The 2015 release “RandyPOP!” is a live recording that is both a summation of a half-century-and-counting professional career and a birthday present to the artist who was an integral component to the selections within. Arrangements of songs by James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Donald Fagen, Todd Rundgren, and others, delivered by a first-rate ensemble, exemplify the jazz-rock fusion that developed in the fertile musical ground of the late 1960s and ’70s.

The common denominator is Randy Brecker, a sixtime Grammy Award-winning trumpeter who turns 70 on Nov. 27 and will celebrate the milestone with a gig at the B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan. An original member of Blood, Sweat and Tears and a studio musician who has played on a seemingly impossible number and stylistic range of recordings, Mr. Brecker, who lives in East Hampton with his wife, Ada Rovatti, a saxophonist, and their 7-year-old daughter, maintains an active career, recording, performing, and educating music students around the world.

“We love it out here,” Mr. Brecker, seated in his downstairs music studio, said of East Hampton. He bought the house around 1990 and became a full-time resident about five years ago. “I wasn’t working in New York that much, like I used to, and it made sense. I wish I had discovered it earlier in life.”

Not that there would have been much time to enjoy it. The Philadelphia native was born into a musicalfamily and grew up inspired by jazz musicians including the trumpeter Clifford Brown and the drummer Max Roach. “My father was a semiprofessional and very good pianist, songwriter, and singer,” Mr. Brecker said. “He loved trumpet players, loved Miles Davis. But the main influence back then in Philly was the great Clifford Brown.”

His family, which included Mr. Brecker’s late brother, Michael Brecker, a saxophonist, lived one block outside the city limits. “The Philadelphia music schools had a pretty darn good music program, but the program where we were was not so great: They only had trumpets or clarinets available,” he said. “I took the trumpet.”

Michael Brecker, who was three years younger, chose the clarinet, moving to the alto saxophone after hearing Cannonball Adderly, “and then he fell in love with John Coltrane,” Mr. Brecker said. “We had adjoining bedrooms separated by a bathroom. We liked the echo in the bathroom, and would just play whatever we could think of,” likening their improvised jams to a proto-Ornette Coleman style. “We just grew up together playing.”

“I was always a jazz guy,” Mr. Brecker remembered. “Even at 8 years old, I kind of looked askance at Elvis and that whole phenomenon, like it was inferior music — later, I came to appreciate it. It was all because my dad was pretty opinionated about music. He loved jazz, and particularly trumpet players and bebop.” Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Shorty Rogers, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, and Kenny Dorham were also primary influences, he said.

Like other art forms, music was changing in the 1960s as accepted norms were subject to experimentation and new outlooks — the rock ’n’ roll guitarist Jimi Hendrix influenced even jazz giants like Davis, for example. Mr. Brecker moved to New York, and in 1967 performed on the debut album of the innovative jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears before leaving to join the Horace Silver Quintet. His first solo album, which featured his 19-year-old brother on tenor saxophone, came in 1968.

With his brother, Mr. Brecker formed the influential fusion group Dreams, which would later include, at his invitation, a 17-year-old bassist named Will Lee, known for his long stint on David Letterman’s latenight television show. He was also a founding member of the Eleventh House, a pioneering fusion group led by the guitarist Larry Coryell.

In 1975, the Brecker Brothers Band was formed, releasing six albums in as many years. (A rare live recording, made in 1976 at New York’s Bottom Line cabaret, is available on compact disc at bottomlinearchive.com and via download at Apple’s iTunes store.)

At the same time, Mr. Brecker was amassing a discography that few have equaled. “I look at it and I can’t believe we were doing all that,” he said of sessions for artists as diverse as James Taylor and James Brown, Bruce Springsteen and Judy Collins. “But that was a sign of the times. In the late ’60s when I came to New York, I was very lucky to catch the tail end of what you might call the traditional New York studiosystem, where guys like Clark Terry, Snooky Young, Ernie Royal, Phil Woods, Mel Lewis, Richard Davis, and Thad Jones were all active, and they were nice enough to invite me in and use me on some sessions. We worked our way into the studio scene. You had to wear a suit and tie to the session; it was very proper. It was an exciting time.”

