Michael Brecker Now You See It...(Now You Don't) CD

Michael Brecker's work in the '70s and early '80s as both a high-profile session musician and one-half of the fusion-lite Brecker Brothers with his trumpeter brother Randy does little to prepare listeners for his somewhat more challenging solo records. 1990's NOW YOU SEE IT...NOW YOU DON'T is a remarkable album breathing new life into a style of jazz-fusion which had seemed moribund for ages.

Brecker and his revolving cast of musicians, largely anchored by Jim Beard's atmospheric, sometimes almost Eno-esque synthesizers, play with passion and intensity. Brecker's storming solos on "Peep" meld John Coltrane's sheets of sound technique to Wayne Shorter's fearless improvisatory style, and the opening "Escher Sketch" explores polyrhythms like nobody in fusion had since the early days of Weather Report. Excellent stuff.

Principally recorded at the Power Station, New York, New York.

Personnel: Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone, EWI, keyboards, programming); Joey Calderazzo (piano); Jim Beard (keyboards synthesizer); Jon Herrington (guitar); Jay Anderson (acoustic bass); Victor Bailey (electric bass); Adam Nussbaum (drums, cymbals); Omar Hakim (drums); Don Alias, Milton Cardona, Steve Berrios (percussion); Jason Miles, Jimmy Bralower, Judd Miller (programming).