56-438: Brecker is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Randy Brecker (b. 1945), American musician, brother of Michael Michael Brecker (1949–2007), American musician, brother of Randy Allison Shearmur (née Brecker; 1963–2018), American film executive and producer See also [ edit ] Brecher [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with
112-563: A book of reminiscences and favorite food recipes from the period of the late 1970s to early 1980s when Blakey lived in Northfield, New Jersey , with Warren and their son, Takashi. Blakey traveled for a year in West Africa in 1948 to explore the culture and religion of Islam , which he later adopted alongside changing his name; his conversion took place in the late 1940s at a time when other African Americans were being influenced by
168-476: A collective. Donald Byrd replaced Dorham, and the group recorded an album called simply The Jazz Messengers for Columbia Records in 1956. Blakey took over the group name when Silver left after the band's first year (taking Mobley and Watkins with him to form a new quintet), and the band name evolved to include Blakey's name, eventually settling upon "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers". Blakey led
224-420: A complete list of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers alumni, including some who did not actually record with the band, see The Jazz Messengers . Blakey went on to record dozens of albums with a constantly changing group of Jazz Messengers. He had a policy of encouraging young musicians: as he remarked on-mic during the live session which resulted in the A Night at Birdland albums in 1954: "I'm gonna stay with
280-505: A dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare and bass drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms." This source continues: Although Blakey discourages comparison of his own music with African drumming, he adopted several African devices after his visit in 1948–9, including rapping on the side of the drum and using his elbow on the tom-tom to alter the pitch. Later he organized recording sessions with multiple drummers, including some African musicians and pieces. His much-imitated trademark,
336-517: A few hours later [we] would go [...] to a restaurant [...and] have a drink and order some ribs", and suggests that reasons for the name change included the pragmatic: that "like many other black jazz musicians who adopted Muslim names", musicians did so to allow themselves to "check into hotels and enter 'white only places' under the assumption they were not African-American". Drummer Keith Hollis, reflecting on Blakey's early life, states that his fellow drummer "wound up doing drugs to cope"; like many of
392-440: A leader, for Blue Note Records . The records were released as 78 rpm records at the time, and two of the songs were released on the "New Sounds" 10" LP compilation (BLP 5010). The octet included Kenny Dorham , Sahib Shihab , Musa Kaleem , and Walter Bishop, Jr. Around the same time (1947 or 1949 ) he led a big band called Seventeen Messengers. The band proved to be financially unstable and broke up soon after. The use of
448-558: A period where he was less affected by drugs during performances. Blakey was a heavy smoker; he appears in a cloud of smoke on the Buhaina's Delight album cover, and in extended footage of a 1973 appearance with Ginger Baker , Blakey begins a long drummers' "duel" with cigarette alight. Blakey died in Manhattan , on October 16, 1990, from lung cancer , five days after his 71st birthday, at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center. He
504-797: A proving ground for young jazz talent, and recorded albums such as Buhaina's Delight , Caravan , and Free For All . While veterans occasionally reappeared in the group, by and large, each iteration of the Messengers included a lineup of new young players. Having the Messengers on one's resume was a rite of passage in the jazz world and conveyed immediate bona fides. Many Messenger alumni went on to become jazz stars in their own right, such as: Lee Morgan , Benny Golson , Wayne Shorter , Freddie Hubbard , Bobby Timmons , Curtis Fuller , Chuck Mangione , Keith Jarrett , Joanne Brackeen , Woody Shaw , Wynton Marsalis , Branford Marsalis , Terence Blanchard , Donald Harrison and Mulgrew Miller . For
560-495: A second drummer due to Blakey's failing health. Ron Wynn notes that Blakey had "played with such force and fury that he eventually lost much of his hearing, and at the end of his life, often played strictly by instinct." He stubbornly refused to wear a hearing aid , arguing that it threw his timing off, so most of the time he played by sensing vibrations. Javon Jackson, who played in Blakey's final lineup, claimed that he exaggerated
616-569: A single mother who died shortly after his birth; her name is often cited as Marie Roddicker, or Roddericker, although Blakey's own 1937 marriage license shows her maiden name to have been Jackson. His biological father was Bertram Thomas Blakey, originally of Ozark, Alabama , whose family migrated northward to Pittsburgh sometime between 1900 and 1910. Blakey's uncle, Rubi Blakey, was a popular Pittsburgh singer, choral leader, and teacher who attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee . Blakey
