Missed Magic

I went to Carnegie Hall that night to find magic. I may even have thought it possible to find it by giving my hand to a palm reader. But in the moment of my "blog rant" about the experience, I failed to mention saxophone player, Michael Brecker, who was a surprise guest in the early part of the evening. Brecker, who has been deathly ill and off the scene for the past year and a half, was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), a deadly bone marrow disease. His manager conducted a worldwide search for a donor, setting up a booth at every major jazz festival to find the perfect match...to no avail. In January of 2006, Brecker had a stem cell transplant with his daughter as a donor, though she was only a half-match. Then a couple of months ago he was rushed to Sloan-Kettering and was clinging to life. As my friend and jazz critic Bill Milkowski said, "To see him back on his feet, let alone playing the tenor sax again, was nothing short of a miracle."