3 albums as leader and 16 as sideman (1987–2025), each listed chronologically.
1992 · Born Again
Randy Brecker played trumpet on Jaco Pastorius's landmark 1976 debut album, a cornerstone of jazz fusion. Fifteen years later, the same trumpeter turns up on a folk-tinged pop record — New Moon Shine (1991) — a world away from fusion's cutting edge.
2002 · Directions in Music
Directions in Music (2001) was Hancock's tribute to Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Placing Hargrove
2007 · Pilgrimage
Pat Metheny first heard Michael Brecker's tenor not on a jazz record but on a pop hit pouring out of a car radio at a big intersection. The two would later become close collaborators — but the introduction came over the airwaves, through pop.
— Statement stmt-pat-metheny-on-michael-brecker
2013 · Without a Net
Kenny Garrett's 1996 tribute record Pursuance has no pianist: the chords are carried by Pat Metheny's guitar, in a quartet of sax, guitar, bass and drums. The drum chair went to Brian Blade, then in his mid-twenties and still two years away from his own first album as a leader. By 2013 he was the drummer on Wayne Shorter's Without a Net.
Randy Brecker
Michael Brecker
Herbie Hancock
Pat Metheny
Brian Blade