Bob Brookmeyer

Robert Edward "Bob" Brookmeyer (December 19, 1929 – December 15, 2011) was an American jazz valve trombonist, pianist, arranger, and composer. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Brookmeyer first gained widespread public attention as a member of Gerry Mulligan's quartet from 1954 to 1957. He later worked with Jimmy Giuffre, before rejoining Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band. He garnered 8 Grammy Award nominations during his lifetime.

Brookmeyer was born on December 19, 1929 Kansas City, Missouri. He was the only child of Elmer Edward Brookmeyer and Mayme Seifert.

Brookmeyer began playing professionally in his teens. He attended the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, but did not graduate. He played piano in big bands led by Tex Beneke and Ray McKinley, but concentrated on valve trombone from when he moved to the Claude Thornhill orchestra in the early 1950s. He was part of small groups led by Stan Getz, Jimmy Giuffre, and Gerry Mulligan in the 1950s. During the 1950s and 1960s, Brookmeyer played in New York clubs, on television (including being part of the house band for The Merv Griffin Show), and on studio recordings, as well as arranging for Ray Charles and others.

In the early 1960s, Brookmeyer joined flugelhorn player Clark Terry in a band that achieved some success. In February 1965, Brookmeyer and Terry appeared together on BBC2's Jazz 625.

Brookmeyer moved to Los Angeles in 1968 and became a full-time studio musician. He spent 10 years on the West Coast and developed a serious alcohol problem. After he overcame this, he returned to New York. Brookmeyer became the musical director of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1979, although he had not composed any music for a decade. Brookmeyer wrote for and performed with jazz groups in Europe from the early 1980s. He founded and ran a music school in the Netherlands, and taught at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and other institutions.

In June 2005, Brookmeyer joined ArtistShare and announced a project to fund an upcoming third album featuring his New Art Orchestra. The resulting Grammy-nominated CD, titled Spirit Music, was released in 2006. Brookmeyer was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in the same year. His eighth Grammy Award nomination was for an arrangement from the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra's album, Forever Lasting, shortly before his death. That same album was also nominated in the 57th Annual Grammy Awards for the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album; the CD was entirely made up of Brookmeyer's compositions.

Brookmeyer died of congestive heart failure on December 15, 2011, in New London, New Hampshire.

One notable element of Brookmeyer's compositional style is his use of contemporary classical writing techniques in his works for big bands and jazz ensembles. In the early 1980's Brookmeyer was mentored by composer Earle Brown, with whom he explored 20th century classical music in depth. Brookmeyer's works since have been influenced by such composers as Witold Lutosławski (whose cello concerto Brookmeyer used often in teaching students about simple motifs), Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, György Ligeti, and Béla Bartók.

Some examples of 20th-century classical compositional techniques used in Brookmeyer's jazz pieces are:

• "ABC Blues", where an atonal tone row is used to generate melodies and harmonies.
• "The Big Time", where polytonality is used to develop melodies used earlier on in the composition.
• Bob Brookmeyer uses chromatic harmony and tone clusters throughout such works as "Seesaw", "Silver Lining", and "Hello and Goodbye".

Grammy Awards (nominations)

As leader/co-leader

• Bob Brookmeyer Quartet (Pacific Jazz, 1954)
• Bob Brookmeyer Plays Bob Brookmeyer and Some Others (Clef, 1955)
• Happy Minors (Bethlehem, 1955) with Red Mitchell, Zoot Sims
• The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer (Prestige, 1956) – recorded in 1954-55
• Tonite's Music Today with Zoot Sims (Storyville, 1956)
• Whooeeee with Zoot Sims (Storyville, 1956)
• Bob Brookmeyer Quintet (Vogue, 1956)
• Urso and Brookmeyer with Phil Urso (Savoy, 1956)
• Brookmeyer (Vik, 1957) – recorded in 1956
• Traditionalism Revisited (World Pacific, 1957)
• The Street Swingers (World Pacific, 1958)
• Jazz Concerto Grosso with Gerry Mulligan (ABC–Paramount, 1958) – play Phil Sunkel, recorded in 1957.
• They Met at the Continental Divide with Trombones Inc. (Warner Bros., 1959)
• Kansas City Revisited (United Artists, 1959)
• The Ivory Hunters with Bill Evans(United Artists, 1959) – also released as As Time Goes By (Blue Note LT series, 1981)
• Jazz Is a Kick (Mercury, 1960)
• Portrait of the Artist (Atlantic, 1960) – recorded in 1959
• The Blues Hot and Cold (His Master's Voice, 1960)
• Gloomy Sunday and Other Bright Moments (Verve, 1961)
• 7 x Wilder (Verve, 1961)
• Trombone Jazz Samba (Verve, 1962)
• Bob Brookmeyer and Friends (Columbia, 1965) – recorded in 1964
• The Bob Brookmeyer Small Band (Gryphon, 1978)
• Back Again (Sonet, 1979)
• Through a Looking Glass (Finesse, 1981)
• Oslo (Concord Jazz, 1987)
• Morning Fun with Zoot Sims (Black Lion, 1989)
• Electricity (ACT, 1994) - recorded in 1991
• As It Happened Vol. 1 with Roger Kellaway (Jazz Heritage, 1994)
• Paris Suite (Challenge, 1995)
• Out of This World with Metropole Orchestra (Koch Jazz, 1998)
• Old Friends (Storyville, 1998) - recorded in 1994
• New Works Celebration (Challenge, 1999) - recorded in 1997
• Together with Mads Vinding (Challenge, 1999)
• Holiday (Challenge, 2001) – plays piano
• Madly Loving You with the Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra (Challenge, 2001)
• Stay Out of the Sun (Challenge, 2003) - recorded in 2000
• Get Well Soon with New Art Orchestra (Challenge, 2003) - recorded in 2002
• Island with Kenny Wheeler (Artists House, 2003) - recorded in 2002
• Spirit Music with New Art Orchestra (ArtistShare, 2006)

As sideman