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#1732801815260672-630: A soloist with members of the Bialystok Philharmonic. Tykocin is the area in Poland where Brecker's ancestors (mother's maiden name: Tecosky) hail from, a fact that Pawlik discovered. 2011 saw the release of The Jazz Ballad Song Book: Randy Brecker with the Danish Radio Big Band and The Danish National Chamber Orchestra , which garnered four Grammy nominations and critical acclaim. In 2012, Legacy Recordings released
728-763: A year later. (Some accounts have him joining Henderson as early as 1939.) While playing in Henderson's band, Blakey was subjected to an unprovoked attack by a white Georgia police officer which necessitated a steel plate being inserted into his head. These injuries caused him to be declared unfit for service in World War II . He led his own band at the Tic Toc Club in Boston for a short time. From 1944 to 1947, Blakey worked with Billy Eckstine 's big band. Through this band, Blakey became associated with
784-619: Is called into question in the Gourse biography, as Blakey himself gives other accounts in addition to this one. The style Blakey assumed was "the aggressive swing style of Chick Webb , Sid Catlett and Ray Bauduc ". From 1939 to 1944, Blakey played with fellow Pittsburgh native Mary Lou Williams and toured with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. While sources differ on the timing, most agree that he traveled to New York with Williams in 1942 before joining Henderson
840-498: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Randy Brecker Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist , and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz , rock , and R&B . Brecker was born on November 27, 1945, in the Philadelphia suburb of Cheltenham to a musical family. His father Bob (Bobby)
896-497: Is often considered to have been Monk's most empathetic drummer, and he played on both Monk's first recording session as a leader (for Blue Note Records in 1947) and his final one (in London in 1971), as well as many in between. Blakey toured with Buddy DeFranco from 1951 to 1953 in a band that also included Kenny Drew . On December 17, 1947, Blakey led a group known as "Art Blakey's Messengers" in his first recording session as
952-673: The Ahmadi missionary Kahili Ahmed Nasir, according to the Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History , and at one time in that period, Blakey led a turbaned, Qur'an -reading jazz band called the 17 Messengers (perhaps all Muslim, reflecting notions of the Prophet 's and music's roles as conduits of the divine message). A friend recollects that when "Art took up the religion [...] he did so on his own terms", saying that "Muslim imams would come over to his place, and they would pray and talk, then
1008-548: The Brecker Brothers band. They released six albums on Arista and garnered seven Grammy nominations between 1975 and 1981. Their first record, The Brecker Bros. , featured Randy's composition "Some Skunk Funk", and he composed several pieces on this and subsequent albums. After the Brecker Brothers disbanded in 1982, Randy recorded and toured as a member of Jaco Pastorius ' Word of Mouth big band. It
1064-786: The Duke Pearson and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra . In 1967, Brecker ventured into jazz-rock with the band Blood, Sweat & Tears , on their first album Child Is Father to the Man , but left to join the Horace Silver Quintet . Brecker recorded his first solo album, Score , in 1968, featuring his brother Michael Brecker . After Horace Silver, Randy Brecker joined Art Blakey 's Jazz Messengers before teaming up with brother Michael, Barry Rogers , Billy Cobham , and John Abercrombie to form
1120-605: The Jazz Messengers , a group which he led for the next 35 years. The group was formed as a collective of contemporaries, but over the years the band became known as an incubator for young talent, including Freddie Hubbard , Wayne Shorter , Lee Morgan , Benny Golson , Kenny Dorham , Hank Mobley , Donald Byrd , Jackie McLean , Johnny Griffin , Curtis Fuller , Chuck Mangione , Chick Corea , Keith Jarrett , Cedar Walton , Woody Shaw , Terence Blanchard , and Wynton Marsalis . The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz calls
1176-488: The bebop movement, along with his fellow band members Miles Davis , Dexter Gordon , Fats Navarro , Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan among others. After the Eckstine band broke up, Blakey states that he traveled to Africa for a time: "In 1947, after the Eckstine band broke up, we—took a trip to Africa. I was supposed to stay there three months and I stayed two years because I wanted to live among
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#17328018152601232-410: The surname Brecker . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brecker&oldid=821422926 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
