Randy Brecker, the older brother of Michael Brecker, the saxophone giant who died this year, started his career in the epoch-making group Blood, Sweat & Tears. After a period of straight ahead jazz, in which he played with Horace Silver and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, he and his brother founded the jazz rock group Dreams (1969) - a prelude to The Brecker Brothers, a band that would be born in 1974. At the beginning of the eighties Randy went his own way and established his name as one of the most talked about funk, soul and bebop trumpeters. Some Skunk Funk, a live-album featuring the WDR Big Band and Michael as a guest, is not just one of the highlights of Brecker's career, but of the jazz funk idiom as a whole. The all star line-up of the Randy Brecker Electric Band, next to Brecker including among others keyboardist Dave Kikoski, bassist Victor Bailey and drummer Rodney Holmes, guarantees a grooving', not to be despised fusion cocktail.