“And then,” he continued, “I was, maybe, partially responsible for it kind of morphing over, because I also had a foot in so-called jazz-rock and had grown up with a lot of that stuff from Philly.” With his brother and the saxophonist David Sanborn, whom he had met at a music clinic at age 15, “we were a product of that generation, when it was hip to show up to sessions in jeans and everybody had long hair. Some of the older guys wanted to be part of it, too, and let their hair grow. Slowly but surely, the studio scene also moved toward rock ’n’ roll and pop music as the two idioms kind of melted together. It was interesting, seeing that transition.”

On the South Fork, those attending the weekly jam sessions at Bay Burger in Sag Harbor may be fortunate to find Mr. Brecker performing there. In September, he performed during the Sag Harbor American Music Festival, as he does every year. The Nov. 27 gig at B.B. King’s — a tribute to Hendrix, with whom he shares a birthday — will reunite Mr. Brecker with Mr. Coryell and other original members of the Eleventh House.

Sixty-two years after selecting the trumpet from his school’s limited choices, “I’m still trying to figure it out,” Mr. Brecker said. It may sound like false modesty, but the setting — his studio, outfitted with a piano, a computer flanked by speakers and other recording equipment, hundreds of compact discs, and a microphone mounted at trumpet height — demonstrated an enduring commitment to his craft. “Trumpet is a challenging instrument,” he said. “I spend two or three hours playing here after my wife and our 7year-old go to bed. You have to put in daily work. It’s a very physical instrument, so you’ve got to keep at it or you sink fast.”

Is he still improving? “Yeah, I think I am, though there are days when it just doesn’t feel right. But throughout the years, I think I’ve seen some improvement.”

The 16th annual Midtown International Theater Festival, which runs through Nov. 22 at the Workshop Theater’s Jewel Box Theater in Manhattan, features dramatic, comedic, and musical performances in a celebration of the finest off-off-Broadway talent. On Sunday, a young man with roots on the South Fork will be part of the offerings.

Greg Gropper, who is 16 and lives in Manhattan and Springs, will present “Greg Gropper Sings!” on Sunday at 7 p.m. A baritone, Mr. Gropper will sing a mix of Broadway tunes and popular music by artists including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Coldplay. He will accompany himself on the latter selections, while Laura Maruzzella, a vocal teacher, actress, and singer from Springs, will accompany him on piano for his Broadway selections.

The former Ross School student played in the school’s jazz band under Morris Goldberg and studied clarinet with the late Hal McKusick, who lived in Sag Harbor. He has performed in piano recitals under the tutelage of Jonathan Howe, who teaches at East Hampton High School; studied at the music educator Jamey Aebersold’s summer jazz workshops, and, last summer, studied with Larry Dvoskin, a professor of songwriting at New York University’s School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies.

“I love music,” Mr. Gropper said last week. “I’ve been into it since I was 3 or 4.” So into it, in fact, that he introduced himself, at age 5, to Paul McCartney after a performance by the latter in Manhattan. “I also met him in 2012 when I was bicycling on Newtown Lane” in East Hampton, Mr. Gropper said. “We were both biking, and I stopped and said hi. He was excited that I was a fan.”

At Sunday’s concert, for which he had to audition, Mr. Gropper will perform some of Mr. McCartney’s compositions, including “Let It Be” and “Lady Madonna,” along with other songs by the Beatles. He plans to sing “God Only Knows,” a classic song by the Beach Boys, and others from rock ’n’ roll’s golden age, as well as “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay and an original song. Selections from Broadway, he said, will include music from “Man of La Mancha,” “Chess,” and “Oklahoma!”

