Thursday 19 March 2026
7.30pm
Milton Court Concert Hall

Bob Brookmeyer (1929 – 2011) enjoyed a long career as a trombonist, composer, arranger and educator. He began playing clarinet at age eight and discovered jazz after hearing the Count Basie Orchestra. At age 13 he switched to trombone and soon began composing, teaching himself piano along the way. He later studied piano and composition at the Kansas City Conservatory, where he received the Carl Busch Award for Choral Composition in 1949. After three years at the Conservatory, Brookmeyer left Kansas City to perform at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, where he met and played with such musicians as Tiny Kahn, Al Cohn and Frank Rosolino.

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Following brief service in the US Army, Brookmeyer moved to New York in 1952 and worked as a freelance pianist and trombonist with bands led by Tex Beneke, Ray McKinley and Claude Thornhill, as well as with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Charles Mingus. While working with Thornhill he adopted the valve trombone, becoming one of the few professionals to favour the instrument. In 1953, while performing with the Stan Getz Quintet, he received the DownBeat Magazine New Star Award for trombone.

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From 1954–57 Brookmeyer performed with Gerry Mulligan’s ensembles and later rejoined Mulligan in 1960 as arranger and soloist for his Concert Jazz Band. He also collaborated with Bill Evans, performed with Thelonious Monk and co-led a quintet with Clark Terry.

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In 1965 Brookmeyer became a founding member of the famed Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, dividing his time between arranging and playing lead trombone. In April of the same year, he joined the Merv Griffin Show as staff musician but found the work especially dissatisfying. In 1968 he moved to the west coast and took a decade-long break from jazz recording. He returned to jazz in 1978 and later became an influential educator at institutions including the Manhattan School of Music and the New England Conservatory. Brookmeyer was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2006.