Jazz great Randy Brecker performs at MSUM, Backed by 18 local jazz heavyweights
Five-time GRAMMY-Award winner Randy Brecker of Brecker Brothers fame (remember Some Skunk Funk? Sneakin’ Up Behind You?) joins Russ Peterson, Tom Strait, Allen Carter and 15 other local jazz musicians for a concert Saturday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hansen Theatre in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts on the MSUM campus.
Brecker’s trumpet and flugelhorn performances are featured on hundreds of albums by a wide range of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Aerosmith, Tina Turner, Horace Silver, the Average White Band, Blood, Sweat & Tears, George Benson, Eddie Palmieri, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, B.B. King, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, Phoebe Snow, Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa and many more.
Brecker teamed up with his brother, the late Michael Brecker, in the popular jazz-funk-oriented Brecker Brothers, which recorded several albums and performed all over the world for 10 years. Michael and Randy each won the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences MVP award so many years in a row that they had to be retired from their respective instrumental categories. Michael passed away in 2007 from a rare form of leukemia.
Several of the local musicians backing Randy (and Randy’s wife, Italian saxophonist Ada Rovatti) are members of the popular local funk band Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome. The concert will include Brecker Brothers classics as well as compositions from Randy’s solo catalogue. Brecker will also present a one-hour jazz improvisation clinic at 2 p.m. in Hansen Theatre. The presentation is free and open to the public.
For tickets to the evening performance, go to www.mnstate.edu/tickets, or call the MSUM Box Office Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. at (218) 477-2271, or buy at the door the night of the performance, if not sold out.