1288-656: The CD won the Grammy for "Best Contemporary Jazz Album", bringing his Grammy total to five. A Tribute to the Brecker Brothers featuring Randy and recorded live at the Hamamatsu Jazz Festival in Japan with Yoichi Murata's Solid Brass & Big Band was released by JVC Victor in Japan in late 2008. In 2009, Brecker released Jazz Suite Tykocin , a project initiated and conceived by Włodek Pawlik, featuring Randy as
1344-578: The City (ESC), a solo project that introduced his alter-ego Randroid with lyrics and vocals by Randroid himself. This CD was released in Europe, where Brecker toured extensively with his own line-up. Brecker's next CD for ESC Records, 34th N Lex , won him his third Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2003. That summer he went back to Europe with the Bill Evans Soulbop Band. In
1400-684: The Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1982), the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 2001), and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Japanese video game music composer Yasunori Mitsuda , who composed the Chrono and Xeno video game soundtracks, cited Art Blakey as the jazz musician who had the deepest influence on him, due to his father frequently playing his music. In addition to his musical interests, Blakey
1456-766: The Jazz Messengers "the archetypal hard bop group of the late 50s." Blakey was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1981). Posthumously, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 1998 and 2001). He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Blakey was born on October 11, 1919, in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, probably to
1512-498: The Messengers tag finally stuck with the group co-led at first by both Blakey and pianist Horace Silver , though the name was not used on the earliest of their recordings. The "Jazz Messengers" name was first used for this group on a 1954 recording nominally led by Silver, with Blakey, Mobley, Dorham and Doug Watkins —the same quintet recorded The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia the following year, still functioning as
1568-1250: The album, and Brecker's wife Ada Rovatti also played saxophone. The recording was released in North America by Magenta/E-One, in Europe by Moosicus Records in November and in Japan by Victor. It is dedicated to his brother, Michael, and other departed Brecker Brothers Band members. As the Brecker Brothers Dreams GRP All-Star Big Band With Patti Austin With George Benson With Walter Bishop Jr. With Frank Catalano With Billy Cobham With Dreams With Eliane Elias With Donald Fagen With Michael Franks With Hal Galper With Bob James With Garland Jeffreys With Jimmy McGriff With Mingus Dynasty With Chaka Khan With Bette Midler With Idris Muhammad With Jaco Pastorius With Duke Pearson With Todd Rundgren With Don Sebesky Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990)
1624-782: The boxed set The Brecker Brothers – The Complete Arista Albums Collection . In November of that year the album Night in Calisia , a collaboration between Brecker, the Wlodek Pawlik Trio, the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra and Adam Klocek was released in Poland. The album came out in the US in August 2013, and won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album , Brecker's sixth Grammy Award. A Brecker Brothers Band Reunion tour of European festivals in
1680-585: The clarinet!" Randy's father, Bob, was also a songwriter and singer who loved to listen to recordings of the great jazz trumpet players such as Miles Davis , Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown . He took Randy and his younger brother Michael Brecker to see Davis, Thelonious Monk , Duke Ellington , and many other jazz icons. Brecker attended Cheltenham High School from 1959 to 1963 and then Indiana University from 1963 to 1966 studying with Bill Adam , David Baker and Jerry Coker and later moved to New York and performed with Clark Terry 's Big Bad Band,
1736-409: The drums, I wasn't after that. I went over there to see what I could do about religion. When I was growing up I had no choice, I was just thrown into a church and told this is what I was going to be. I didn't want to be their Christian. I didn't like it. You could study politics in this country, but I didn't have access to the religions of the world. That's why I went to Africa. When I got back people got
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1792-440: The era, Blakey and his bands were known for their drug use (namely heroin) while traveling and performing (with varying accounts of Blakey's influence on others in this regard). Other specific recollections have Blakey forswearing serious drink while playing (after being disciplined by drummer Sid Catlett early in his career for drinking while performing), and suggest that the influence of "clean-living cat" Wynton Marsalis led to
1848-473: The extent of his hearing loss. "In my opinion, his deafness was a little exaggerated, and it was exaggerated by him. He didn't hear well out of one ear, but he could hear just fine out the other one. He could hear you just fine when you played something badly and he was quick to say 'Hey, you missed that there.' But anything like 'I don't think I'll be available for the next gig', he'd say 'Huh? I can't hear you. ' " Another bandmate, Geoffrey Keezer, claimed that 'He