Mr. Gropper is a baseball enthusiast. On Long Island, he has pitched for the New York Diamonds and, in the city, the New York Gothams. He is also an advocate for wildlife. One year ago, he and his parents were among a group that rallied outside East Hampton Town Hall in an effort to persuade the town board to take a stand against proposed state hunting regulations allowing gunning on January weekends and sharply reducing the distance from structures for bow hunters. “I’m against shooting and hunting,” he said, “and especially the killing of fawns.”

Tickets for “Greg Gropper Sings!” are $20 and available at midtownfestival.org or by calling 866-811-4111. Patrons can receive a 20 percent discount by applying the promotional code “friendsfamily” at midtownfestival.org, through 11:59 p.m. on Saturday.

Virtual Victuals et al.

Amanda McDonald Crowley, an independent curator, will present “ArtTechFood,” a program focused on the technological changes that affect the way we think about, approach, produce, and eat food, tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. Her intention is to bring “biologists, environmentalists, food activists, and molecular gastronomists together with artists to deliver urban agricultural strategies, biogenerative art, and open-source software and hardware.”

Two other upcoming programs will focus on the museum’s current exhibition, “Jane Freilicher and Jane Wilson: Seen and Unseen.” Freilicher and Wilson were surrounded by poets, painters, photographers, and filmmakers who engaged in an aesthetic dialogue with their work. On Saturday morning at 11, “Circles of Friendship: Freilicher and Wilson” will celebrate their lives and work with poetry, still images, and films.

Next Thursday at noon, Alicia Longwell, the museum’s chief curator, will provide an overview of the exhibition and the artists’ distinctive and compelling approaches to depicting the world around them. Each program is $10, free for members and students.

Talks and Things

Christina Strassfield, Guild Hall’s museum director and chief curator, will interview Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas, a sculptor known for the monumental scale of her work, on Saturday afternoon at 3 at Guild Hall, on the occasion of the publication by Abrams Books of “Strong-Cuevas Sculpture: Premonitions in Retrospect.”

The book provides an in-depth visual retrospective of a career that spans more than four decades. Several short films about the artist, who has a studio in Amagansett’s Stony Hill Woods, will be shown, and light refreshments will be served.

Ms. Strassfield will also give a tour of and insights into “A Sense of Place,” a show of selections from the museum’s permanent collection, on Monday at 12:30 p.m. in the Moran Gallery. Both programs are free.

Rothko and Cirkus

A lecture on Mark Rothko by Annie Cohen-Solal and an open rehearsal by Tilde Bjorfors, a resident artist, will take place Saturday at the Watermill Center as part of its ongoing series “Saturdays @ WMC.”

Dr. Cohen-Solal, a cultural historian, professor, and author of a book on Rothko, will speak about “Mark Rothko: Immigrant, Artist, Pioneer” at 4:30 p.m. She will discuss little-known aspects of his life and character, including his commitment to giving access to art to all. A discussion and book signing will follow.

Ms. Bjorfors and members of Cirkus Cirkor, a group she founded in 1995 that has established contemporary circus as an art form in Sweden, will perform at 6 p.m. Since its establishment, more than two million people around the world have seen the Cirkus Cirkor performances, and 400,000 children and young people have been taught by the group, which continues to extend the boundaries of what is thought of as circus.

Both programs are free, but reservations are required and can be made at the center’s website.

Group Show at Ashawagh

Richard Mothes will bring a group of artists to Springs and Ashawagh Hall this weekend, including Christina Friscia, Brian Monahan, Mark Webber, Nick Annacone, and Jennifer Satinsky. The show will be on view all day Saturday and Sunday, with a reception on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m.

At the White Room

The White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton will present a new show of work by Anna Franklin, Ruby Jackson, and Diane Marxe beginning today. A reception will be held on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Ms. Franklin will show a selection of intensely colored paintings. Known for her creative use of materials and diminutive scale, Ms. Jackson will show some of her miniature sculptures of food objects as well as abstractions created from folded paper. Ms. Marxe, a sculptor, will offer her bronze renderings of wildlife.

