Randy Brecker is one of the busiest and most in demand trumpet players of today. He was born in Philadelphia in 1945. He studied classical trumpet at school, meanwhile playing in local R&B bands. He turned to jazz when at Indiana University and was a member of a student band which visited Europe. He quit the band and the university, remaining in Europe for a while before returning to the USA to take up a career in music. In 1967 he joined ''Blood, Sweat and Tears''. Preferring a stronger Jazz orientation than this group provided, he played with Horace Silver's quintet (1968-69), and worked with several big bands, including those led by Clark Terry, Duke Pearson, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Joe Henderson, and Frank Foster. In 1969 Randy and his brother Michael formed the jazz-rock band Dreams with Billy Cobham. The band was not commercially successful, but the brothers were in constant demand as studio musicians, and after it disbanded Randy played with Larry Coryell's Eleventh House (1973-4) and Cobham (1974). From 1974 to 1979 he and Michael led the Brecker brothers, which made some enormously successful albums and became one of the most popular and musically skilled and influential jazz-rock bands. In the late 70's Randy Brecker played with Charles Mingus and in the early 80's he led his own groups and also worked with his wife, Eliane Elias, and with many other musicians in studio and live.