Flugelhorn

A standard 3-valved B♭ flugelhorn
Brass instrument
Classification	Wind Brass Aerophone
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	423.232 (Valved aerophone sounded by lip movement)
Developed	Early 19th century
Playing range
(as written; actually sounds a major second lower)
Related instruments
Trumpet Saxhorn Cornet Bass trumpet Flumpet

The flugelhorn ( /ˈfluːɡəl.hɔrn/—also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn— from German, wing horn, German pronunciation: [ˈflyːɡl̩hɔʁn]) is a brass instrument that resembles a trumpet but has a wider, conical bore. Some consider it a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax (who also developed the saxophone). Other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle (father) in Munich in 1832 (Royal Bavarian privilege for a "chromatic Flügelhorn" 1832), which predates Adolphe Sax's work.^[1]

Etymology[link]

The German word Flügel translates into English as wing or flank. The instrument was used on the battlefield to summon the flanks of an army.^[2]

Structure and variants[link]

The flugelhorn is built in the same B♭ pitch as many trumpets and cornets. It usually has three piston valves and employs the same fingering system as other brass instruments, but four piston valve and rotary valve variants also exist. It can thus be played without too much trouble by trumpet and cornet players, though some adaptation to their playing style may be needed. It is usually played with a more deeply conical mouthpiece than either trumpets or cornets (though not as conical as a horn mouthpiece).

Some modern flugelhorns feature a fourth valve that lowers the pitch a perfect fourth (similar to the fourth valve on some euphoniums, tubas, horns, and piccolo trumpets, or the trigger on trombones). This adds a useful low range that, coupled with the flugelhorn's dark sound, extends the instrument's abilities. More often, however, players use the fourth valve in place of the first and third valve combination, which is somewhat sharp (compensated for on trumpets and cornets and some three-valve flugelhorns by a slide for the first or third valve).

Timbre[link]

The tone is "fatter" and usually regarded as more "mellow" and "dark" than the trumpet or cornet. The sound of the flugelhorn has been described as halfway between a trumpet and a French horn, whereas the cornet's sound is halfway between a trumpet and a flugelhorn.^[3] The flugelhorn is as agile as the cornet but more difficult to control in the high register (from approximately written G above the staff), where in general it "slots" or locks onto notes less easily. It is not generally used for aggressive or bright displays as trumpets and cornets often are, but tends more towards a softer and more reflective role.

Use[link]

The flugelhorn appears mainly in jazz, the brass band music, and popular music, though it appears occasionally in orchestral music. Famous orchestral works with flugelhorn include Igor Stravinsky's Threni, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony, and Michael Tippett's third symphony. The flugelhorn is sometimes substituted for the post horn in Mahler's Third Symphony. In HK Gruber's trumpet concerto Busking (2007) the soloist is directed to play a flugelhorn in the slow middle movement. The flugelhorn figured prominently in many of Burt Bacharach's 1960s pop song arrangements. It is featured in a solo role in Bert Kaempfert's 1962 recording of That Happy Feeling. Flugelhorns have occasionally been used as the alto or low soprano voice in a drum and bugle corps.

Famous players[link]

Joe Bishop, as a member of the Woody Herman band in 1936, was one of the earliest jazz musicians to use the flugelhorn. Shorty Rogers and Kenny Baker began playing it in the early fifties, and Clark Terry used it in Duke Ellington's orchestra in the mid 1950s. Chet Baker recorded several albums on the instrument in the 1950s and 1960s. Miles Davis further popularized the instrument in jazz on the albums Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain, (both arranged by Gil Evans) though he did not use it much on later projects. Other prominent jazz flugelhorn players include Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Art Farmer, Roy Hargrove, Hugh Masekela, Tony Guerrero, Jimmy Owens, Maynard Ferguson, Terumasa Hino, Woody Shaw, Guido Basso, Kenny Wheeler, Tom Harrell, Bill Coleman, Thad Jones, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Loughnane of the rock band Chicago, Mike Metheny, and Harry Beckett. Most jazz flugelhorn players use the instrument as an auxiliary to the trumpet, but in the 1970s Chuck Mangione gave up playing the trumpet and concentrated on the flugelhorn alone, notably on "Feels So Good". Mangione, in an interview during an Olympic Games telecast on ABC for which he wrote the theme Give it All You Got, referred to the flugelhorn as "...the right baseball glove."

Pop flugelhorn players include Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band), Rick Braun, Mic Gillette, Jeff Oster, and Zach Condon of Beirut. More recently, in the 1996 film, Brassed Off, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band uses a flugelhorn in the "Adagio" from Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Ralph T. Dudgeon, Franz X. Streitwieser: The Fluegelhorn. Edition Bochinsky, 2004, English/German, ISBN 3-932275-83-7
• "Flugelhorn", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001)
• "Flugelhorn", The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition, edited by Barry Kernfeld (London, 2002)
• The Gazette, July 10, 2009, http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Montreal+International+Jazz+Festival+Beirut+conversation/1779539/story.html

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Flugelhorn

• An enthusiast's flugelhorn guide with many details of individual makes.
• An overview and brief history of the flugelhorn including a short sound clip.
• How to play a flugelhorn

Clark Terry
Clark Terry in New York City, 1976
Background information
Born	(1920-12-14) December 14, 1920 (age 91) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Genres	Swing, bop, jazz
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Trumpet, flugelhorn
Years active	1940s–present

Clark Terry (born December 14, 1920)^[1] is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Only three other trumpet players in history have ever received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: Louis Armstrong (Clark's old mentor), Miles Davis (whom Clark mentored), and Dizzy Gillespie (who often described Clark as the greatest jazz trumpet player on earth). Clark Terry is one of the most prolific jazz musicians in history, having appeared on 905 known recording sessions, which makes him the most recorded trumpet player of all time. In comparison, Louis Armstrong performed on 620 sessions, Harry "Sweets" Edison on 563, and Dizzy Gillespie on 501.

He has played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–1951),^[1] Duke Ellington (1951–1959)^[1] and Quincy Jones (1960), and has recorded regularly both as a leader and sideman. In all, his career in jazz spans more than sixty years.

Biography[link]

Clark Terry at Monterey Jazz Festival, 1981

Terry was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Vashon High School and began his professional career in the early 1940s playing, in local clubs. He served as a bandsman in the United States Navy during World War II.

