Randy Brecker: Talks the Power of Music, Deep Roots in Philly Jazz, and Keeping His Chops

January 1, 2025

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Trying to nail down an interview with legendary jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker of Local 802 (New York City) is challenging. At just shy of 80 years old, Brecker still traverses the globe at an exhausting pace. This month alone, Brecker has concert dates in New York at Dizzy’s with his quintet, and concerts in Germany, Poland, and Finland. In between that, he’s in Nashville
and at the Kennedy Center.

The International Musician caught up with him in between sound checks for a tribute to a longtime collaborator, the late saxophonist David Sanborn, at Sony Hall in New York.

“I have 23 charts to learn for different folks,” he complains—but only half-heartedly. Because the one thing that comes across clearly is that Brecker still loves the work and relishes life as one of the leading figures in American jazz and funk, a role he has been in since the mid-1960s.

Brotherly Beginnings

Advancing his career in the mid-70s as part of the jazz fusion duo, The Brecker Brothers (with his late brother Michael on saxophone and electronic wind instrument), he collected an enviable number of Grammy nominations and wins. He also played a leading role in shaping and popularizing the genre.

It’s no surprise that Brecker went into music, and that the trumpet was the logical choice. His father, Bobby, was a piano playing singer-songwriter and lawyer who loved the sound of the trumpet. “He wrote a song for me when I was two weeks old, ‘The Hottest Man in Town,’ about a trumpet player,” says Brecker with a chuckle. “He predicted it all. It was preordained.”

Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1950s, he says, it was hard to escape the trumpet vibes in the air. “Clifford Brown was there with Max Roach. Philly was their home base. He was the talk of the town.” Brown’s records got a lot of airtime in the Brecker home, along with other greats like Dizzy Gillespie.

“I remember listening to Clifford play a ballad. Dad was emotionally overcome, and he grabbed me and told me trumpet was the greatest jazz instrument. So, I started on it in the 3rd grade,” says Brecker, who counts Miles Davis as another early influence. His father took him and his younger brother Michael to see Davis live. “The local Philadelphia jazz station also played records by Chet Baker and Art Farmer—some of the more lyrical players. Players with huge technique like Maynard Ferguson and Dizzy threw me for a loop at 8 years old, so I started with more lyrical players.”

Little brother Michael “got stuck with clarinet,” laughs Brecker. “He was three years younger than me and didn’t want to play the same instrument.” Their individual musical development and career, however, would be entwined until Michael’s untimely passing in 2007.

Musical Partnership

The Brecker brothers both studied with teachers who were in The Philadelphia Orchestra. “We both practiced a lot to records at home, and had a suite joined by a bathroom with great acoustics, so we’d meet in the bathroom and improvise,” says Brecker. After that came studies at Indiana University, where he honed his skills as a performer and improviser in touring jazz groups.

The two brothers’ lifelong musical partnership ultimately came to fruition with Brecker’s debut album, Score, recorded in 1969, which included an improvised duo with Michael. The album also marked the first notable appearance of what would become the Breckers’ signature sound, as noted in a review by jazz writer Steve Loewy: “The tunes alternate between jazz-rock (a style the Brecker Brothers were later to successfully exploit) and modern mainstream jazz.” 

Randy, busy in the studios, started writing music for his friends to play. When Clive Davis began the Arista label the duo was encouraged to launch their own group. Randy says, “I’d intended that first record to be a solo Randy Brecker project since I had written all the music and arrangements, but Clive insisted in calling it The Brecker Brothers!—it was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we went with Clive and Arista. He was a genius in the music biz!”

As the Brecker Brothers, they would go on to record six studio albums, three live albums, and several compilations, then regrouped in the ’90s for two more albums on the GRP label and much more touring. The groups would top Billboard charts and win four Grammy awards, as well as nearly two dozen individual awards between the brothers and twice as many nominations.

They toured extensively, selling out stadiums with their unique, danceable jazz music, recorded and performed together and as solo artists with a slew of high-profile musicians, including Frank Zappa, Bruce Springsteen of Locals 47 (Los Angeles, CA) and 399 (Asbury Park, NJ), Chick Corea, and Pat Metheny of Local 34-627 (Kansas City, MO).

Brecker says that his brother’s death marked a turning point in a long career. “I missed him, of course, as a brother. Musically, we’d been playing together so long, it was like losing a limb.” Brecker credits his wife, saxophonist Ada Rovatti of Local 802, with getting him through an exceedingly difficult period, both personally and creatively.

Nowadays, Michael is remembered on Brecker Brothers Band Reunion tours. “The tours are saved for special occasions. Brecker’s wife, Ada holds down the saxophone chair. We get the old gang together, and it’s remarkable how we all slot right back in, just like the old days,” says Brecker.