A group show of work by Barbara Bilotta, Sally Breen, June Kaplan, Mark Seidenfeld, Beth O’Donnell, Kat O’Neill, Bryan Greene, Savio Mizzi, Ellyn Tucker, Melissa Hin, Mark Zimmerman, Anne Brandeis, Kevin Barrett, Dennis Leri, and Eleanora Kupencow will also be on view. The exhibition will continue through Nov. 29.

Schrott’s Quilts

The Montauk Library has an exhibit of art quilts made by Susan Schrott on view through the month of November. The show features images inspired by the Shelter Island resident’s life experience, with strong and joyful women figures in hand-dyed fabrics embellished with crystals and beads.

Ms. Schrott’s background has included dance, theater, and a graduate degree in social work. She is the regional corepresentative for Studio Art Quilts Associations, a licensed psychotherapist, a certified eating disorder specialist, and an instructor of Kripalu yoga.

An artist talk, “Beyond Textiles: For the Love of the Imagination,”and a reception will take place on Nov. 15 from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

Salomon in the City

At Salomon Contemporary in Chelsea, three East End artists are featured in a show opening tonight with a reception from 6 to 8. “The Nature of Things” features work by John Alexander, Michael Combs, and Alexis Rockman, who explore the natural world in their art.

Mr. Alexander paints the environment both as a touchstone to his childhood and as a more politically motivated message about global warming. Mr. Combs’s work also touches on youthful memories, but from a perspective of revulsion, rooted in his family’s hunting tradition and his cleaning of felled ducks. Much like the traditional carving of decoys, he emphasizes the limp heads and necks that mark their death. Mr. Rockman, who has a concurrent show at the Parrish Art Museum, is also concerned about the environment and manipulation of the natural world, which he examines in futuristic compositions created through a dystopian lens. His field drawings provide painterly snapshots of the denizens of our regional ecosystem.

The exhibition will be on view through Dec. 20.

Marcelle Shows Gemake

The Peter Marcelle Gallery in Southampton will show the work of Jim Gemake beginning Saturday, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Gemake takes found objects and assembles them into compositions that often play with word meanings and double-entendres. The works can be sculptural, but typically hang on the wall in deep or shadow box frames. The exhibition will remain on view through Nov. 15.

Following on the interest generated by the pipe organ that was recently installed in Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Bridgehampton, there will be an Organ Crawl to four pipe organs in that hamlet on Saturday.

An organ crawl is something like a pub crawl, but in this case participants will hop from one pipe organ to another after spending a bit of time at each. It is also an opportunity to “crawl” through or at least look into the pipe rooms and inner workings of some organs.

The event is for organists, pianists, musicians, and aficionados, as well as — or especially — those who are simply curious about pipe organs. Each organ is a complex, handcrafted instrument with hundreds or thousands of metal and wooden pipes, and intricate mechanical mechanisms. The instruments are by different builders and have varying designs and tonal palettes. The crawl will visit Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church at 10 a.m., the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church at 10:45, St. Ann’s Episcopal Church at 11:30, break for lunch at 12:15, and then move on to the Bridgehampton Methodist Church at 1. The four locations and places to eat lunch are within a half-mile of one another. At each location there will be a brief demonstration and explanation of the instrument, and an opportunity for those who wish to informally play it. People are welcome to join at any point along the way.

The organ crawl is free; lunch will be paid for individually. More information is available by contacting Thomas Bohlert at [email protected].

G.E. Smith, a guitar virtuoso and former musical director of “Saturday Night Live,” will conclude his “Portraits” series at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Saturday at 8 p.m. with Ethan Hawke, who, in addition to acting, is, “a good musician,” according to Mr. Smith. The series, produced by Taylor BartonSmith, also features members of the SNL band.

Mr. Hawke has also worked as a film and theater actor, screenwriter, director, and novelist, with four Academy Award nominations, two for acting and two for screenwriting, one Tony Award nomination, and two novels to his credit. Tickets are $55.