1904-652: The first time. Brecker's schedule continued with the Randy Brecker Band performing throughout Eastern Europe. In 2007, Brecker was awarded his fourth Grammy for Randy Brecker Live with the WDR Big Band (Telarc/BHM), the live recording (also available in DVD format) of his performance with Michael at the Leverkusen Jazz Fest in 2004. Michael died that same year on January 13. 2007 also saw
1960-410: The forceful closing of the hi-hat on every second and fourth beat, has been part of his style since 1950–51. ... A loud and domineering drummer, Blakey also listens and responds to his soloists. The legacy of Blakey and his bands is not only the music they produced, but also the opportunities they provided for several generations of jazz musicians. The Jazz Messengers nurtured and influenced many of
2016-400: The fusion group Dreams . The group recorded two albums: Dreams and Imagine My Surprise for Columbia Records before they disbanded in 1971. In the early 1970s, Brecker performed live with many artists including The Eleventh House , Stevie Wonder and Billy Cobham . He also recorded several albums with his brother under pianist/composer Hal Galper . By 1975, Randy and Michael formed
2072-519: The group for the rest of his life. It was the archetypal hard bop group of the 1950s, playing a driving, aggressive extension of bop with pronounced blues roots. Towards the end of the 1950s, the saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Benny Golson were in turn briefly members of the group. Golson, as musical director, wrote several jazz standards which began as part of the band book, such as " I Remember Clifford ", "Along Came Betty", and " Blues March ", and were frequently revived by later editions of
2128-631: The group. " Whisper Not " and "Are You Real" were other Golson compositions for Blakey. From 1959 to 1961, the group featured Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Lee Morgan on trumpet, pianist Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt on bass. The group recorded several albums for Blue Note Records including The Big Beat and A Night in Tunisia . From 1961 to 1964, the band was a sextet that added trombonist Curtis Fuller and replaced Morgan, Timmons, and Merritt with Freddie Hubbard , Cedar Walton , and Reggie Workman , respectively. The group evolved into
2184-474: The idea I went there to learn about music. Blakey is known to have recorded from 1947 to 1949. He studied and converted to Islam during this period, taking the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina and the nickname "Bu", although he stopped being a practicing Muslim in the 1950s and continued to perform under the name "Art Blakey" throughout his career. As the 1950s began, Blakey was backing musicians such as Davis, Parker, Gillespie, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk ; he
2240-404: The inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. Max Roach described him thus: Art was an original... He's the only drummer whose time I recognize immediately. And his signature style was amazing; we used to call him 'Thunder.' When I first met him on 52d Street in 1944, he already had the polyrhythmic thing down. Art was perhaps the best at maintaining independence with all four limbs. He
2296-478: The key figures of the hard bop movement of the late 1950s to early 1960s, and of the Neotraditionalist movement of the 1980s and 1990s, both of which had the Jazz Messengers in a stylistically seminal role. In the words of drummer Cindy Blackman shortly after Blakey's death, "When jazz was in danger of dying out [during the 1970s], there was still a scene. Art kept it going." Blakey was inducted into
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2352-429: The people and find out just how they lived and—about the drums especially." He stated in a 1979 interview, discussing the context of the decision at the time: I didn't go to Africa to study drums – somebody wrote that – I went to Africa because there wasn't anything else for me to do. I couldn't get any gigs, and I had to work my way over on a boat. I went over there to study religion and philosophy. I didn't bother with
2408-508: The release of a two-CD set of live recordings of the band Soulbop (BHM) featuring Dave Kikoski , Victor Bailey , Steve Smith , Rodney Holmes and Hiram Bullock . Brecker returned to Brazilian music in 2008 for the album Randy in Brazil , which was recorded in São Paulo with Brazilian musicians and released on Summit Records . Chosen as one of the top 10 CDs of 2008 by All About Jazz ,
2464-603: The summer of 2003 the Brecker Brothers appeared in Japan at the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival . 2004 saw Brecker touring Europe as co-leader (with Bill Evans) of the band Soulbop. The WDR Big Band also invited Brecker to perform at the [Jazz Fest]. The date was of significance to Randy as it was the last time he played with his brother, who took ill shortly thereafter with a rare form of leukemia known as MDS . In 2005, Brecker's wife Ada (married 2001) sat in for
