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Randy Sandke

Randy Sandke has performed at festivals, clubs, and concerts around the world. He has toured Europe over forty times and performed extensively throughout Japan, the U.S., Canada, and India.

Randy has recorded over twenty albums as a leader, primarily on the Concord, Nagel-Heyer, and Evening Star label. A recent discography, published by the Dutch jazz scholar Gerard Beilderman, runs to 53 pages. Among the artists Mr. Sandke has recorded with include the instrumentalists Michael Brecker, Benny Goodman, Kenny Barron, Dick Hyman, Mulgrew Miller, Bill Charlap, Eric Reed, Frank Wess, Ray Anderson, Chris Potter, Sweets Edison, Flip Phillips, Scott Hamilton, Wycliffe Gordon, Warren Vache, and Mel Lewis. Singers include Mel Torme, Jon Hendricks, Rosemary Clooney, Cab Calloway, John Pizzarelli, Gregory Hines, Art Garfunkel, Barbara Carroll, Dr. John, Karrin Allyson, Susannah McCorkle, as well as appearances with Diane Reeves, Sting, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, James Taylor, Chaka Khan, Ruth Brown, Billy Eckstine, and Joe Williams.

Randy Sandke has played on the soundtracks of several films, including Francis Ford Coppola�s �The Cotton Club,� Neil Simon�s �Brighton Beach Memories,� �American Splendor,� and five Woody Allen movies. On Broadway, Randy played in the production of �Chicago� with Beebe Neuwirth at the City Center, which launched the hugely successful revivals on stage and screen. Randy also played the on-stage Harry James trumpet solo which climaxes the show �Fosse.� He recorded all trumpet solos for the recent production of �Ma Rainey�s Black Bottom� starring Whoopee Goldberg. He has performed on television in Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, in the U.S. with Benny Goodman for a PBS special, and on the Late Show with David Letterman.

As a composer, Randy Sandke has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and has had pieces performed at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd St. YMHA, the Greenwich House in New York City, and Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center. The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band has performed six of his suites. In 1998, the Concord Concerto label released an album featuring several of Mr. Sandke�s orchestral compositions in performances by the Bulgarian National Orchestra. Over fifty of Mr. Sandke�s pieces have been recorded. In July of 2003 his �Subway Ballet� was performed at the 92nd St. Y in New York City. He has written arrangements for Sting, Elton John, the King of Thailand, and transcriptions for Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Randy Sandke�s book, �Harmony for a New Millennium� was published by Hal Leonard, Inc. in 2002 It details a method of exploring non-tonal harmony in the context of both composition and improvisation. Artists who have endorsed the book include Jon Faddis, Joshua Redman, Maria Schneider, Dick Hyman, Nicholas Payton, and Michael Brecker. Randy has also written scholarly articles on jazz history for the Oxford Companion to Jazz and the Rutgers University �Annual Review of Jazz Studies.� He has been a guest lecturer at the Julliard School, Manhattan School of Music, the New School, Hofstra University, Rutgers University, Hampshire College, William Patterson College, and the University of Arizona.

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Album Review

The Bix Centennial All-Stars: Celebrating Bix!

Read "Celebrating Bix!" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Cornetist Leon Bismark “Bix" Beiderbecke, while certainly heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, developed his own highly stylized way of playing and improvising jazz. One wonders what musical highlights might have been accomplished had he lived beyond his 28 years. Celebrating Bix!, originally released in 2003 as a single CD album, adds selections which, due to size constraints, did not make the original release, but they all certainly “make it" here as a double CD and vinyl release. What ...

28
Album Review

The Bix Centennial All Stars: Celebrating Bix!

Read "Celebrating Bix!" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Here's a new album by the Bix Centennial All Stars honoring the legacy of the renowned cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Sort of. Actually, most of the music on Celebrating Bix! was recorded and released in March 2003, the actual centenary of Beiderbecke's birth in Davenport, Iowa. This expanded twentieth anniversary edition includes a trio of songs not released at that time owing to limited space, and has been reissued on two CDs instead of one. Having said that, ...

18
Album Review

Allen Lowe: A Love Supine: Ascension into the Maelstrom

Read "A Love Supine: Ascension into the Maelstrom" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


There is an exhaustive property to the body of Allen Lowe's work. Composer, saxophonist, sporadic guitarist who composes on piano, and the author of several noteworthy music histories, he has released nearly two dozen albums. Lowe is a member of the quartet East Axis with Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and Kevin Ray. A Love Supine: Ascension into the Maelstrom is an ambitious double-disc collection recorded in four sessions in 2018. The eighteen tracks were all composed by Lowe. The sessions ...

346
Book Review

Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet

Read "Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet" reviewed by Daniel Kassell


Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet Randall Sandke Hardcover; 288 pages ISBN: 0-8108-6652-8 Scarecrow Press 2010In Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet, musician and author Randall Sandke tackles the stubborn and controversial question of whether jazz is the product of an insulated African-American environment, shut off from the rest of society by strictures of segregation and discrimination; or whether it is more properly understood ...

422
Opinion

Creator vs. Interpretor

Read "Creator vs. Interpretor" reviewed by AAJ Staff


By Randy Sandke We've all heard the saying that “Jazz is America's classical music." Implicit in this notion is the belief that jazz is equally worthy of respect, admiration and support as any 'serious' music. Over the past few decades, jazz has indeed found a greater degree of prestige, academic interest and corporate sponsorship than at any time before. But there's a downside to this parallel between jazz and classical music. Jazz seems headed towards the ...