Nancy Atlas, the Montauk rocker whose motto is “Live Large and Play Hard,” will perform with her band, the Nancy Atlas Project, tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center. Among the notable acts the band has opened for are Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Buffett, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Tickets are $20.

On Saturday at 6 p.m. at the center, Jason Samuels Smith, an Emmy Awardwinning tap dancer, will team up with Sue Samuels’s Jazz Roots Dance Company for an evening of jazz and tap dance. The evening will include an excerpt from their new collaborative workin-progress, “D’Angelo’s Sugah Daddy.” Admission is $40, $20 for students under 21 with ID.

DanceFusion @ Southampton Cultural Center, a series of performances and interactive events, will present a workshop and performance with Jason Samuels Smith and Jazz Roots Dance Company on Saturday before his performance at the center.

The open-level workshop will explore relationships between tap and jazz styles from 3 to 5 p.m. Those participating should take tap and jazz shoes or hard-soled shoes. It will be free for those under 18 and $20 for those older.

“Of Mice and Men” will be presented this month at the Bay Street Theater as part of its educational program called Literature Live, though adults need not fear that they will be seeing a school production.

The play, which was adapted for the stage by John Steinbeck from his novel of the same title in 1937, takes place during the Great Depression as two migrant farmworkers search for work and one of them dreams of someday farming his own land. The production begins on Monday, with the first public performances starting on Friday, Nov. 13. Some tickets, based on availability, may be purchased for the weekday shows, which are primarily for schools.

Steinbeck lived in Sag Harbor as a mostly summer resident from the mid-1950s to the late ’60s and wrote some of his later books there, among them “The Acts of King Arthur,” “The Winter of Our Discontent,” and “Travels With Charley.” A number of the topics introduced in “Of Mice and Men,” as well as Steinbeck’s connections to the village, will be addressed in talks following the productions.

Richard E. Hart, vice president for academic relations for the International Society of Steinbeck Scholars and an editorial board member of The Steinbeck Review, will speak after select school and public performances. Mr. Hart has contributed numerous articles to journals and book collections, and has lectured on Steinbeck at universities and conferences in this country and in Hungary, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Romania.

Other post-performance presentations will describe the conditions of migrant workers on the East End during the Depression. In 1949, a fire in a migrant camp in Bridgehampton killed two children of farm workers and led to the creation of the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, on land donated in the years that followed. Additional topics will cover Steinbeck’s other writings and the acceptance over time of people who are physically, intellectually, or emotionally disabled.

The speakers are from the Long Island Parent Center, the John Jermain Memorial Library, and the society of Steinbeck scholars. The Bridgehampton Museum will provide local farming artifacts, and Southampton’s Rogers Memorial Library will make available its archive of oral histories of farm families, in both text and audio, to specifically address the effect of the Depression locally. Canio’s will supply literary support with Steinbeck books and merchandise for purchase.

Both the cast and director have extensive credits. Joe Minutillo has directed several prior Literature Live productions, as well as plays around Suffolk County. Mr. Minutillo taught theater at Eastport-South Manor High School for many years before retiring in 2012.

Preston Truman Boyd will play the gentle giant who cannot stop breaking things; Joe Pallister will play George, who tries to protect Lenny while pursuing his own dreams. Supporting actors include Terry Brockbank, Josh Gladstone, Jon Kovach, J. Stephen Brantley, Georgia Warner, Sawyer Spielberg, and Chauncy Thomas. Many of the cast members have participated in prior Literature Live productions, including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Crucible,” and “The Diary of Anne Frank,” as well as in Bay Street’s Mainstage productions.

Public performances will be presented Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and on Sundays at 2 p.m. through Nov. 28. Information on weekday and holiday weekend performances is available from baystreet.org or from the Bay Street box office. Tickets for students are free toall performances; adult tickets range from $27 to $50.

The Century Arts Foundation, which supports the free student ticket initiative, has provided a challenge grant for donations up to $50,000. Donors will have their money matched dollar for dollar.