Terry's years with Basie and Ellington in the late 1940s and 1950s established him as a world-class jazz artist. Blending the St. Louis tone with contemporary styles, Terry’s sound influenced a generation. During this period, he took part in many of Ellington's suites and acquired a reputation for his wide range of styles (from swing to hard bop), technical proficiency, and good humor. Terry exerted a positive influence on musicians like Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, both of whom acknowledge Clark's influence during the early stages of their careers. Terry had informally taught Davis while they were still in St Louis.

After leaving Ellington, Clark's international recognition soared when he accepted an offer from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to become its first African-American staff musician. He appeared for ten years on The Tonight Show as a member of the Tonight Show Band, first led by Skitch Henderson and later by Doc Severinsen, where his unique "mumbling" scat singing became famous when he scored a hit with "Mumbles." A persistent rumor is that Terry was a candidate to lead the band, but for racial skittishness on the part of NBC.

Terry continued to play with musicians such as J. J. Johnson and Oscar Peterson,^[2] and led a group with Bob Brookmeyer that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. In the 1970s, Terry concentrated increasingly on the flugelhorn, which he plays with a full, ringing tone. In addition to his studio work and teaching at jazz workshops, Terry toured regularly in the 1980s with small groups (including Peterson's) and performed as the leader of his Big B-A-D Band (formed about 1970). After financial difficulties forced him to break up the Big B-A-D Band, he performed bands such as the Unifour Jazz Ensemble. His humor and command of jazz trumpet styles are apparent in his "dialogues" with himself, on different instruments or on the same instrument, muted and unmuted. He has occasionally performed solos on a trumpet or flugelhorn mouthpiece.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, Clark performed at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and Lincoln Center, toured with the Newport Jazz All Stars and Jazz at the Philharmonic, and he was featured with Skitch Henderson's New York Pops Orchestra. In 1998, Terry recorded George Gershwin's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. In 2001, he again recorded for the Red Hot Organization with artist Amel Larrieux for the compilation album Red Hot + Indigo, a tribute to Duke Ellington.

Prompted early in his career by Dr. Billy Taylor, Clark and Milt Hinton bought instruments for and gave instruction to young hopefuls which planted the seed that became Jazz Mobile in Harlem. This venture tugged at Clark's greatest love: involving youth in the perpetuation of jazz. Between global performances, Clark continues to share wholeheartedly his jazz expertise and encourage students, including up-and-coming young jazz trumpeter, Josh Shpak. Since 2000, Clark has hosted Clark Terry Jazz Festivals on land and sea, held his own jazz camps, and appeared in more than fifty jazz festivals on six continents.

His career as both leader and sideman with more than three hundred recordings demonstrates that he is one of the most prolific luminaries in jazz. Clark composed more than two hundred jazz songs and performed for seven U.S. Presidents.

He also has several recordings with major groups including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Dutch Metropole Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, hundreds of high school and college ensembles, his own duos, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, octets, and two big bands: Clark Terry's Big Bad Band and Clark Terry's Young Titans of Jazz, with the likes of Branford Marsalis, Conrad Herwig, Brad Leali, Stephen Guerra, Adam Schroeder, Frank Greene and Tony Lujan. The Clark Terry Archive at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, contains instruments, tour posters, awards, original copies of over 70 big band arrangements, recordings and other memorabilia.

Terry was a long-time resident of Bayside, Queens, and Corona, Queens, New York.^[3] He and his wife, Gwen, later moved to Haworth, New Jersey.^[4] They currently reside in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.^[5]

Awards and honors[link]

• Over 250 awards, medals and honors, including:
• The 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, two Grammy certificates, three Grammy nominations
• The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award in 1991
• Sixteen honorary doctorates
• Keys to several cities
• Jazz Ambassador for U.S. State Department tours in the Middle East and Africa
• A knighthood in Germany
• Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award, presented by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity in 1985. Terry was awareded honorary membership in the Fraternity by the Beta Zeta Chapter at the College of Emporia in 1968. He was also made an honorary member of the Iota Phi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity in 2011.
• The French Order of Arts and Letters (2000)
• A life-sized wax figure for the Black World History Museum in St. Louis
• Inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame (1996)^[6]
• NARAS Present's Merit Award (2005)
• Trumpeter of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association (2005)

Discography[link]

Clark Terry performs with the Great Lakes Navy Band Jazz Ensemble

As leader[link]

