I’m so pleased to introduce my guest today, 6-time GRAMMY Award winning Trumpeter, Randy Brecker!

Randy’s worked with the biggest names in music, in Blood Sweat & Tears’ Original Line up, the Horace Silver Quintet, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Dreams, Hal Galper, and perhaps most notably the celebrated jazz/funk/fusion group: The Brecker Brothers. As a session musician, Randy has appeared on hundreds of albums including James Taylor, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, Jaco Pastorius and many more.

In 1994, Randy won his first GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance with “Out of the Loop”. This was followed in 1997 with a 2nd GRAMMY for “Into the Sun”. The next GRAMMY was for Best Contemporary Jazz album with 2003’s album “34th N Lex”. He Picked up his 4th GRAMMY, with a win for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, “Some Skunk Funk” in 2006 and and his 5th for Best Contemporary Jazz album in 2008 “Randy in Brasil”. In 2013, Randy’s album “Night in Calisia” won the GRAMMY for best contemporary Jazz album. Randy is also an 18-time GRAMMY nominee.

As a solo recording artist, he has released over 20 albums. Randy’s latest album is 2019’s “Rocks” with the NDR Big Band, featuring performances by David Sanborn, Ada Rovatti and Frank
Delle.

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2:24 Did your father teach you growing up?
3:55 Do you have Absolute or Perfect Pitch?
4:47 How many hours did you practice a day as a kid?
6:06 How did you learn to improvise? Did you have a teacher?
8:34 Did you use Solfege or numbers when learning melodies?
9:25 Could you name some of the practice books and etudes that you used growing up?
11:10 Did you see a lot of live jazz music growing up in Pennsylvania?
12:34 Any vivid memories of watching the live shows?
13:54 What were your dad’s musical tastes?
15:58 What was it like to study in Stan Keaton’s Band Camp as a teenager?
18:17 Did all of these experiences build up your confidence as a youth?
19:36 What about that story where 30% of students failed a traditional harmony class in Indiana University?
21:22 What’s your opinion of music theory?
24:11 Describe your compositional writing process
26:52 Talking about his experience working with Stevie Wonder
28:26 How did you transition to more of a rock, R&B, funk and pop sound?
31:44 How long did it take you to develop your craft of composition?
33:42 Detailed explanation of how “Some Skunk Funk” was written
40:59 Talking about writing “Sponge”
43:09 How did you come up with groove for “Sponge”?
44:12 Where do you see jazz moving in the future?
46:52 Are you still studying music and what things are you working on?
48:33 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Sax Players
50:32 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Drummers
52:27 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Keyboard/Piano Players
53:09 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Trumpet Players
54:18 HOT SEAT: Top 3 Horn Section Arrangers/Writers
56:22 HOT SEAT: If you could have performed with anyone in history that you haven’t yet, who would it be?
57:04 HOT SEAT: What is your biggest regret in music?
58:54 HOT SEAT: Proudest musical moment?
59:51 How would you reform or change music education?
1:02:04 Upcoming projects
1:03:42 Wrapping up