Guitarist Joyce Cooling recently expressed her sorrow over the passing of saxophonist Michael Brecker. Though she never had a personal acquaintance with the multiple Grammy winner, Cooling says she was a big fan and had most of his recordings.

A native of New York like Brecker, Cooling also shared her memories of seeing him perform in New York. Brecker often appeared with the group Stuff featuring the late guitarist Eric Gale, and with his brother Randy at the club they owned together, Seventh Avenue South, back in the '70s.

At the time, Cooling was performing on guitar as a duo with a vocalist at a local Italian restaurant, and would often duck around the corner to catch Brecker's sets at his club nearby. She recalled: "They played upstairs, and they had a band Stuff that the Brecker Brothers used to come sit in with, and they had Eric Gale and everybody. And they knew I was a musician, and they'd let all the musicians sit on the stairs. And so every break I got to hear these guys play, for months. So that's just one sort of personal story, I didn't know Michael Brecker personally, but his music is certainly a personal thing with me."

Cooling recently released her album Revolving Door, featuring the single "Mildred's Attraction." Her follow-up single is called "At The Modern."