• Clark Terry with Quentin Jackson/Martial Solal/Kenny Clarke (Disques Swing, 1955)
• Introducing Clark Terry (EmArcy, 1955)
• Serenade to a Bus Seat (Riverside/OJC, 1957)
• Duke with a Difference (Riverside/OJC, 1957)
• In Orbit (with Thelonious Monk, Riverside/OJC, 1958)
• Out on a Limb with Clark Terry (Argo, 1958)
• Top and Bottom Brass feat. Don Butterfield (Riverside/OJC, 1959)
• Paris (Swing, 1960)
• Color Changes (Candid, 1960)
• Everything's Mellow (Prestige, 1961)
• Mellow Moods (Prestige, 1961)
• All American (Prestige, 1962)
• Plays the Jazz Version of "All American" (Moodsville, 1962)
• The Night Life (Mood, 1962)
• Clark Terry & Bob Brookmeyer (Verve, 1962)
• 3 in Jazz (RCA, 1963)
• More (Cameo, 1963)
• Tread Ye Lightly (Cameo, 1963)
• What Makes Sammy Swing (20th Century, 1963)
• The Happy Horns of Clark Terry (Impulse!, 1964)
• The Power of Positive Swinging (Mainstream, 1964)
• Live 1964 (Emerald, 1964)
• Quintet (Mainstream, 1964)
• Tonight (Mainstream, 1964)
• Clark Terry Tonight (Mainstream, 1964)
• Oscar Peterson Trio Plus One Clark Terry (Mercury, 1964)
• The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (Pablo, 1974) with Big Joe Turner, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Roy Eldridge
• Spanish Rice (Impulse!, 1966)
• Gingerbread Men (Mainstream, 1966)
• Mumbles (Mainstream, 1966)
• Angyumaluma Bongliddleany Nannyany Awhan Yi! (Mainstream, 1966)
• It's What's Happening - The Varitone Sound of CT' (Impulse!, 1967)
• Music in the Garden (Jazz Heritage, 1968)
• At the Montreux Jazz Festival (Polydor, 1969)
• Live on 57th Street (Big Bear, 1969)
• Big B-A-D Band In Concert, Live 1970... (EToile, 1970)
• Live at the Wichita Jazz Festival (Vanguard, 1974)
• Clark Terry and His Jolly Giants (Vanguard, 1975)
• Live at the Wichita Jazz Festival (Vanguard, 1975)
• Oscar Peterson and Clark Terry (Pablo, 1975)
• Oscar Peterson and The Trumpet Kings – Jousts (Pablo, 1975)
• Clark Terry's Big B-A-D Band Live at Buddy's... (Vanguard, 1976)
• Live at the Jazz House (Pausa, 1976)
• Wham (BASF, 1976)
• Squeeze Me (Chiaroscuro, 1976)
• The Globetrotter (Vanguard, 1977)
• Out of Nowhere (Bingow, 1978)
• Brahms Lullabye (Amplitude, 1978)
• Funk Dumplin's (Matrix, 1978)
• Clark After Dark (MPS, 1978)
• Mother______! Mother______! (Pablo, 1979)
• Ain't Misbehavin' (Pablo, 1979)
• Live in Chicago, Vol. 1 (Monad, 1979)
• Live in Chicago, Vol. 2 (Monad, 1979)
• The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4 (1980)
• Memories of Duke (Pablo/OJC, 1980)
• Yes, the Blues (Pablo/OJC, 1981)
• Jazz at the Philharmonic - Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo 1983: Return to Happiness (1983)
• To Duke and Basie (Rhino, 1986)
• Jive at Five (Enja, 1986)
• Metropole Orchestra (Mons, 1988)
• Portraits (Chesky, 1988) - with Don Friedman (p), Victor Gaskin (b) Lewis Nash (d)
• The Clark Terry Spacemen (Chiaroscuro, 1989)
• Locksmith Blues (Concord Jazz, 1989)
• Having Fun (Delos, 1990)
• Live at the Village Gate (Chesky, 1990)
• Live at the Village Gate: Second Set (Chesky, 1990)
• What a Wonderful World: For Lou (Red Baron, 1993)
• Shades of Blues (Challenge, 1994)
• Remember the Time (Mons, 1994)
• With Pee Wee Claybrook & Swing Fever (D' Note, 1995)
• Top and Bottom Brass'[' (Chiaroscuro, 1995)
• Reunion (D'Note, 1995)
• Express (Reference, 1995)
• Good Things in Life (Mons, 1996)
• Ow (E.J.s) 1996)
• The Alternate Blues (Analogue, 1996)
• Ritter der Ronneburg, 1998 (Mons, 1998)
• One on One (Chesky, 2000)
• A Jazz Symphony (Centaur, 2000)
• Herr Ober: Live at Birdland Neuburg (Nagel-Heyer, 2001)
• Live on QE2 (Chiaroscuro, 2001)
• Jazz Matinee (Hanssler, 2001)
• The Hymn (Candid, 2001)
• Clark Terry and His Orchestra Featuring Paul Gonsalves [1959] (Storyville, 2002)
• Live in Concert (Image, 2002)
• Flutin' and Fluglin (Past Perfect, 2002)
• Friendship (Columbia, 2002)
• Live! At Buddy's Place (Universe, 2003)
• Live at Montmarte June 1975 (Storyville, 2003)
• George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess (A440 Music Group, 2004)
• Live at Marian's with the Terry's Young Titan's of Jazz (Chiaroscuro, 2005)

As sideman[link]

Terry performed at the White House with singer Nnenna Freelon in 2006

With Gary Burton

• Who is Gary Burton? (RCA, 1962)

With Tadd Dameron

• The Magic Touch (1962)

With Duke Ellington

• Such Sweet Thunder (1957)
• Ellington at Newport (1958)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Gillespiana (Verve, 1960)
• Carnegie Hall Concert (Verve, 1961)
• The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (Pablo, 1974) with Big Joe Turner, Roy Eldridge and Harry "Sweets" Edison
• The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4 (Pablo, 1980) - with Freddie Hubbard and Oscar Peterson
• The Alternate Blues (Pablo, 1980) - with Freddie Hubbard and Oscar Peterson

With Dave Grusin

• Homage to Duke (1993)

With Lionel Hampton

• You Better Know It!!! (Impulse!, 1965)

With Chico Hamilton

• The Further Adventures of El Chico (Impulse!, 1966)

With Milt Jackson

• Big Bags (Riverside, 1962)
• For Someone I Love (Riverside, 1963)
• Ray Brown / Milt Jackson with Ray Brown (Verve, 1965)

With Elvin Jones

• Summit Meeting (Vanguard, 1976) with James Moody, Bunky Green and Roland Prince

With Gary McFarland

• Tijuana Jazz (Impulse!, 1965)

With Blue Mitchell

• Smooth as the Wind (1961)
• A Sure Thing (1962)

With the Modern Jazz Quartet

• Jazz Dialogue (Atlantic, 1965)

With Oliver Nelson

• Oliver Nelson Plays Michelle (Impulse!, 1966)
• Happenings with Hank Jones (Impulse!, 1966)
• The Spirit of '67 with Pee Wee Russell (Impulse!, 1967)

With Chico O'Farrill

• Nine Flags (Impulse!, 1966)

With Sonny Rollins

• Brass & Trio (1958)

With Lalo Schifrin

• New Fantasy (Verve, 1964)
• Once a Thief and Other Themes (Verve, 1965)

With Cecil Taylor

• New York City R&B (1961)

With Various artists

• The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World (1967)

Bibliography[link]

• Let's Talk Trumpet: From Legit to Jazz
• Interpretation of the Jazz Language
• Clark Terry's System of Circular Breathing for Woodwind and Brass Instruments
• TerryTunes, anthology of 60 original compositions (1st ed., 1972; 2nd ed. w/doodle-tonguing chapter, 2009)
• Ellington, Duke. “Clark Terry,” chapter in Music is My Mistress (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973): 229-230.
• “Clark Terry – Jazz Ambassador: C.T.’s Diary” [cover portrait] Jazz Journal International 31 (May 6, 1978): 7-8.
• Beach, Doug. “Clark Terry and the St. Louis Trumpet Sound,” Instrumentalist 45 (April 1991): 8-12.
• Bernotas, Bob. “Clark Terry,” Jazz Player 1 (October–November 1994): 12-19.
• LaBarbera, John. “Clark Terry: More Than ‘Mumbles’,” ITG Journal [International Trumpet Guild] 19, No. 2 (1994): 36-41.
• Blumenthal, Bob. “Reflections on a Brilliant Career” [reprint of Jazz Times 25, No. 8], Jazz Educators Journal 29, No. 4 (1997): 30-33, 36-37.
• Morgenstern, Dan. “Clark Terry” in Living With Jazz: A Reader (New York: Pantheon, 2004): 196-201. [Reprint of Down Beat 34 (June 1, 1967): 16-18.
• Owens, Thomas. “Trumpeters: Clark Terry” in Bebop: The Music and the Players (New York: Oxford, 1995): 111-113.
• “Jazz for the Record”[Clark Terry Archive at William Paterson University], New York Times (December 11, 2004).
• “Clark: The Autobiography of Clark Terry” (University of California Press: 2011), Review of book

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Clark Terry

• Clark Terry's Official Website
• CLARK: The Autobiography of Clark Terry | by Clark Terry, with Gwen Terry
• Performance images - live at Jazz Alley, Seattle
• Verve Records
• Allmusic
• "Profile: Clark Terry" by Arnold Jay Smith (www.jazz.com)
• Clark Terry's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project

Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Piazzolla with his bandoneón in 1971.
Background information
Birth name	Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla
Born	(1921-03-11)March 11, 1921 Mar del Plata, Argentina
Died	July 4, 1992(1992-07-04) (aged 71) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Genres	Nuevo tango
Occupations	Composer, Bandoneón player

Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneónist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.