Amy Goldman will present and sign copies of her “Heirloom Harvest” book of daguerrotypes at Marders in Bridgehampton on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. Artisanal pizza made with organic vegetables and ingredients will be served.

The produce in the book — heirloom vegetables, fruits, herbs, and nuts, as well as flowers — was grown on Ms. Goldman’s 200-acre farm in the Hudson Valley. In an essay, she discusses the process of growing heirlooms with modern techniques.

Jerry Spagnoli, a well-known photographer working in the historical medium, has collaborated with Ms. Goldman on the project for 15 years. Daguerrotypes, one of the earliest photographic processes, involve exposing treated silver-plated copper in a camera until an image develops that is then encased under glass. Mr. Spagnoli has published several books featuring the process and has worked with Chuck Close on his daguerrotype projects. His work is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Art Institute of Chicago, among other museums.

Ms. Goldman is the author of “The Heirloom Tomato,” “The Compleat Squash,” and “Melons for the Passionate.” She is an active board member and special advisor to the nonprofit Seed Savers Exchange. 

When The Star wrote about Pat DeRosa last year as he was approaching his 93rd birthday, the musician said that just one item remained on his bucket list: “to perform with Long Island’s most popular piano player, Billy Joel.”

As Mr. DeRosa’s 94th approaches — Dec. 6 is the big day — he is about to take a step closer to that goal. Tomorrow night, he will perform with Michael DelGuidice and Big Shot at the Paramount Theater in Huntington. Mr. DelGuidice, who has long fronted tribute bands celebrating the music of Mr. Joel, himself achieved a milestone in 2013, becoming a guitarist and background vocalist for the Piano Man.

A fortuitous event set the stage for tomorrow’s show. Last summer, Mr. DeRosa, who lives in Montauk, and members of his musical family including his daughter Patricia DeRosa Padden, a pianist and vocalist, and his son-in-law Michael Padden, a guitarist, attended a concert by Randy Jackson at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk. Mr. Padden engaged Mr. Jackson in a conversation about guitars. As it turned out, the father of a friend of Mr. Jackson’s, who was also a musician, had played with Mr. DeRosa.

The family told Mr. Jackson about Mr. DeRosa’s goal and forwarded a copy of The Star’s write-up to him. Mr. Jackson called Mr. DelGuidice, who asked to speak with Ms. DeRosa Padden, and it was agreed that Mr. DeRosa would perform two songs with Big Shot at the Paramount: Mr. Joel’s “New York State of Mind” and “Just the Way You Are.” Big Shot is more than a tribute to Mr. Joel and his music. In addition to Mr. DelGuidice, members including Tommy Byrnes, John Scarpulla, and Chuck Burgi are present or past members of Mr. Joel’s touring band. Many members also performed in “Movin’ Out,” a Tony Award-winning collaboration between Mr. Joel and the dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp.

In another bit of synchronicity, tomorrow’s concert is a benefit for veterans, like Mr. DeRosa. While working for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in Bethpage, where he built aircraft parts, he was drafted into the Army Air Forces. After basic training, “I joined the concert band and the 20-piece dance band,” he told The Star last year. In 1945, with a deployment to the Pacific Theater looming, the Japanese surrendered and Mr. DeRosa remained stateside.

The setting of tomorrow’s concert is apt for yet another reason: Mr. DeRosa, who was born in Brooklyn, attended the Paramount as a child, his daughter said. The musician also taught in South Huntington schools from 1954 to 1978 while continuing a professional career.

“He’s been working on those tunes, preparing for the show,” Mr. DeRosa’s daughter said last week. “He’s getting ready, and is very excited.” A Facebook page has been created to publicize the concert, and Ms. DeRosa Padden said there was tremendous interest in the concert. Relatives are coming from Washington State, she said.

Mr. Joel, who set a record last summer when he delivered a 65th performance at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, does not have a concert scheduled tomorrow. Will he make an appearance with members of his band and a saxophonist who yearns to play with him? “I would say we’re halfway there,” Ms. DeRosa Padden said.