2520-544: The summer of 2013 supported Brecker's Brecker Brothers Band Reunion , a dual-disk project which was released on September 25, 2013, on Piloo Records. It features a live DVD recorded at the Blue Note in New York City with a new 11-song studio recording featuring members of the Brecker Brothers bands from throughout the years including David Sanborn , Mike Stern , Will Lee , and Dave Weckl . George Whitty produced
2576-523: The triple-Grammy nominated GRP recording The Return of the Brecker Brothers . The follow-up, 1994's Out of the Loop , was a double-Grammy winner. In 1995 he was featured on Turtles , an album by Polish composer Włodek Pawlik . In 1997, Into the Sun (Concord), a recording featuring Brecker's impressions of Brazil, garnered Brecker his first Grammy as a solo artist. In 2001, Brecker released Hangin' in
2632-417: The youngsters. When these get too old I'll get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active." After weathering the fusion era in the 1970s, the popularity of the Jazz Messengers faded away. But Blakey's band continued performing with new jazz men such as Terence Blanchard and Kenny Garrett . He continued performing and touring with the group through the end of the 1980s. Ralph Peterson, Jr. joined in 1983 as
2688-414: Was a lawyer who played jazz piano, and his mother Sylvia was a portrait artist. Randy described his father as "a semipro jazz pianist and trumpet fanatic. In school when I was eight, they only offered trumpet or clarinet. I chose trumpet from hearing Diz, Miles, Clifford, and Chet Baker at home. My brother ( Michael Brecker ) didn't want to play the same instrument as I did, so three years later he chose
2744-475: Was also self-taught. By seventh grade, Blakey was playing music full-time and had begun to take on adult responsibilities, playing the piano to earn money and learning to be a band leader. He switched from piano to drums at an uncertain date in the early 1930s. An oft-quoted account of the event states that Blakey was forced at gunpoint to move from piano to drums by a club owner, to allow Erroll Garner to take over on piano. The veracity of this story
2800-414: Was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1940s in the big bands of Fletcher Henderson and Billy Eckstine . He then worked with bebop musicians Thelonious Monk , Charlie Parker , and Dizzy Gillespie . In the mid-1950s, Horace Silver and Blakey formed
2856-584: Was described by Jerry "Tiger" Pearson as a storyteller, as having a "big appetite for music [...] women [and] food", and an interest in the sport of boxing . Blakey married four times and had other long-lasting relationships throughout his life. He married his first wife, Clarice Stewart, while yet a teen, then Diana Bates (1956), Atsuko Nakamura (1968), and Anne Arnold (1983 ). He had 10 children from these relationships — Gwendolyn, Evelyn, Jackie, Kadijah, Sakeena, Akira, Art Jr., Takashi, Kenji and Gamal. Sandy Warren, another longtime companion of Blakey, published
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#17328018152602912-579: Was doing it before anybody was." His drumming form made continuing use of the traditional grip , though in later appearances he is also seen using a matched grip . In a 1973 drum battle with Ginger Baker he can be seen repeatedly changing grip during his performance. As the supporting materials for Ken Burns 's series Jazz notes, "Blakey is a major figure in modern jazz and an important stylist in drums. From his earliest recording sessions with Eckstine, and particularly in his historic sessions with Monk in 1947, he exudes power and originality, creating
2968-486: Was raised with his siblings by a family friend who became a surrogate mother. According to Leslie Gourse 's biography, the surrogate mother was Annie Parran and her husband Henry Parran Sr. The stories related by family and friends, and by Blakey himself, are contradictory as to how long he spent with the Parran family, but it is clear he spent some time with them growing up. Blakey received some piano lessons at school but
3024-462: Was selectively deaf. He'd go deaf when you asked him about money, but if it was real quiet and you talked to him one-on-one, then he could hear you just fine.'" Blakey's final performances were in July 1990. Blakey assumed an aggressive swing style of contemporaries Chick Webb , Sid Catlett and Ray Bauduc early in his career, and is known, alongside Kenny Clarke and Max Roach , as one of
3080-407: Was soon thereafter that he met and later married Brazilian jazz pianist Eliane Elias . Eliane and Randy formed their own band, touring the world several times and recording one album named after their daughter together, Amanda, on Passport Records . In 1977 he founded the jazz club Seventh Avenue South with his brother Michael Brecker. In 1992 Randy and Michael reunited for a world tour and
3136-541: Was survived by nine children: Gwendolyn, Evelyn, Jackie, Sakeena, Kadijah, Akira, Takashi, Gamal, and Kenji. At his funeral at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on October 22, 1990, a tribute group assembled of past Jazz Messengers including Brian Lynch , Javon Jackson , Geoffrey Keezer , Wynton Marsalis , Terence Blanchard , Valery Ponomarev , Benny Golson , Donald Harrison , Essiet Okon Essiet , and drummer Kenny Washington performed several of
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