Biography[link]

Childhood[link]

Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1921, the only child of Italian immigrant parents, Vicente "Nonino" Piazzolla and Asunta Manetti. His grandfather, a sailor and fisherman named Pantaleón Piazzolla, had immigrated to Mar del Plata from Trani, a seaport in the southeastern Italian region of Apulia, at the end of the 19th century.

In 1925 Ástor Piazzolla moved with his family to Greenwich Village in New York City, which in those days was a violent neighbourhood inhabited by a volatile mixture of gangsters and hard-working immigrants. His parents worked long hours and Piazzolla soon learnt how to take care of himself on the streets despite having a limp. At home he would listen to his father's records of the tango orchestras of Carlos Gardel and Julio de Caro, and was also exposed to jazz and classical music, including Bach, from an early age. He began to play the bandoneón after his father spotted one in a New York pawn shop in1929.

After their return to New York City from a brief visit to Mar del Plata in 1930, the family went to live in Little Italy in lower Manhattan, and in 1932 Piazzolla composed his first tango La catinga. The following year Piazzolla took music lessons with the Hungarian classical pianist Bela Wilda, a student of Rachmaninov, who taught him to play Bach on his bandoneón. In 1934 he met Carlos Gardel, one of the most important figures in the history of tango, who invited the young bandoneón player to join him on his current tour. Much to Piazzolla's dismay, his father decided that he was not old enough to go along, although the following year he did play a cameo role as a young paper boy in Gardel's movie El día que me quieras [1]. This early disappointment of not being allowed to join the tour proved to be a blessing in disguise, as it was on this tour that Gardel and his entire orchestra perished in a plane crash in 1935. In later years, Piazzolla made light of this near miss, joking that had his father not been so careful, he would now be playing the harp, rather than the bandoneón.

Early Musical Career[link]

In 1936, he returned with his family to Mar del Plata, where he began to play in a variety of tango orchestras and around this time he discovered the music of Elvino Vardaro’s sextet on the radio. Vardaro’s novel interpretation of tango made a great impression on Piazzolla and years later he would become Piazzolla’s violinist in his Orquesta de Cuerdas and his First Quintet.

Inspired by Vardaro’s style of tango, and still only 17 years old, Piazzolla moved to Buenos Aires in 1938 where, the following year, he realized a dream when he joined the orchestra of the bandoneónist Anibal Troilo, which would become one of the greatest tango orchestras of that time. Piazzolla was employed as a temporary replacement for Toto Rodríguez who was ill, but when Rodríguez returned to work Troilo decided to retain Piazzolla as a fourth bandoneónist. Apart from playing the bandoneón, Piazzolla also became Troilo’s arranger and would occasionally play the piano for him. By 1941 he was earning a good wage, enough to pay for music lessons with Alberto Ginastera, an eminent Argentine composer of classical music. It was the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, then living in Buenos Aires, who had advised him to study with Ginastera and delving into scores of Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and others, Piazzolla rose early each morning to hear the Teatro Colón orchestra rehearse while continuing a gruelling performing schedule in the tango clubs at night. During his 5 years of study with Ginastera he would master orchestration which he later considered to be one of his strong points. In 1943 he started piano lessons with the Argentine classical pianist Raúl Spivak, which would continue for the next five years, and wrote his first classical works Preludio No. 1 for Violin and Piano and Suite for Strings and Harps. That same year he married his first wife, Dedé Wolff, an artist, with whom he would have two children, Diana and Daniel.

As time went by Troilo began to fear that the advanced musical ideas of the young bandoneónist might undermine the style of his orchestra and make it less appealing to dancers of tango. Tensions mounted between the two bandoneónists until, in 1944, Piazzolla announced his intention to leave Troilo and join the orchestra of the tango singer and bandoneónist Francisco Fiorentino. Piazzolla would lead Fiorentino's orchestra until 1946 and make many recordings with him, including his first two instrumental tangos, La chiflada and Color de rosa.

In 1946 Piazzolla formed his, Orquesta Típica, which although having a similar formation to other tango orchestras of the day, gave him his first opportunity to experiment with his own approach to the orchestration and musical content of tango. That same year he composed, El Desbande, which he considered to be his first formal tango, and then began to compose musical scores for films, starting with Con los mismos colores in 1949 and Bólidos de acero in 1950, both films directed by Carlos Torres Ríos.

Having disbanded his first orchestra in 1950 he almost abandoned tango altogether as he continued to study Bartok and Stravinsky, and orchestra direction with Herman Scherchen. He spent a lot of time listening to jazz and searching for a musical style of his own beyond the realms of tango. He decided to drop the bandoneon and to dedicate himself to writing and to studying music. Between 1950 and 1954 he composed a series of works that began to develop his unique style: Para lucirse, Tanguango, Prepárense, Contrabajeando, Triunfal and Lo que vendrá.

Studies in Paris[link]

At Ginastera's urging, Piazzolla entered his classical composition Buenos Aires Symphony, in three movements, for the Fabian Sevitzky Award on 16 August 1953. The performance took place at the Law School in Buenos Aires with the symphony orchestra of Radio del Estadio under the direction of Sevitzky himself. At the end of the concert a fight broke out among some members of the audience who were offended by the inclusion of two bandoneons in a traditional symphony orchestra. In spite of this Piazzolla's composition won a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the legendary French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau conservatory.

