Today I publish an interview with the American trumpeter Randy Brecker, that I met on July 23rd, 2007 in Matera at the end of a concert in which he played together with saxophonist (and wife) Ada Rovatti and the Lucanian Big Band directed by Dino Plasmati.
During his career Randy Brecker won five Grammy Awards, mixing frequently jazz with different kinds of musical influences. He played with some of the greatest musicians of the Twentieth Century (among which Frank Zappa, Charles Mingus and Jaco Pastorius) and with the most famous rockers (Bruce Springteen e Dire Straits, among the others). Together with his saxophonist brother Michael (passed away on January 13th, 2007) he founded the Brecker Brothers, one of the most influent fusion band of the ’70s.
Below you find the podcast and a transcription of the interview.
How did you start to love music?
«My father was a piano player, and we had music in the family. It’s a very musical family».
How do you remember your first experience as professional musician?
«I don’t think I remember my first gig, but I was around fifteen, so it’s a long time ago, it’s 1955-1960. Maybe in Philadelphia was where I started to play, maybe with people like Lou Tabeking: he was a few years older than me, but we played together when we were very young in Philadelphia».
In the march of time you played with the greatest musicians of the world. I would be curious to know the working method of some of them. Let’s start, for example, from Horace Silver. How was working with him?
«It was very inspirational. He was a wonderful band leader: he wrote all his tunes, and translated his daily experiences, travels, relationships, etcetera, in the music. It’s just what I tried to do when I was writing music: it’s a part of my life, and all the writing was very close to what was going on with my life when I was younger. So I kind of use him as the role model. Still, till this day».
Another one… Charles Mingus?
«Well, Charles Mingus I don’t know very well, I only played on his last record, but I have a lot of respect for his trials and tribulations in life; he was one of jazz’s probably top-two greatest composers, and was fascinating me how much music he was able to write in a relatively short lifetime, all different styles: both Horace Sylver and Charles Mingus were the first fusion musicians – really – cause they fused a lot of different elements of music together. And saw no boundaries».
Another “fusion” musician was Frank Zappa…
«That’s true; he also I didn’t know very well, but he was also very inspirational. His main fusion was to fuse rock and classical, so he was a little different than the other musicians, although Charles Mingus also had a lot of classical music in his compositions too, but Frank Zappa was also very smart and very creative».
The last one is your brother Michael. The Brecker Bros had a great influence in the birth of fusion. I suppose working with him was easier… Continua a leggere ‘Interview with Randy Brecker‘
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