COUNTDOWN 2027 COLTRANE FESTIVAL VIII: Randy Brecker with the Countdown Festival Quartet featuring Vincent Herring & Eric Scott Reed

*PLEASE NOTE: All 6:00PM and 8:00PM shows at Smoke are Dinner Shows

$25.00 / $60.00 / $70.00 / $75.00 – Sun

Randy Brecker – trumpet

Vincent Herring – alto saxophone

Eric Scott Reed – piano

Gerald Cannon – bass

Willie Jones III – drums

“It’s hard to think of another accomplished jazz musician who has excelled in so many different styles of popular music.” – JazzTimes

“Herring fuses instrumental mastery with equal and unified parts of jazz’s holy trinity of heart, mind, and soul.” – WNPR

“Eric Scott Reed has been a pianist of fiery passion and soulful finesse.” – WRTI

Renowned trumpeter Randy Brecker is the special guest of the Countdown Festival Quartet featuring saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Eric Scott Reed.

For more than six decades, Brecker has been an unmistakable voice in American music. A founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears and an alumnus of the bands of Horace Silver and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, he went on to co-found the hugely influential Brecker Brothers with his late brother, saxophonist Michael Brecker, and became one of New York’s most in-demand studio players. His trumpet and flugelhorn grace hundreds of recordings by artists as varied as James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Parliament-Funkadelic, Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, and Frank Zappa. A multiple GRAMMY winner, Brecker remains one of the most versatile and influential figures in jazz, R&B, and rock.

The Countdown Festival Quartet is led by two Smoke favorites: alto saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Eric Scott Reed. The New York City Jazz Record says Herring “has firmly established himself as one of his generation’s masters,” and The New York Times notes that he “projects his sound in a strong, centered beam.” His latest Smoke Sessions release, Split Decision, a live summit with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander recorded at Smoke, prompted Downbeat to call the pair “two of the finest saxophonists on the jazz scene,” and made The Times of London’s mid-year list of the best jazz albums of 2025. Reed, a veteran of Wynton Marsalis’s septet and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, is “one of my very favorite pianists,” according to the late, great Ahmad Jamal, and All About Jazz says he has “fully established himself at the forefront of jazz pianists.” With bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Willie Jones III rounding out the rhythm section, it’s a hard-swinging band that anchors Smoke’s holiday week of special guests.