The Brecker Brothers were a

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

music duo consisting of siblings

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

and

Randy Randy is a given name, popular in the United States and Canada. It is primarily a masculine name. It was originally derived from the names Randall, Randolf, Randolph, as well as Bertrand and Andrew, and may be a short form (hypocorism) of the ...

. Michael played saxophone, flute, and EWI, and Randy played trumpet and

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

. The brothers attended Cheltenham High School in

Wyncote, Pennsylvania Wyncote is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders the northwestern and northeastern section of Philadelphia. Wyncote is located 11 miles from Center City Philadelphia at the southeaster ...

. Randy, the older brother, became famous as an original member of the group

Blood, Sweat & Tears Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is a jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. In addition to original music, the group has performed popular songs by Laura Ny ...

. He appeared on their debut album ''

Child Is Father to the Man ''Child Is Father to the Man'' is the debut album by Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in February 1968. It reached number 47 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart in the United States. History As a teenager, Al Kooper went to a concert for jazz trumpe ...

'' in 1968. Michael first appeared on record supporting Randy on his solo debut album, titled '' Score'', which was released in 1969. In 1970 and 1971 the brothers were members of the group

Dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

who recorded two albums for Columbia Records. The brothers frequently played together, and individually, as

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

s on recordings by other artists. They were heard on

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Ut ...

's hit "

Hello It's Me "Hello It's Me" is a song written by American musician Todd Rundgren. It was the first song he wrote, and was recorded by his group Nazz as a slow ballad, released as the B-side of the band's first single, "Open My Eyes", in 1968. A mid-tempo ve ...

", which reached No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1973. Other notable appearances include Parliament's ''

Mothership Connection ''Mothership Connection'' is the fourth album by American funk band Parliament, released on December 15, 1975 on Casablanca Records. This concept album is often rated among the best Parliament-Funkadelic releases, and was the first to feature horn ...

'' and the debut album of the Japanese fusion group

Casiopea , now known in its fourth iteration as Casiopea-P4, is a Japanese jazz fusion band formed in 1976 by guitarist Issei Noro, bassist Tetsuo Sakurai, drummer Tohru "Rika" Suzuki, and keyboardist Hidehiko Koike. In 1977, keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya ...

. The brothers were encouraged to start their own group by an executive at

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainmen ...

. Between 1975 and 1981 they released six albums on Arista as The Brecker Brothers. The group had a hit single with "East River" in 1979. It reached No. 34 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The duo backed up Frank Zappa on the live album ''

Zappa in New York ''Zappa in New York'' is a double live album by Frank Zappa released on his own DiscReet Records label. It was recorded in December 1976 at a series of concerts at the Palladium in New York City. The album was scheduled for release in mid 1977 b ...

''. The recordings were made during a special appearance of the brothers with members of the

Saturday Night Live Band The Saturday Night Live Band (referred to in the closing credits as The Live Band) is the house band of the NBC television program ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Role on ''Saturday Night Live'' The band consists of mostly jazz, R&B, and ...

at Zappa concerts at the

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

in December 1976. The brothers appeared with

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

on the 1984 Frank Sinatra album '' L.A. Is My Lady'' and on

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

's 1986 album ''

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

''. Between 1992 and 1994 the Brecker Brothers released two more albums under their own name on

GRP Records GRP® Records (Grusin-Rosen Productions) is a jazz record label founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen (producer), Larry Rosen in 1978. Distributed by Verve Records, GRP® was originally known for its digital recordings that focuses on its jazz ...

. Both brothers also had prolific recording careers as leaders of their own ensembles. Their collaboration ended in 2007 when Michael Brecker died from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

Discography

Studio albums

* '' The Brecker Bros.'' ( Arista, 1975) * '' Back to Back'' (Arista, 1976) * '' Don’t Stop the Music'' (Arista, 1977) * '' Detente'' (Arista, 1980) * '' Straphangin''' (Arista, 1981) * '' Return of the Brecker Brothers'' ( GRP, 1992) * '' Out of the Loop'' (GRP, 1994) - 37th Annual Grammy Awards Best Contemporary Jazz Performance

Live albums

* '' Heavy Metal Be-Bop'' (Arista, 1978) * ''The Bottom Line Archive Series - The Brecker Brothers'' (Bottom Line, 2015) - recorded 1976 * ''Live and Unreleased '' (Leopard, 2020) - recorded 1980

Compilation albums

* '' The Brecker Bros. Collection, Vol 1'' (RCA Novus, 1990) * '' The Brecker Bros. Collection, Vol 2'' (RCA Novus, 1991)

As sideman

* Jack Wilkins, ''Merge'' (

Chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

, 1996) - recorded in 1977 * Jack Wilkins, ''Reunion'' (Chiaroscuro, 2001)

References

External links

Profile Profile or profiles may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Music * ''Profile'' (Jan Akkerman album), 1973 * ''Profile'' (Githead album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Pat Donohue album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Duke Pearson album), 1959 * '' ''Profi ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{Authority control American jazz ensembles from New York City Jazz fusion ensembles Grammy Award winners Sibling musical duos GRP Records artists Arista Records artists Musical groups established in the 1970s