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Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker to join NIU Jazz Ensemble for spring concert

April 4, 2011
Randy Brecker

Randy Brecker

Director Ron Carter and the internationally renowned NIU Jazz Ensemble will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 14, with Grammy Award-winner Randy Brecker on trumpet.

The concert in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center is free and open to the public.

Brecker’s trumpet and flugelhorn performances have graced hundreds of albums by a wide range of artists from James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen and Parliament Funkadelic to Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius, Horace Silver and Frank Zappa.

His history is as varied as it is distinguished.

Born in 1945 in Philadelphia to a piano-playing father, Brecker’s musical talent was nurtured and encouraged from an early age. He began playing R&B and funk in local bar bands while in his teens, and developed an ear for hard bop through his father’s record collection.

In 2007, he was awarded his fourth Grammy for “Randy Brecker Live with the WDR Big Band,” the live recording (also available in DVD format) of his performance at the Leverkusen Jazz Fest in 2004.

As a composer, performer and in demand Yamaha clinician, Brecker continues to influence and inspire young musicians around the world.

NIU Jazz Ensemble

The NIU Jazz Ensemble continues to gain high critical acclaim.

Since June 1998, the Jazz Studies Program at NIU has been rated as one of the top 10 graduate jazz programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report. In addition, the NIU Jazz Studies has won significant recognition from Downbeat Magazine’s Student Recognition Awards, capturing more than 10 Outstanding Performance Awards.

Jazz bands from NIU have received outstanding performance awards at several major jazz festivals, including the prestigious Notre Dame, Elmhurst and Eau Claire Collegiate Jazz Festivals. The Liberace Graduate Jazz Combo already has received international acclaim performing at the IAJE Conference in Toronto, Canada, the JVC Jazz Festival in New York and the Lima Peru Jazz Festival in Lima, Peru.

For more information, contact Lynn Slater at lslater@niu.edu or (815) 753-1546 or e-mail Carter at rcarter@niu.edu.