2024-08-24 20:31:32
Top jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker, who holds seven Grammy awards, will perform on September 29 at the Sono Center in Brno. The 78-year-old musician will be accompanied by Gustav Brom’s Radio Big Band.
The cooperation was initiated by the local JazzFest, which also organizes the concert. The aim is to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Czech Radio studio in Brno.
“The orchestra is closely linked with the Brno radio studio, its key recordings were made there and its members had their second home there for several decades,” explains Vilém Spilka, artistic director of the show. “Randy Brecker is born in the same year as the conductor of the orchestra, Vlado Valovič, and they play the same instrument, so choosing a soloist for this extraordinary event was easy,” he adds.
The most important Moravian big band was founded by saxophonist and composer Gustav Brom in 1940. He was its leader until his death in 1995, when the current leader, conductor Vladimír Valovič, took over the baton.
The general public knew the orchestra mainly as an accompanying group of pop singers or from the environment of former so-called dance music. Many world-class singers and instrumentalists have also guested with him, among the most famous are trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson or singer Diana Ross. “This line now continues in the form of a guest appearance by Randy Brecker. He has been one of the top American trumpet players since the 1960s,” emphasizes Vilém Spilka.
Randy Brecker started his professional career in the band Blood, Sweat & Tears. He was a member of the Jazz Messengers until 1975 when he founded the famous Brecker Brothers group mixing jazz with funk and rock with his brother Michael Brecker. The siblings continued to work together until Michael’s untimely death in 2007.
The trumpeter also has more than three dozen albums of his own. In addition, he has guested on recordings by Paul Simon, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen and Joe Cocker. He last performed concerts in the Czech Republic in 2019 and 2022, when he was accompanied on both occasions by the Slovak AMC trio at the Novodvorská cultural center.
Video: Randy Brecker hraje s kapelou The Cologne Funkateers
In the 2019 video, trumpeter Randy Brecker is accompanied by The Cologne Funkateers. | Video: Art