Zebra will celebrate 50th anniversary with Westbury Music Fair show

Zebra fans get ready: The band is about to show its stripes in 2025 for its 50th anniversary. The Long Island-based power trio, consisting of lead guitarist/vocalist Randy Jackson, bassist/keyboardist Felix Hanemann and drummer Guy Gelso, will celebrate with a concert coming to Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair on May 17.

"Fifty years is a long time," says Jackson, 69, who resides in South Setauket. "It is very surreal that people are saying it, but I can’t really absorb it."

Next year also marks another momentous occasion as Zebra is set to drop its long-awaited new studio album. This will be the band’s first release of new material since "Zebra IV" in 2003.

"The record will feature a variety of songs," says Jackson. "We got some stuff from 1977 we never recorded, songs I penned with other people and a bunch of tunes that I wrote recently. It’s evolving as we’re doing it."

The album, which is being recorded at Jackson and Gelso’s home studios, is set to drop by June and will feature 12 tracks with producer Jack Douglas at the helm.

"We are looking forward to collaborating with Jack again," says Jackson. "This is the first time we worked on Zebra stuff since 1984 [Douglas produced the band’s 1983 self-titled debut and 1984 sophomore effort, "No Tellin’ Lies"]. We’re going to see what he’s learned and what we’ve learned over the last 40 years."

Being on the road for more than 50 shows this year has helped get the creative spark going for the band.

"We’re playing more now than we have in 30 years," says Jackson. "The excitement was back again as opposed to just playing once every couple of months."

The upcoming show at Westbury Music Fair promises to be a retrospective of the last 50 years.

"We’re going to cover a lot of ground. I’m thinking it might be a good idea to do a couple of medleys of older stuff instead of playing a whole bunch of songs all the way through," says Jackson. "There will be fans present who have been with us for a long time, therefore we want to give them a walk down memory lane."

Surprisingly, Zebra has marked another milestone: It is now the longest-running band with all original members.

"It’s weird," says Jackson. "Out of everything you could’ve possibly imagined when you first started out, this would definitely take the category of the oddest."

When asked what’s the key to the band’s longevity, Jackson says, "We became family in the beginning within the first five years. You pretty much know what to expect from each other. It’s like a marriage."

Tickets for the May 17 concert go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via livenation.com. A presale will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. using the code: DOOR.

By David J. Criblez

david.criblez@newsday.comDavidJCriblez

David J. Criblez is a reporter for Newsday's exploreLI, covering entertainment-related events from local music to stand-up comedy to festivals.