as a sideman and solo artist over the years. Since his career has coincided chronologically with my own interest in jazz, the loss hits a little closer to home. So, as a small tribute, I've compiled a few video clips of Michael Brecker's work over at StLJN's sibling site, the music video blog Heliocentric Worlds, and you can see them here.