Giving and Receiving : Michael Brecker Fans Get a Lot Out of His Career as an Influential Jazz Musician--and So Does Michael Brecker

He’s won seven Grammys, appeared on more than 500 recordings--from his own to cameos on projects with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Lou Reed--and influenced scores of tenor saxophonists.

And though Michael Brecker is one of jazz’s unique voices, capable of stone-cold thrilling improvisations balanced by deep emotional moments, he remains remarkably modest about his stature in the modern jazz pantheon.

“It makes me feel good that people are moved by my playing, but I’ve never considered myself an innovator or a major jazz figure,” Brecker said by phone from his home in Westchester County, N.Y.

“When I listen to [John] Coltrane or Stan Getz, these guys are unbelievable. I don’t see myself as anywhere near that level. So I’m flattered that I can at least go out and make a living doing it.”

Brecker will appear today and Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The 49-year-old saxophonist has worked hard to have a career in jazz, putting in long practice sessions as a youth, hitting the horn on a daily basis now and playing with other musicians as often as possible. Finally, he says, he feels his musical personality emerging.

“I feel like I’m coming into my own,” said Brecker, whose latest album, “Tales From the Hudson,” includes some of his most memorable playing. “I have more of an idea of the direction I want to go in. It seems to get more clear the older I get.”

At Founders Hall this weekend, Brecker will present state-of-the-art contemporary acoustic jazz with Joey Calderazzo (piano), James Genus (bass) and Jeff “Tain” Watts (drums) filling out the quartet. They’ve been making music together long enough to promise an exhilarating and personal performance of originals by Brecker and the others.

“It’s kind of a dream band,” Brecker said, “with the musicianship mixed with the simpatico. We can read each other really well, and there’s a strong chemistry that happens. . . . Joey is great at coming up with spontaneous things, and the rest of rhythm section is right with him. The same with Jeff Watts. He’s feeding new ideas into the pot, and we jump on them.”

*

After his associations with his brother Randy in the Brecker Brothers, with Steps Ahead, with Herbie Hancock (on the pianist’s recent “The New Standards” album,) Horace Silver (both in the early ‘70s and on Silver’s latest recordings) and countless others, Brecker is happy to be putting most of his energy into his own expanding art.

“I just like to play,” he said. “I like trying to improve. I’m really in it for the enjoyment of music and for the growth.”

* Michael Brecker’s quartet plays today and Saturday, 7:30 and 9:45 p.m., at Founders Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $30. (714) 556-2787.