EIU Department of Music

Jazz Festival

The 63^rd Annual EIU Jazz Festival will be held on February 10-11, 2023. The festival will open on Friday, February 10th, with a concert featuring the EIU Jazz Ensemble and guest performer, Randy Brecker, trumpet.  There will be an opening concert on Friday, 2/10/23 featuring Randy Brecker with the EIU Jazz Ensemble.  Junior and senior high school performances and clinics, including a clinic by Randy Brecker, will be on Saturday, 2/11/23.  

Information for Directors - please complete all three forms below by Friday, January 6, 2023.

• 2023 Festival Application
• Directors' Personnel Guide
• Directors' Stage and MC Information

Jazz trumpeter and composer Randy Brecker has helped shape the sound of jazz, R&B and rock for more than four decades. His 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, Jaco Pastorius and Frank Zappa.

Born in 1945 in Philadelphia to a musical family, Randy's musical talent was nurtured from an early age. He attended Indiana University from 1963-66 studying with Bill Adam, David Baker and Jerry Coker and later moved to New York where he landed gigs with such prominent bands as Clark Terry's Big Bad Band, the Duke Pearson Big Band and the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.

In 1967, Randy ventured into jazz-rock with the band Blood, Sweat and Tears, but left to join the Horace Silver Quintet. He recorded his first solo album, 'Score', in 1968, featuring a young, then unknown 19 year-old tenor saxophonist named Michael Brecker.

By 1975, Randy and Michael were ready to front their own group, the Brecker Brothers Band. A band of immeasurable impact and influence, they released six albums on Arista and garnered seven Grammy nominations between 1975 and 1981. Their eponymous first record, which Randy wrote, arranged and produced, featured his now classic composition “Some Skunk Funk.”

A Brecker Brothers Band Reunion tour of European festivals in the summer of 2013 in support of Randy’s newest project, Randy Brecker’s Brecker Brothers Band Reunion, re-introduced the familiar faces of Brecker Brothers Band members from the past and their special brand of music to sell-out crowds.

Randy Brecker’s Brecker Brothers Band Reunion features a live DVD recorded at the Blue Note in NYC bundled with a new 11-song studio recording featuring members of the Brecker Brothers bands from throughout the years including Dave Sanborn, Mike Stern, Will Lee, and Dave Weckl. A long time in the making, this project is very close to Randy Brecker’s heart. It is dedicated to his brother, Michael, and other departed Brecker Brothers Band members.

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