340
Album Review

Randy Sandke: Unconventional Wisdom

Read "Unconventional Wisdom" reviewed by Francis Lo Kee


Listening to a tune like “Chega de Saudade," the ninth tune on trumpeter Randy Sandke's Unconventional Wisdom, there's the feeling that this quartet session is from a recorded concert: the honest, joyous drive of the rhythm section, the trumpet singing Jobim's melody and the guitar supporting it with clear harmonies that are rhythmically in sync. Yet, this turns out to be a well thought-out program of tunes that benefits from the pristine sound quality obtained in a studio environment.

148
Album Review

Randy Sandke and the Metatonal Big Band: The Subway Ballet

Read "The Subway Ballet" reviewed by Ken Dryden


Trumpeter Randy Sandke, considered a mainstream jazz stylist, reveals another side on this release, compiled from two sessions recorded about fifteen years apart. The Subway Ballet is a wild suite scored for big band (substituting vibes and xylophone for piano) that utilizes a metatonal harmonic approach, frequently sounding like snippets of music written for a suspense movie. Key centers are often fleeting, though most of the charts seem tightly scored. Sandke's compositions fit his individual titles perfectly; ...

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Performance / Tour

Covering the jazz waterfront

Covering the jazz waterfront

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

After forty-plus years on the New York jazz scene, trumpeter Randy Sandke has made himself a new home base in Southwest Florida. He moved to Venice a few months ago and has settled into the fertile area jazz scene. While he has had some gigs as a sideman, Sunday, January 6 brought his first area concert as a bandleader. And a fine one it was. His quintet included saxophonist Peter BarenBregge, pianist Joe Delaney, bassist Don Mopsick and drummer David ...

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Book / Magazine

Randy Sandke's New Book "Where the Dark and Light Folks Meet - Race and the Mythology, Politics, and Business of Jazz" Has Just Been Published on Scarecrow Press

Randy Sandke's New Book "Where the Dark and Light Folks Meet - Race and the Mythology, Politics, and Business of Jazz" Has Just Been Published on Scarecrow Press

Source: Michael Ricci

Randy Sandke tackles the stubborn and controversial question of whether jazz is the product of an insulated African-American environment, shut off from the rest of society by strictures of segregation and discrimination; or whether it is more properly understood as the juncture of a wide variety of influences under the broader umbrella of American culture. This book takes the latter course and shows how the widely accepted exclusionary view has led to decades of misunderstanding surrounding the true history and ...

113

Performance / Tour

Randy Sandke and Dick Hyman Thursday, December 12th 8PM at Bargemusic

Randy Sandke and Dick Hyman Thursday, December 12th 8PM at Bargemusic

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

THURSDAY NIGHT JAZZ SERIES AT BARGEMUSIC Located at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, Bargemusic began its Thursday night JAZZ Series starting in June 2007. Please find the September schedule below with more performances to come! Imagine a truly unique New York City location with charm, history and spectacular water views. A location that will delight even the most sophisticated socialite or businessperson. And envision this against the magnificent backdrop of the New York City skyline. The venue is Bargemusic, ...

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Recording

Randy Sandke And The Metatonal Band New CD The Mystic Trumpeter (Evening Star Records)

Randy Sandke And The Metatonal Band New CD The Mystic Trumpeter (Evening Star Records)

Source: All About Jazz

June 7, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] HEAR THE FIRST NEW JAZZ STYLE OF THE 21st CENTURY Announcing the release of THE MYSTIC TRUMPETER A new CD on the Evening Star label by RANDY SANDKE and the METATONAL BAND Randy Sandke; trumpet and flugelhorn Scott Robinson; saxes and bass flute Wycliffe Gordon; trombone Ted Rosenthal; piano Greg Cohen; bass Dennis Mackrel; drums and percussion Available through CD Baby and distributed by North Country ...

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Event

Highlights in Jazz Presents An Evening of Early Jazz Featuring Wycliffe Gordon, Ken Peplowski, Randy Sandke and more.

Highlights in Jazz Presents An Evening of Early Jazz Featuring Wycliffe Gordon, Ken Peplowski, Randy Sandke and more.

Source: All About Jazz

"HIGHLIGHTS IN JAZZ" PRESENTS An Evening of Early Jazz Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 8 PM featuring WYCLIFFE GORDON, KEN PEPLOWSKI, RANDY SANDKE AND CARRIE SMITH PLUS THE MANHATTAN RAGTIME ORCHESTRA FEATURING ORANGE KELLIN, AND JON -ERIK KELLSO At the TRIBECA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER New York, NY December 8, 2004 Jack Kleinsinger's “Highlights in Jazz," New York's longest running jazz series (this is their 32rd season), is pleased to present An Evening of Early Jazz Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 at 8 ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Celebrating Bix!

Turtle Bay Records
2023

buy

From Sassy To Divine:...

Shanachie Records
2014

buy

Unconventional Wisdom

Arbors Records
2008

buy

The Subway Ballet

Evening Star Records
2006

buy

Trumpet After Dark

Evening Star Records
2005

buy

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