Jazz Articles about Randy Brecker

About Randy Brecker

Album Review

Silvio Amato: Variations Of Relevance

Read "Variations Of Relevance" reviewed by Jim Worsley

by Jim Worsley
April 16, 2020

Silvio Amato has a well-established career as a composer, arranger, and film scorer. Amongst other projects, the Italian-born pianist has written soundtracks for major motion pictures, a multitude of pieces for children's television programming, theme songs for a variety of television shows, and has been highly successful with ice ballets. His compositions for Peter Pan, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast have been taken to the ice all over Europe. He has also composed pop music. Coupled with a ...

Album Review

Tom Kennedy: Stories

by Jim Worsley
March 25, 2020

It's commonplace that an artist will have a concept or theme in mind when starting a record project. To build from the ground up without any preconceptions could be a recipe for a disaster. However, if it didn't crash and burn and, in fact, went the other direction, the possibilities then become infinite. With no boundaries and nothing to be tethered to, the sky's the limit. Tom Kennedy boldly took that approach to his new record. He took flight with ...

Album Review

Randy Brecker: Rocks

Read "Rocks" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
December 17, 2019

A 73 anni Randy Brecker rilegge il repertorio dei Brecker Brothers con l'esuberanza di quando ne aveva trenta. Il risultato è un album ricco di tensione, pur senza la presenza del grande Michael, scomparso dodici anni fa. Il coinvolgimento di quella perfetta macchina di suoni che è la NDR Big Band e la presenza dei sassofonisti David Sanborn e Ada Rovatti rende quell'assenza sopportabile. Cinque delle nove tracce appartengono al repertorio storico dei Brecker Brothers, tre ("First Tune ...

Album Review

Steve Khan: Patchwork

Read "Patchwork" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
September 16, 2019

Amongst the many myths out there about music-making—especially in jazz, where the improvisation quotient is often so high—is that composing may, indeed, be work, but doesn't require the kind of relentless attention to detail that far more truthfully defines how many artists write and arrange their music. These days, one need only look to music by artists including Pat Metheny, Antonio Sanchez and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah to find music conceived with intimate and painstaking detail while, at the same ...

Album Review

Randy Brecker: Rocks

Read "Rocks" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 28, 2019

The easiest answer isn't always the best answer, but sometimes it is. So it's both easy and proper to point out that trumpet and flugelhorn master, composer, and bandleader Randy Brecker was kind enough to simultaneously review his release with the NDR Bigband, the Hamburg Radio Jazz Orchestra, when he titled it Rocks. Assembled for the recording studio after Brecker finished two acclaimed tours of Europe with the NDR Bigband, Rocks recapitulates tunes that Brecker has written through ...

From the Inside Out

Big Bands, Orchestras and Soft Machines

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 18, 2019

Randy Brecker & NDR Bigband Rocks Piloo Records & Productions LLC 2019 The easiest answer isn't always the best answer, but sometimes it is. So it's both easy and proper to point out that trumpet and flugelhorn master, composer, and bandleader Randy Brecker was kind enough to simultaneously review his release with the NDR Bigband, the Hamburg Radio Jazz Orchestra, when he titled it Rocks. Assembled for the ...

Album Review

Randy Brecker with the NDR Big Band - The Hamburg Jazz Orchestra: Rocks

by Roger Farbey
February 12, 2019

Randy Brecker has been at the forefront of jazz since the late 1960s. His debut album as leader way back in 1969 was Score (Solid State). In addition to numerous albums under his own name he's also recorded with George Benson, Duke Pearson, Dreams and Larry Coryell's Eleventh House, to name just a few. But perhaps he is best known for the albums he produced with his younger brother, the late Michael Brecker as The Brecker Brothers. Lest people forget ...