In 1954 he and his wife left their two children (Diana aged 11 and Daniel aged 10) behind with Piazzolla's parents and travelled to Paris. At this stage in his life Piazzolla was tired of tango and at first, he tried to hide his tanguero past and his bandoneon compositions from Boulanger, thinking that his destiny lay in classical music. By way of introduction to his work, Piazzolla played her a number of his classically-inspired compositions but it was not until he finally played her his tango Triunfal that she immediately congratulated him and encouraged him to pursue his career in tango, recognising that this was where his true musical talent lay. This was to prove an historic encounter and a cross-roads in Piazzolla's career.

During his time with Boulanger he studied classical composition including counterpoint which was to play a key role in his later tango compositions. Before leaving Paris he heard, and was deeply impressed by, the octet of the American jazz saxophonist Gerry Mulligan which was to give him the idea of forming his own octet on his return to Buenos Aires. At this time he composed and recorded a series of tangos with the String Orchestra of the Paris Opera and began to play the bandoneon while standing up, putting his right foot on a chair and the bellows of the instrument across his right thigh. Until that time bandoneonists played sitting down.

In the Vanguard of Nuevo Tango[link]

Back in Argentina, Piazzolla formed his Orquesta de Cuerdas (String Orchestra), which performed with the singer Jorge Sobral, and his Octeto Buenos Aires in 1955. With two bandoneons (Piazzolla and Leopoldo Federico), two violins (Enrique Mario Francini and Hugo Baralis), double bass (Juan Vasallo), cello (José Bragato), piano (Atilio Stampone), and an electric guitar (Horacio Malvicino), his Octeto effectively broke the mould of the traditional orquesta típica and created a new sound akin to chamber music, without a singer and with jazz-like improvisations. This was to be a turning point in his career and a watershed in the history of tango. Piazzolla's new approach to the tango, nuevo tango, made him a controversial figure in his native land both musically and politically. However, his music gained acceptance in Europe and North America, and his reworking of the tango was embraced by some liberal segments of Argentine society, who were pushing for political changes in parallel to his musical revolution.

In 1958 he disbanded both the Octeto and the String Orchestra and returned to New York City with his family where he struggled to make a living as a musician and arranger. Briefly forming his own group, the Jazz Tango Quintet with whom he made just two recordings, his attempts to blend jazz and tango where not successful. He received the news of the death of his father in October 1959 whilst performing with Juan Carlos Copes and María Nieves in Puerto Rico and on his return to New York City a few days later, he asked to be left alone in his apartment and in less than an hour wrote his famous tango, Adiós Nonino, in homage to his father.

Back in Buenos Aires in 1960 he put together the first, and perhaps most famous, of his quintets, the first Quinteto, initially comprising bandoneon (Piazzolla), piano (Jaime Gosis), violin (Simón Bajour), electric guitar (Horacio Malvicino ) and double bass (Kicho Díaz). Of the many ensembles that Piazzolla set up during his career it was the quintet formation which best expressed his approach to tango.

In 1963 he set up his Nuevo Octeto and the same year premiered his Tres Tangos Sinfonicos, under the direction of Paul Klecky, for which he was awarded the Hirsch Prize.

In 1965 he released El Tango, an album for which he collaborated with the Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges. The recording featured his Quinteto together with an orchestra, the singer Edmundo Rivero and Luis Medina Castro reciting texts.

In 1966 he left Dedé Wolff and the following year signed a five year contract with the poet Horacio Ferrer with whom he composed the operetta Maria de Buenos Aires, with lyrics by Ferrer. The work was premiered in May 1968 with the singer Amelita Baltar and introduced a new style of tango, the tango song. Soon after this he began a relationship with Amelita Baltar. The following year he wrote Balada para un loco with lyrics by Ferrer which was premiered at the First Iberoamerican Music Festival with Amelita Baltar and Piazzolla himself conducting the orchestra. Piazzolla was awarded second prize and the composition would prove to be his first popular success.

In 1970 Piazzolla returned to Paris where with Ferrer he wrote the oratorio El pueblo joven premiered in Saarbrucken, Germany in 1971. Back in Buenos Aires he founded his Conjunto 9 (aka Nonet), a chamber music formation, which was a realisation of a dream for Piazzolla and for which he composed some of his most sophisticated music. He now put aside his first Quinteto and made several recordings with his new ensemble in Italy. Within a year the Conjunto 9 had run into financial problems and was dissolved and in 1972 he participated in his first concert at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, sharing the bill with other Tango orchestras.

After a period of great productivity as a composer, he suffered a heart attack in 1973 and that same year he moved to Italy where he began a series of recordings which would span a period of five years. The music publisher Aldo Pagani, a partner in Curti-Pagani Music, had offered Piazzolla a 15 year contract in Rome to record anything he could write. His famous album Libertango was recorded in Milan^[1] in May 1974 and later that year he separated from Amelita Baltar and in September recorded the album Summit-Reunion Cumbre with the saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and an Italian orchestra, including jazz musicians such as bassist Pino Presti and drummer Tullio De Piscopo,^[2] in Milan. The album includes the composition Aire de Buenos Aires by Mulligan.

In 1975 he set up his Electronic Octet an octet made up of bandoneon, electric piano and/or acoustic piano, organ, guitar, electric bass, drums, synthesizer and violin, which was later replaced by a flute or saxophone. Later that year Aníbal Troilo died and Piazzolla composed the Suite Troileana in his memory, a work in four parts, which he recorded with the Conjunto Electronico. At this time Piazzolla started a collaboration with the singer Jose A. Trelles with whom he made a number of recordings.

In December 1976 he played at a concert at the Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, where he presented his work, “500 motivaciones”, written especially for the Conjunto Electronico, and in 1977 he played another memorable concert at the Olympia in Paris, with a new formation of the Conjunto Electronico.

In 1978 he formed his second Quintet, with which he would tour the world for 11 years, and would make him world renowned. He also returned to writing chamber music and symphonic works.

During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Piazzolla lived in Italy, but returned many times to Argentina, recorded there, and on at least one occasion had lunch with the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. However, his relationship with the dictator might have been less than friendly, as recounted in Ástor Piazzolla, A manera de memorias (a comprehensive collection of interviews, constituting a memoir):^[3]

One year before the Los Largartos issue you went to Videla's house and had lunch with him, why did you accept that invitation? What an invitation! They sent a couple of guys in black suits and a letter with my name on it that said that Videla expected me a particular day in a particular place. I have a book around in some place, with pictures of all the guests: Eladia Blázquez, Daniel Tinayre, Olga Ferri, the composer Juan Carlos Tauriello, there were painters, actors […]

—Ástor Piazzolla, A manera de memorias

Travelling the World[link]

In 1982 he recorded the album Oblivion with an orquestra in Italy for the film Enrico IV, directed by Marco Bellochio, and in May 1982, in the middle of the Falklands War, he played in a concert at the Teatro Regina, Buenos Aires with the second Quinteto and the singer Roberto Goyeneche. That same year he wrote Le Grand Tango for cello and piano, dedicated to Russian cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich which would be premiered by him in 1990 in New Orleans.

