"[3] Randy's father, Bob, was also a songwriter and singer who loved to listen to recordings of the great jazz trumpet players such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown.

Brecker attended Cheltenham High School from 1959 to 1963[4] and then Indiana University from 1963 to 1966 studying with Bill Adam, David Baker[5] and Jerry Coker and later moved to New York and performed with Clark Terry's Big Bad Band, the Duke Pearson and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra.

In 1967, Brecker ventured into jazz-rock with the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, on their first album Child Is Father to the Man, but left to join the Horace Silver Quintet.

After Horace Silver, Randy Brecker joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers before teaming up with brother Michael, Barry Rogers, Billy Cobham, and John Abercrombie to form the fusion group Dreams.

After the Brecker Brothers disbanded in 1982, Randy recorded and toured as a member of Jaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth big band.

[17] 2007 also saw the release of a two-CD set of live recordings of the band Soulbop (BHM) featuring Dave Kikoski, Victor Bailey, Steve Smith, Rodney Holmes and Hiram Bullock.

[19] In 2009, Brecker released Jazz Suite Tykocin, a project initiated and conceived by Włodek Pawlik, featuring Randy as a soloist with members of the Bialystok Philharmonic.

Tykocin is the area in Poland where Brecker's ancestors (mother's maiden name: Tecosky) hail from, a fact that Pawlik discovered.

In November of that year the album Night in Calisia, a collaboration between Brecker, the Wlodek Pawlik Trio, the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra and Adam Klocek was released in Poland.

[23][24] In 2022, Randy began performing the acoustic jazz compositions of his brother Michael, arranged for the first time to include trumpet, with saxophonist Tod DIckow and the Bay Area trio Charged Particles.

As the Brecker Brothers Dreams GRP All-Star Big Band With Patti Austin With George Benson With Walter Bishop Jr. With Frank Catalano With Billy Cobham With Eliane Elias With Donald Fagen With Michael Franks With Hal Galper With Bob James With Garland Jeffreys With Jimmy McGriff With Mingus Dynasty With Chaka Khan With Bette Midler With Idris Muhammad With Jaco Pastorius With Duke Pearson With Todd Rundgren With Don Sebesky With Horace Silver With Spyro Gyra With Rickie Lee Jones With Lou Reed With Carly Simon With Paul Simon With Phoebe Snow With Ringo Starr With James Taylor With Jack Wilkins With others