Considered for many years among jazz’s leading valve trombonists, Bob Brookmeyer also earned recognition as a forward-thinking arranger whose scores drew heavily from modern classical sources. He began his professional life at the piano in dance ensembles before switching to valve trombone for a 1953 stint with Stan Getz. Recognition followed his 1954–1957 membership in the Gerry Mulligan quartet; he next joined the unconventional Jimmy Giuffre Three of 1957–1958, whose lineup paired Giuffre’s reeds with Brookmeyer’s valve trombone and Jim Hall’s guitar. He later returned to Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band as both arranger and occasional performer. A capable pianist who could match Bill Evans on a two-piano session, Brookmeyer sometimes moved back to the keyboard during his time with Mulligan. Between 1961 and 1966 he co-led a part-time quintet with Clark Terry, then became a charter member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestra from 1965 to 1967 before turning to studio work. After a period of reduced activity throughout much of the 1970s, he re-emerged late in the decade with bold charts for the Mel Lewis band and served for a time as its musical director. Relocating to Europe, he maintained a steady output of compositions while making sporadic recordings on his signature valve trombone; Old Friends appeared in 1998, New Works Celebration followed the next year, and Together was released in 2000. Through the ensuing decade he continued performing and recording, frequently with his European big band the New Art Orchestra on albums that included Waltzing with Zoe in 2002, Get Well Soon in 2004, and Spirit Music in 2007. In 2008 he turned to classical forces with Music for String Quartet and Orchestra. Brookmeyer produced innovative big-band works and was celebrated as an educator whose New England Conservatory of Music classes attained legendary status. On December 15, 2011, he died in his sleep at a hospital near his Grantham, New Hampshire home from congestive heart failure, a month after issuing the album Standards through ArtistShare and only three days before his 82nd birthday.