On 11 June 1983 he put on one of the best concerts of his life when he played a program of his music at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. For the occasion he regrouped the Conjunto 9 and played solo with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, directed by Pedro Ignacio Calderón. The programme included his 3 movement Concerto for bandoneon and orquestra and his 3 movement Concierto de Nacar.

In June 1984 Piazzolla appeared at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and on 29 September that same year he appeared with his Quinteto and the Italian singer Milva at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris.

In 1985 he was named Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires and premiered his Concerto for bandoneon and guitar at the Fifth International Belgian Guitar Festival on 15 Mar 1985, with the Philharmonic conducted by Leo Brouwer. He made his London debut with his second Quinteto at the Almeida Theatre in London at the end of June.

With the film score for El exilio de Gardel he won the French critics Cesar Award in Paris for best film music in 1986.

He appeared at Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland, with vibraphonist Gary Burton in July 1986 and on 6 September 1987 gave a concert in New York’s Central Park, in the city where he spent his childhood.

In September 1987 he recorded his Concierto para bandoneon y orquesta and Tres tangos para bandoneon y orquesta with Lalo Schifrin conducting the St. Luke’s Orchestra, in the Richardson Auditorium at Princetown University.

In 1988 he wrote music for the film Sur and married the singer and television personality Laura Escalada on 11 April. In May that year he recorded his album La Camorra in New York, a suite of three pieces, the last time he would record with the second Quinteto. During a tour of Japan with Milva he played at a concert in Tokyo in June 1988 and that same year underwent a quadruple by-pass operation.

Early in 1989 he formed his Sexteto, his last ensemble, with two bandoneons, piano, electric guitar, bass and cello. With them he appeared at the Teatro Opera in Buenos Aires in the presence of the newly-elected Argentine President Carlos Menem on Fri 9 June 1989. This would be Piazzolla's last concert in Argentina.

There followed a concert at the Royal Carre Theatre in Amsterdam with his Sexteto and Osvaldo Pugliese’s Orquestra on 26 June 1989, a live recording at the BBC Bristol Studios in June 1989 and a concert at the Wembley Conference Centre on 30 June 1989. Towards the end of the year he dissolved his sexteto and continued playing solo with classical string quartets and symphonic orchestras. He joined Anahi Carfi's Mantova String Quartet and toured Italy and Finland with them and in November 1989 he hade his last album Five Tango Sensations, with the Kronos Quartet in the US. His 1982 composition, Le grand tango, for cello and piano was premiered in New Orleons by the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the pianist Igor Uriash before the end of the year.

On 3 July 1990 he gave his last concert in Athens, Greece, with Athens Orquestra of Colours, conducted by Manos Hatzidakis.

He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in Paris on 4 August 1990, which left him in a coma, and died in Buenos Aires, just under two years later on 4 July 1992, without regaining consciousness.

Among his followers, his own protégé Marcelo Nisinman is the best known innovator of the tango music of the new millennium, while Pablo Ziegler, pianist with Piazzolla's second quintet, has assumed the role of principal custodian of nuevo tango, extending the jazz influence in the style. The Brazilian guitarist Sergio Assad has also experimented with folk-derived, complex virtuoso compositions that show Piazzolla's structural influence while steering clear of tango sounds; and Osvaldo Golijov has acknowledged Piazzolla as perhaps the greatest influence on his globally oriented, eclectic compositions for classical and klezmer performers.

Musical style[link]

Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer around 1970.

Piazzolla's nuevo tango was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. As Argentine psychoanalyst Carlos Kuri has pointed out, Piazzolla's fusion of tango with this wide range of other recognizable Western musical elements was so successful that it produced a new individual style transcending these influences.^[4] It is precisely this success, and individuality, that makes it hard to pin down where particular influences reside in his compositions, but some aspects are clear. The use of the passacaglia technique of a circulating bass line and harmonic sequence, invented and much used in 17th and 18th century baroque music but also central to the idea of jazz "changes", predominates in most of Piazzolla's mature compositions. Another clear reference to the baroque is the often complex and virtuosic counterpoint that sometimes follows strict fugal behavior but more often simply allows each performer in the group to assert his voice. A further technique that emphasises this sense of democracy and freedom among the musicians is improvisation that is borrowed from jazz in concept, but in practice involves a different vocabulary of scales and rhythms that stay within the parameters of the established tango sound-world. Pablo Ziegler has been particularly responsible for developing this aspect of the style both within Piazzolla's groups and since the composer's death.

With the composition of Adiós Nonino in 1959, Piazzolla established a standard structural pattern for his compositions, involving a formal pattern of fast-slow-fast-slow-coda, with the fast sections emphasizing gritty tango rhythms and harsh, angular melodic figures, and the slower sections usually making use of the string instrument in the group and/or Piazzolla's own bandoneón as lyrical soloists. The piano tends to be used throughout as a percussive rhythmic backbone, while the electric guitar either joins in this role or spins filigree improvisations; the double bass parts are usually of little interest, but provide an indispensable rugged thickness to the sound of the ensemble. The quintet of bandoneón, violin, piano, electric guitar and double bass was Piazzolla's preferred setup on two extended occasions during his career, and most critics consider it to be the most successful instrumentation for his works.^[5] This is due partly to its great efficiency in terms of sound – it covers or imitates most sections of a symphony orchestra, including the percussion which is improvised by all players on the bodies of their instruments – and the strong expressive identity it permits each individual musician. With a style that is both rugged and intricate, such a setup augments the compositions' inherent characteristics.

Despite the prevalence of the quintet formation and the ABABC compositional structure, Piazzolla consistently experimented with other musical forms and instrumental combinations. In 1965 an album was released containing collaborations between Piazzolla and Jorge Luis Borges where Borges's poetry was narrated over very avant-garde music by Piazzolla including the use of dodecaphonic (twelve-tone) rows, free non-melodic improvisation on all instruments, and modal harmonies and scales.^[6] In 1968 Piazzolla wrote and produced an "operita", María de Buenos Aires, that employed a larger ensemble including flute, percussion, multiple strings and three vocalists, and juxtaposed movements in Piazzolla's own style with several pastiche numbers ranging from waltz and hurdy-gurdy to a piano/narrator bar-room scena straight out of Casablanca.

