Jazz great searches for a donor

Michael Brecker felt a sharp pain in his back while performing at last August’s Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival in Japan, but initially thought it was just another of those ailments afflicting touring musicians that an ice pack or massage could alleviate.

Instead, it turned out to be the first outward symptom of a life-threatening disease that has temporarily silenced Brecker’s saxophone. His best hope for a cure lies in finding a donor who’s a suitable genetic match for a blood stem cell and bone marrow transplant.

He had always been the more introverted of the Brecker brothers -- with Randy on trumpet they led one of the most successful jazz-rock fusion groups -- preferring to speak through his instrument.

But now his illness -- diagnosed as MDS, or myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer in which the bone marrow stops producing enough healthy blood cells -- has led him to speak out to encourage people to enroll in a donor program.

“It’s something that doesn’t come naturally.... I obviously miss playing and writing music,” said the 56-year-old Brecker, his voice sounding frail in a telephone interview from his suburban home in Hastings-on-Hudson, where he’s recuperating after being hospitalized for nearly seven weeks for chemotherapy treatment. “On the other hand, this whole experience has allowed me to be a conduit to attract attention for a cause that’s much larger than me ... for people to go get tested [for the marrow donor program] because I know a lot of lives will be saved.”

Brecker’s illness forced him to cancel a much-anticipated appearance at this month’s Newport Jazz Festival, where he would have showcased the stylistic versatility that won him 11 Grammys, including two last year for his large ensemble album “Wide Angles.” Brecker had been scheduled to perform with Saxophone Summit -- whose adventurous and spiritual music reflects the influence of tenor saxophone legend John Coltrane -- and Steps Ahead 2005, the latest edition of the all-star jazz-rock fusion band formed by Brecker and vibraphonist Mike Mainieri in the late ‘70s.

Former Miles Davis sideman Bill Evans filled in for Brecker with Steps Ahead because its arrangements required a saxophonist. But Brecker’s co-leaders in Saxophone Summit -- tenor sax standouts Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman -- decided not to replace him and dedicated their performance to their friend, climaxing their set with the Coltrane composition “India.”

“It’s impossible to get a replacement for Michael Brecker,” said Lovano, interviewed backstage after the Newport performance. “Mike’s a virtuoso ... and he brings his personal history into everything that he does on his horn.”

Liebman’s friendship with the Philadelphia-born Brecker goes back to 1969, just before Brecker moved to New York and began making a name for himself with the jazz-rock group Dreams and as a sideman with his brother in pianist Horace Silver’s band, eventually becoming one of the most influential saxophonists of his generation.

“A year ago we were having dinner at a restaurant celebrating Saxophone Summit and had a wonderful time ... and then a year later he doesn’t know if he is going to live,” Liebman said. “When this happens, it’s really a shock for you. We’re all hoping he’ll be back with us on the stage soon.”

Brecker’s presence was very much felt during the festival, which was the launching point for an international drive spearheaded by his wife, Susan, and longtime manager and friend, Darryl Pitt, to encourage people to sign up as potential bone marrow donors.

Announcements from the stage urged people to go to a tent set up by the Rhode Island Blood Center. By the festival’s close, more than 300 musicians, festival staff and fans had given blood samples to enroll in the registry, said Patricia Lang, director of the center’s Marrow Donor Program. Similar drives are planned for other jazz festivals.

Brecker’s siblings and children were tested but none turned out to be a suitable match for a transplant, in which the donor’s healthy blood stem cells are used to replace the patient’s unhealthy ones destroyed by chemotherapy. The best chance for finding a match is likely to come from someone who shares Brecker’s Eastern European Jewish ancestry, but European Jews as well as blacks, American Indians, Hispanics and other minorities remain underrepresented in the donor pool.

Brecker said he had been “completely bowled over” by the outpouring of support from close friends such as pianist Herbie Hancock and singer Diana Krall as well as many fans he has never met. His two children, Jessica, 16, and Sam, 12, have been dropping by his management office to answer e-mails and telephone calls.

Brecker said all “the cards, letters and e-mails often reduced me to tears. It’s given me a strong lifeline, a powerful force to keep trying to live.”

When Brecker returned from Japan a year ago, an MRI found that he had a fractured vertebra. Shortly afterward he was diagnosed with MDS. He had surgery to fix his back in October, but the intense back and muscle pains kept recurring. His symptoms were atypical of MDS, but finally a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center was able to link the pains to pressure being put on nerves from cells leaking out of the bone marrow.

Brecker, who gave his last public performance in March, had written and arranged the music for a new small ensemble album before he was sidelined, but that project has been put on hold. He will be returning to Sloan-Kettering next week for a second round of chemotherapy and is taking an anti-inflammatory steroid to relieve his muscle pains.

Brecker said it had not been easy to stop making music.

“I’m strongly focusing on other things, and some days are better than others,” he said. “I really value the years that I had and hopefully will continue to have playing music but right now it’s kind of healthier for me if I don’t think about it. If I’m able to play again, that would be incredible.”