Last year’s tour in Japan was a testament to the staying power of the Brecker Brothers’ individual brand of music. “We’ve had fan clubs in Japan over the years,” Brecker recalls. “We used to play in baseball stadiums to crowds of 50,000. It was fascinating to see how even the younger Japanese audiences today know all the old tunes.”

Still Creating

In tandem with performing, Brecker’s prolific composition chops have always been an equal contributor to his career. He says writing was always a goal of his, and he composed many of the charts on the Brecker Brothers albums. He still enjoys the creative process.

“I listen a lot,” he says. “Composers like Wayne Shorter have always been important to me. His music was so ethereal and mystical, chord changes unlike anyone else. His thought process was so original. I tried to see how he put it together.”

Brecker also counts Dizzy Gillespie and the great Quincy Jones as compositional influences. “Whoever I listen to, it all just sinks in. I might take notes and transcribe part of something they did. But generally, the thing I do the most is play along. After I do my classical studies on the trumpet, I’ll spend time playing along with other composers’ music.”

He says this not only helps keep up his endurance on the trumpet, but also keeps his mind open to musical possibilities. “I’ll often do this for a several hours a night and I get ideas from that process that might make their way into a tune,” says Brecker.

A good warm-up on the trumpet is still important, he says, including playing ballads to keep his sound relaxed and open. That’s crucial both on stage and in the studio. The mental approach to each, however, is quite different.

“Two completely different beasts,” he says. “In performance, showmanship is a big part of live music. And that means not just playing for yourselves, but also entertaining your audience. When they enjoy it, you get joined with them at the hip. Seeing the joy on their faces makes you play better.”

In the recording studio, he says, the focus of the work is with other musicians. “It’s a specific job that has to be done as well as possible. It can be hard to recreate that live electricity, but I’m not sure that kind of energy would actually work in a studio anyway. It’s more of a controlled situation,” says Brecker. While time in the recording studios is mostly in the past, he says, it has been an incomparable way to have fun over his long career. “My studio days were a great way to see everyone and hang. You didn’t have to travel the world to see your friends.”

Road Time

An appreciable portion of Brecker’s life and career has been spent in airplanes, buses, and hotels. For many musicians, that can take a toll. When asked the typical question about how he stays healthy and sane, Brecker responds with typical trumpet humor.

“Sane? Not sure I am, but I guess I’m doing okay,” he laughs. “They say the music keeps you young, and I think that’s true. Tours can be hard. They’re physically demanding, and just playing the trumpet is physically demanding. But I still love to play, and I look forward to taking the horn out of the case every night.” He adds that he makes sure to get enough sleep, doesn’t smoke, and doesn’t drink.

He counters another difficulty of touring—missing family—by traveling with family whenever possible. “My wife is with me playing saxophone quite a bit, and also our 16-year-old daughter, Stella, who plays tenor and bari sax, comes along when she can. That helps. We just finished a gig at Dizzy’s with my older daughter, Amanda Brecker, singing two of her own tunes and two of Ada’s new tunes with Ada’s lyrics. We’re a pretty tight-knit family, and everything revolves around music.”

A career spent as a leading influence on three genres—mainstream jazz, rock, and funk—has given Brecker a unique perspective on not just what has come before, but where things are headed, especially in jazz. “There are so many great young musicians coming out of schools these days armed with a ton of technique and harmonic knowledge,” he says. “They’ll be the ones to take it to the next level.”

Also, says Brecker, jazz has become world music. “You can hear it anywhere on the planet, and each place and culture flavors it with their own particular folk influence.” Jazz, he adds, is multi-directional. “Lots of things influence each other. Jazz education is a huge part of it, alongside this globalization. New York used to be the epicenter, but there are great players in just about every city and country now.”

Union Roots

Brecker’s long career has been inseparable from the AFM. “I joined Philadelphia Local 77, when I was a teenager,” he recalls. “Back then along the Mason-Dixon line, there were two unions, a Black union for Black musicians, and a white union. I worked in the Black community quite a bit when I was getting my start in the Philly jazz clubs.”

Brecker joined New York’s Local 802 at the end of 1966, and has been a member ever since. He says he used to attend Union Day, a day dedicated to celebrating and raising awareness about the AFM and Local 802. “Back then, it was held in the Roseland Ballroom on 52nd Street, which also used to be the Local 802 union hall,” he recalls. “My Great Uncle Lou Brecker and his family actually owned Roseland. He gave Louis Armstrong his first gig in NYC! So, I can say my roots in New York go back pretty far.”

Brecker says he picked up many of his first gigs through the local, and these gigs obviously led to bigger and better things. “The union was always front and center in my career. And even though I’m not recording in large studios much anymore with a whole band there, the union is still helping, with money from all those earlier recordings going into my pension.” Of all the reasons to join the union, he says, this one probably tops the list.

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