By the 1970s Piazzolla was living in Rome, managed by the Italian agent Aldo Pagani, and exploring a leaner, more fluid musical style drawing on more jazz influence, and with simpler, more continuous forms. Pieces that exemplify this new direction include Libertango and most of the Suite Troileana, written in memory of the late Aníbal Troilo. In the 1980s Piazzolla was wealthy enough, for the first time, to become relatively autonomous artistically, and wrote some of his most ambitious multi-movement works. These included Tango Suite for the virtuoso guitar duo Sergio and Odair Assad; Histoire du Tango, where a flutist and guitarist tell the history of tango in four chunks of music styled at thirty-year intervals; and La Camorra, a suite in three ten minute movements, inspired by the Neapolitan crime family and exploring symphonic concepts of large-scale form, thematic development, contrasts of texture and massive accumulations of ensemble sound. After making three albums in New York with the second quintet and producer Kip Hanrahan, two of which he described on separate occasions as "the greatest thing I've done", he disbanded the quintet, formed a sextet with an extra bandoneón, cello, bass, electric guitar, and piano, and wrote music for this ensemble that was even more adventurous harmonically and structurally than any of his previous works (Preludio y Fuga; Sex-tet). Had he not suffered an incapacitating stroke on the way to Notre Dame mass in 1990, it is likely that he would have continued to use his popularity as a performer of his own works to experiment in relative safety with even more audacious musical techniques, while possibly responding to the surging popularity of non-Western musics by finding ways to incorporate new styles into his own. In his musical professionalism and open-minded attitude to existing styles he held the mindset of an 18th century composing performer such as Handel or Mozart, who were anxious to assimilate all national "flavors" of their day into their own compositions, and who always wrote with both first-hand performing experience and a sense of direct social relationship with their audiences. This may have resulted in a backlash amongst conservative tango aficionados in Argentina, but in the rest of the West it was the key to his extremely sympathetic reception among classical and jazz musicians, both seeing some of the best aspects of their musical practices reflected in his work.^[7]

Musical career[link]

Astor Piazzolla and Gerry Mulligan at the "Summit" recording, Milan, Italy 1974.
Photograph by Pino Presti

Piazzolla, after leaving Troilo's orchestra in the 1940s, led numerous ensembles beginning with the 1946 Orchestra, the 1955 Octeto Buenos Aires, the 1960 "First Quintet", the 1971 Conjunto 9 ("Noneto"), the 1978 "Second Quintet" and the 1989 New Tango Sextet. As well as providing original compositions and arrangements, he was the director and bandoneón player in all of them. He also recorded the album Summit with jazz baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. His numerous compositions include orchestral work such as the "Concierto para bandoneón, orquesta, cuerdas y percusión", "Doble concierto para bandoneón y guitarra", "Tres tangos sinfónicos" and "Concierto de Nácar para 9 tanguistas y orquesta", pieces for the solo classical guitar—the Cinco Piezas (1980), as well as song-form compositions that still today are well known by the general public in his country, like "Balada para un loco" (Ballad for a madman) and Adiós Nonino (dedicated to his father) which he recorded many times with different musicians and ensembles. Biographers estimate that Piazzolla wrote around 3,000 pieces and recorded around 500.

In the summer of 1985 he appeared with his Quinteto Tango Nuevo at the Almeida Theatre in London for a week-long engagement. On September 6, 1987, his quintet gave a concert in New York's Central Park, which was recorded and, in 1994, released in compact disk format as The Central Park Concert. [2]

Piazzolla’s Ensembles[link]

• Orquesta Típica (in English: Piazzolla's Traditional Orchestra), aka the 1946 Orchestra, 1946-50.
• Orquesta de Cuerdas (in English: String Orchestra), 1955-1958.
• Octeto Buenos Aires (in English: Buenos Aires Octet) 1955-58.
• Jazz Tango Quintet, 1959.
• Quinteto (in English: Quintet), aka the first Quintet, 1960-70.
• Nuevo Octeto (in English: New Octet), 1963.
• Conjunto 9 (in English: Ensemble 9), aka Noneto, 1971-72 & 1983.
• Conjunto Electronico (in English: Electronic Ensemble), aka Electronic Octet, 1975.
• Quinteto Tango Nuevo (in English: New Tango Quintet), aka the second Quintet, 1978-1988.
• Sexteto Nuevo Tango (in English: New Tango Sextet), 1989.

Film Music[link]

Marvin Stamm in 2008.

Marvin Stamm (born May 23, 1939, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American bebop trumpeter.

Stamm began on trumpet at age 12. He first attended college at, then known as, Memphis State University and then attended college at North Texas State University where he was a member of the world renowned One O'Clock Lab Band. Following this he played with Stan Kenton's Mellophonium Orchestra from 1961 to 1963, and with Woody Herman from 1965 to 1966. Following this he was in the Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Orchestra from 1966 to 1972, and with Benny Goodman from 1974 to 1975. In the 1970s he also began a decades-long career as a prolific studio and session musician. In the studio he has recorded with Average White Band, Bill Evans, Quincy Jones, Donald Fagen, Oliver Nelson, Duke Pearson, Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington, Jr., Patrick Williams, Michel Legrand, Lena Horne, Frank Foster, Paul Desmond, and George Benson.

In the 1980s he played with John Lewis' American Jazz Orchestra, the Bob Mintzer Band, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band (1987), Louie Bellson's Big Band and the band of composer Maria Schneider.

Discography[link]

As Leader[link]

• Machinations 1968 (Arrangements by Johnny Carisi)
• Stammpede, 1982
• Bop Boy with Phil Markowitz, Bob Mintzer, Terry Clarke, Lincoln Goines, 1991
• Mystery Man with Bob Malach, Bob Mintzer, Mike Richmond, Bill Charlap, Clark Terry, 1993
• The Stamm/Soph Project, 2000
• By Ourselves, 2000
• Elegance, 2001
• Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter - Jazz Orchestra of the Delta - Marvin Stamm, featured soloist, 2003
• The Stamm/Soph Project - Live at Birdland with John Abercrombie, Bill Mays, Rufus Reid, Ed Soph, 2005
• Fast Track - Jack Cortner New York Big Band - Marvin Stamm, featured soloist, 2006
• Alone Together with Bill Mays, Rufus Reid, Ed Soph, 2007
• Fantasy with Bill Mays and Alisa Horn, 2007
• The Nearness of Two with Dena DeRose, 2007

As Sideman[link]

This section requires expansion.

