A Randy Brecker Retrospective

A look back at the career of the great trumpeter and prolific composer who turned 80 on Thanksgiving Day (and is still playing his ass off!)

As trumpeter-composer Randy Brecker enters his octagenarian phase, it seems like a perfect time to reflect on his amazingly prolific career while also noting that he’s still very much active on the scene, having recently come off a stint with the Brecker Brothers Reunion Band at the Blue Note in Tokyo, a performance in Prague with the Czech National Symphonic Orchestra, some gigs as special guest with the Bay Area band Charged Particles as well participating in separate tributes to George Wein and Benny Golson. Meanwhile, the tireless road warrior is awaiting an upcoming tour of Poland in December with the Piotr Lemańczyk Trio before jumping aboard The Jazz Cruise ‘26 in January.

Although I had grown up listening to his recordings with Dreams, Billy Cobham, the Brecker Brothers, Frank Zappa and Horace Silver from my faraway perch in Milwaukee, I got to know the person Randy Brecker after I relocated to NYC in 1980 and began hanging out at Seventh Avenue South, the hipster nightclub he ran with brother Michael and partner Kate Greenfield. I ended up doing liner notes for Randy’s brilliant 1987 album, In the Idiom, and subsequently did a Downbeat cover story on The Return of the Brecker Brothers (October 1992 issue), where I interviewed Mike and Randy at Electric Lady Studio in the heart of Greenwich Village.

And, of course, I interviewed Randy at length (at his home on Long Island) in 2019 when I was preparing my book, Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker.

Randy’s composerly output with The Brecker Brothers was characterized by such challenging tunes as “Sponge,” “Rocks” and perhaps his most highly regarded and oft-covered composition, “Some Skunk Funk,” all from their self-titled debut album, which was released 50 years ago, in September of 1975. “Some Skunk Funk” was famously covered that same year by Billy Cobham on his A Funky Thide of Sings album and the Brecker Brothers did a redux on a 2005 Telarc release, Some Skunk Funk (recorded live on November 11, 2003 at the Forum in Leverkusen, Germany) with the WDR Big Band and billed as Randy Brecker w/Michael Brecker.

Other intricate and demanding Brecker compositions include “The Sleaze Factor,” “Straphangin’,” “Squids,” “Inside Out” and “Threesome.”

A pioneer of hooking up his trumpet to wah-wah pedals and harmonizers, going back to his work in the late ‘60s, Brecker continues to break out effects with the Brecker Brothers Reunion Band, which features his wife Ada Rovatti on tenor sax, filling in the very large shoes of his late brother Mike. Randy also recently showcased Ada’s compositional depth on his 2019 album Brecker Plays Rovatti: Sacred Bond on her Piloo Records label.

Randy was born on Nov. 27, 1945 and grew up in Cheltenham, a suburb of Philadelphia. And it was clear from the very beginning that his father Bobby Brecker had big hopes for his firstborn son, as evidenced by this song he wrote when Randy was just two weeks old, called “The Hottest Man in Town”:

Randy attended attended Cheltenham High along with his younger brother Mike and with Israeli-born student and the school’s star soccer player, Benjamin Netanyahu. His father Bobby was a lawyer who played jazz piano

and was also considered something of a songwriter himself. The family had nightly jam sessions at home with a Hammond B-3 organ and full drum set in the living room. Randy’s piano-playing sister Emily also participated in these family jams.

Meanwhile, Bobby would take his two sons to jazz clubs around Philadelphia to see the likes of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington, and on a few rare occasions had jazz musicians like Jon Hendricks over to the house to participate in the family jams.

Randy first appeared on record on the Blue Note album Introducing Duke Pearson’s Big Band, which was recorded in December of 1967. Shortly before that, he had joined Al Kooper’s Blood, Sweat & Tears octet, debuting at the Cafe Au Go Go on November 17–19, 1967, then a gig at The Scene the following week. Randy appeared on the group’s debut album, Child Is Father to the Man, released on Columbia Records on Feb. 21, 1968.

Randy’s stay in BS&T was short-lived and by the Autumn of 1968 he was playing in Horace Silver Quintet, alongside tenor saxophonist Bennie Maupin and bassist John Williams and drummer Billy Cobham.

In 1969, Randy released his first album as a leader, Score, which also featured his brother Michael, who was then a student at Indiana University and came to Rudy Van Gelder Studio to record his parts. That Solid State album was split between swinging post-bop numbers like “Bangalore” (with Eddie Gomez on upright bass and Mickey Roker on drums) and and jazz-rock tunes like “The Vamp” and “Score” (with Chuck Rainey on electric bass and Bernard Purdie on drums. Guitarist Larry Coryell and pianist Hal Galper (both future employers of Randy) also made appearances on Score.

Following a brief stint with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Randy and brother Mike formed Dreams, a group founded by the songwriting team of Jeff Kent and Doug Lubahn and featuring trombonist Barry Rogers, guitarist John Abercrombie and powerhouse drummer Cobham. Dreams rivaled rock-flavored horn bands of the day like BS&T, Chase and Chicago, though featuring far more audacious and extended improvisations. They released two albums, 1970’s adventurous Dreams and 1971’s far more commercial Imagine My Surprise, before disbanding.

Both Mike and Randy subsequently played and recorded with Billy Cobham’s band and pianist-composer Hal Galper’s Guerilla Band before joining Horace Silver’s sextet, appearing on his 1973 Blue Note album, In Pursit of the 27th Man.

After playing on innumerable sessions in the mid ‘70s, Mike and Randy formed The Brecker Brothers in 1975, releasing six potent albums for Arista, culminating in 1982’s Straphangin’. They would go their separate ways for a decade with Randy recording the Brazilian flavorred Amanda in 1986 with his then wife, pianist Eliane Elias, followed by superbly swinging efforts in 1987’s In the Idiom, featuring tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist David Kikoski, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster, and 1988’s Live at Sweet Basil, which paired him on the frontline with tenor saxophonist Bob Berg. He reunited with brother Michael on 1992’s Return of the Brecker Brothers, followed by 1994’s Out of the Loop, both on GRP Records.

Randy won his first Grammy Award as a solo artist for 1997’s Brazilian flavored Into the Sun. He followed with 2001’s Hangin’ in the City, which introduced his humorously decadent alter-ego Randroid. On 2002’s 34th & Lex, he was joined by brother Mike, alto saxophonist David Sanborn and baritone sax ace Ronnie Cuber on the lively title track and also on quirky/funky “Let It Go.”

Brecker has recorded 15 albums as a leader or co-leader since then, including 2008’s Grammy-winning Randy in Brazil, 2009’s Nostalgic Journey: Tykocin Jazz Suite with The Symphony Orchestra Of The Podlasie Opera And Philharmonic Of Bialystok, 2011’s The Jazz Ballad Song Book with the Danish Radio Big Band and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, 2013’s The Brecker Brothers Band Reunion and 2015’s Randy Pop!, a collection of jazzy interpretations of familiar pop tunes (arranged by pianist Kenny Werner) that he played on as a ubiquitous session musician, including Todd Rundgren’s “Hello, It’s Me,” Donald Fagen’s “New Frontier,” Paul Simon’s “Late in the Evening,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Meeting Across the River” and James Brown’s “I’ve Got a Bag of My Own.”

Randy would later reprise five classic Brecker Brothers tunes on 2019’s Rocks with the NDR Big Band and the Hamburg Radio Jazz Orchestra. Unlike some his age who didn’t make it through COVID, Randy went right back on the road and continues to be a restless road warrior and good natured role model for working musicians half his age. Keep on doing it, Randy!