Born and raised in Chicago, trumpeter, composer and arranger Randy Sandke was introduced to jazz and the trumpet by his older brother, Jordan. He says he got into jazz "kind of chronologically," beginning with Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong, followed by Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. He studied at Roosevelt University with Reinhold Schilke, a legendary teacher and trumpet maker, who was with the Chicago Symphony for many years.

Gaining a reputation as a teenage demon trumpet player at local jam sessions, Sandke entered the music school at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, where he met Michael Brecker. Together they formed a rock band with a jazz oriented horn section.

They played at the 1968 Notre Dame Jazz Festival. Soon after that, Sandke got an offer to join rock singer Janis Joplin's band. But he had to turn down the offer, due to a serious hernia of the throat exacerbated by "competing with electronic instruments in a rock band." Although he had an operation on his throat, Sandke felt that surgery hadn't taken care of the problem, and that he was physically damaged to the point that he would never be able to play professionally again. Sandke says, "The trumpet is a very demanding instrument, and you can't play it if you're afraid."

He moved to New York and worked for a decade as a guitarist. His roommate at the time talked him into taking up the trumpet again.

After six months back on the trumpet, Sandke was called to substitute for a friend in Viuce Giordano's Nighthawks, a New York based traditional band. He lasted the night and stayed with the band for the next five years. Concentrating on the traditional repertoire.

Randy has performed at many festivals, clubs, and concerts around the world, with in excess of forty visits to Europe and numerous performances throughout Japan, the US., Canada, and India.

He 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. In addition there are guest appearances with 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 Vaché, and Mel Lewis. Singers include Mel Tormé, 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 can be heard on the soundtracks of several films, including Francis Ford Coppola's, The Cotton Club; Neil Simon's, Brighton Beach Memories; American Splendor (sic), and five Woody Allen movies.

On Broadway, Randy played in the production of "Chicago" with Beebe Neuwirth at the City Centre, 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 the trumpet solos for the recent production of Ma Rainey's "Black Bottom", starring Whoopee Goldberg. Television is not excluded with appearances 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 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 Centre.

The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band has performed six of his suites and in 1998, the Concord Concerto label released an album featuring several orchestral compositions performed by the Bulgarian National Orchestra. Over fifty 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 Centre 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.

Mr. Sandke is listed in the standard biographical sources, such as the "Encyclopaedia of Jazz", and most jazz CD reference guides. Jazz Times ran a feature article on him in the October 2002 issue, and the English magazine "Jazz Journal" profiled Randy in a two-part cover story in 1996.

In his spare time he plays the trumpet!