With Patti Austin

• Havana Candy (CTI, 1977)

With Paul Desmond

• Summertime (A&M/CTI, 1968)
• From the Hot Afternoon (A&M/CTI, 1969)

With Frank Foster

• Manhattan Fever (Blue Note, 1968)

With Jackie and Roy

• Time & Love (CTI, 1972)

With J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding

• Betwixt & Between (A&M/CTI, 1969)

With Hubert Laws

• Crying Song (CTI, 1969)
• Morning Star (CTI, 1972)

With Milton Nascimento

• Courage (A&M/CTI, 1969)

With Oliver Nelson

• The Spirit of '67 with Pee Wee Russell (Impulse!, 1967)

With Gábor Szabó

• Mizrab (CTI, 1972)

With Walter Wanderley

• When It Was Done (A&M/CTI, 1968)
• Moondreams (A&M/CTI, 1969)

With Randy Weston

• Blue Moses (CTI, 1972)

As Music Educator[link]

• Voices The University of Memphis Southern Comfort Jazz Orochestra (Select-O-Hits, 2007) - liner notes

References[link]

• Scott Yanow, Marvin Stamm at Allmusic

External links[link]

• Official Website

Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker, Munich July 2001
Background information
Birth name	Randal Edward Brecker
Also known as	Randy Brecker
Born	(1945-11-27) November 27, 1945 (age 66) Cheltenham, Pennsylvania
Origin
Genres	Jazz, Fusion, Funk, R&B, Rock
Instruments	Trumpet and Flugelhorn
Associated acts	Brecker Brothers, Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Horace Silver, Frank Zappa, Parliament-Funkadelic, Gary Husband's Force Majeure, Chris Parker, Jaco Pastorius, Dire Straits
Website	http://www.randybrecker.com/

Randal "Randy" Brecker (b. Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Horace Silver, Frank Zappa, Parliament-Funkadelic, Chris Parker, Jaco Pastorius, Dire Straits, Todd Rundgren, Blue Öyster Cult, Richard Barone, Spyro Gyra, Barbara Dennerlein and many others. In his formative years, Brecker studied trumpet with Bill Adam at Indiana University.

Career[link]

He played on the first Blood Sweat & Tears album, Child Is Father to the Man, but left the band when founder Al Kooper and trumpeter Jerry Weiss left. Lew Soloff replaced him for the second and subsequent albums. He was a charter member of Larry Coryell's seminal jazz fusion band The Eleventh House in 1973.

He is the older brother of the late jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker (1949–2007). Together they led Dreams and the Brecker Brothers, a popular funk and fusion band which recorded several albums from the 1970s through the 1990s. After the Brecker Brothers disbanded in 1982, Randy recorded and toured as a member of Jaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth big band. It 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 together, Amanda on Passport Records.

In the summer of 2001, Randy reunited with his brother Michael for a Europe tour with an acoustic version of the Brecker Brothers, also promoting songs from Hangin´ In The City. His most recent CD for ESC, 34th N Lex released in April 2003, features eleven new Randy Brecker compositions and arrangements and the "dream horn section" of David Sanborn, Michael Brecker, Fred Wesley and Ronnie Cuber, along with Randy's regular working band and his current wife, the Italian tenor saxophonist Ada Rovatti, whose playing style bears a striking resemblance to Michael Brecker's. He is part of the GRP All-Star Big Band.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• Score (1969) Blue Note
• The Brecker Brothers (1975) Arista
• Back to Back - The Brecker Brothers (1976) Arista
• Don't Stop the Music - The Brecker Brothers(1977) Arista
• The Atlantic Family Live in Montreaux (1977)
• Heavy Metal Bebop - The Brecker Brothers (1978) Arista
• Detente - The Brecker Brothers (1980) Arista
• Straphangin' - The Brecker Brothers (1981) Arista
• Amanda(1985) Passport
• In the Idiom (1986) Denon
• Live at Sweet Basil (1988) GNP Crescendo
• Toe to Toe (1990) MCA
• Return of the Brecker Brothers - The Brecker Brothers (1992) GRP
• Out of the Loop - The Brecker Brothers (1994) GRP
• Into the Sun (1995) Concord Jazz
• Katewalk - Lew Del Gatto (1997) Naxos Jazz
• Hangin' in the City (2001) ESC
• 34th N Lex (2003) ESC
• Some Skunk Funk" (2006) BHM
• Some Skunk Funk - with Michael Brecker (2005) Telarc
• Box of Photographs (2005) - Johnny Rodgers & The Johnny Rodgers Band
• Unprecedented Clarity - Pitch Pine Project with Randy Brecker (2007) Challenge Records
• Randy in Brasil (2008) Summit Records/MAMA Records

As sideman[link]

With Arkadia Jazz All Stars

• Thank You, Joe!

With Aerosmith

• Get Your Wings - (1974)

With Patti Austin

• End of a Rainbow (CTI, 1976)

With Gato Barbieri

• Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata (Impulse!, 1974)

With George Benson

• Good King Bad (CTI, 1975)

With Carla Bley

• Night-Glo (Watt)

With Blood Sweat & Tears

• Child Is Father to the Man - (1968) Columbia

With Ron Carter

• Anything Goes (Kudu, 1975)

With Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante

• Beethoven's V (Cotique, 1975)

With Hubert Laws

• The Chicago Theme (CTI, 1974)

With Yusef Lateef

• In a Temple Garden (CTI, 1979)

With Brother Jack McDuff

• Who Knows What Tomorrow's Gonna Bring? - (1970) Blue Note

With Alphonse Mouzon

• Funky Snakefoot - (1973) Blue Note

With Jaco Pastorius

• Jaco Pastorius - (1976)
• Invitation - (1983)

With Duke Pearson

• Introducing Duke Pearson's Big Band - (1967) Blue Note
• Now Hear This - (1968) Blue Note

With Lou Reed

• Berlin - (1973) RCA

With Todd Rundgren

• Something/Anything? (1972) Bearsville
• A Wizard, a True Star (1973) Bearsville
• Todd (1973) Bearsville

With Don Sebesky

• Giant Box (CTI, 1973)
• The Rape of El Morro (CTI, 1975)

With Horace Silver

• In Pursuit of the 27th Man - (1972) Blue Note
• A Prescription for the Blues - (1997) Impulse!

With Miroslav Vitous

• Universal Syncopations II (1995) ECM

With g.org

• A New Kind of Blue - (2004)

See also[link]

• Brecker Brothers

External links[link]

• Randy Brecker official site
• Randy Brecker at MySpace
• Randy Brecker interview by Mike Brannon
• Interview with Randy Brecker (audio)
• Randy Brecker's recording of 'Ballad of John Henry' for Pioneers For A Cure