The Randy Brecker Interview

"If my brother's death had been more sudden it would have been much harder, but we knew it was coming. I remember I was playing a concert in Tennessee and heard from my sister that he was really not doing well and it sounded like the end was eminent so I thought about him through the whole concert and the whole way home, by the time I got home he had passed already.” “It didn't make it easier because you're dealing with a whole new level of grief. In the ensuing years I've tried to do what I thought he would want me to do musically, spiritually and husband/father because he measured so high on all those fronts. His surmise inspired me to start writing music for the first time in a long time.” “My brother was so serious and he worked so hard at his music, his main inspiration was John Coltrane and I think he continued that tradition by practicing for hours and hours and hours everyday and he was never satisfied with his own playing and kept adding to his vocabulary. Usually when you get a little older you tend to slow down a little and he didn't.” “Later in his life he got interested in Bulgarian Folk Music and studied with local Bulgarian musicians and started to write. Again he reinvented the saxophone, it was completely different from anything he'd done before and anybody had ever done before.” “There's a tradition of Eastern European music that features incredible technique. There's a lot of woodwind music entrenched in the music, particularly in Bulgarian folk music, wedding bands and virtuosic stuff. I think that caught his ear." JAKE: “Is a musician still seen as a viable livelihood?” RANDY: “Playing music is seen as a 'Musicians gift to the world.' We're supposed to hand out our music for free and that's not in stride with what I was brought up to do. As a player I don't think people have respect for how much time and work goes into practicing your instrument and trying to write music. It's not fun in that respect and we want to be paid for it.” “There are parallel realities going on in pop music, you do have machines practically involved in every almost every record you hear. Even the stuff coming out of Nashville, although it seems that's where most of the musicians have settled. They're playing on the newer country scene and I like to hear that. On the general pop music scene and urban scene it's mostly just hip hop machines with a rapper and one or two guys scratching. Even when you see a lot of groups on TV they're kind of faking it. It's very sad for me, I like to see a band play."