OVER TIME: MUSIC OF BOB BROOKMEYER

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. The Big Time
2. Suite for Three: 1. OATTS
3. Suite for Three: 2. SCOTT
4. Suite for Three: 3. RICH
5. XYZ
6. Skylark
7. At the Corner of Ralph and Gary
8. Sad Song

NOTES

Thomas Bellino / Executive Producer
Douglas Purviance / Producer
Migiwa Miyajima / Associate Producer

John Mosca / Director
Dick Oatts / Music Director
Jim McNeely / Composer-in-Residence

Thomas Bellino / Project Director

Recorded at Sear Sound, NYC June 11 & 12, 2014
Jay Messina / Recording Engineer
Chris Allen / Assistant Engineer

Ryan Truesdell / Project Consultant

Mixed by Gary Chester, John Mosca, Douglas Purviance, and Migiwa Miyajima
at AVATAR STUDIOS, NYC June 24, 25, & July 1, 2014
Gary Chester / Engineer
Nate Odden / Assistant Engineer

Mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf! Mastering July 11, 2014
Art Direction and Design / Tetsuya Hoshino
Cover Illustration / Nao Sakamoto
Creative Director / Migiwa Miyajima
Photos / Anthony Bellino Photography, Cristian Dobles Photography, Yasu Arai, John Marshall

STANDARDS

Bob Brookmeyer
New Art Orchestra
featuring Fay Claassen

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TRACKS

1. How Deep Is the Ocean
2. Get Out Of Town
3. Love For Sale
4. I'm Beginning To See The Light
5. Come Rain Or Come Shine
6. Detour Ahead
7. I Get A Kick Out Of You
8. Willow Weep For Me

MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET AND ORCHESTRA

Bob Brookmeyer
Metropole Orchestra with
Gustav Klimt String Quartet

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TRACKS

1. Fanfares and Folk Song
2. American Beauty
3. A Frolic and A Tune
4. Wood Dance

NOTES

I am very pleased to introduce this new work to you. It was a joy to do from the first note -- for the Orchestra, the Quartet and one grateful composer. To Hein Van de Geyn (Challenge Jazz), Frits Bayens (Producer) and Fred Dekker (Radio) I offer my thanks and appreciation -- getting something like this out of the studio and into your house is not easy, and the hard work and diligence of these men make my world a better place.

Now for some history - a few years ago I had a project for the Metropole Orchestra and Kenny Wheeler. The violist, Mieke Honingh, came to me and told me of their Quartet -- named after the great painter, Gustav Klimt - and asked me to consider writing a piece for them. I was pleased but busy and the months passed. Mieke would not be denied, though, and soon I received a note from Frits, asking for a project for String Quartet AND Orchestra. It was both challenging and scary, a delicious package. I set to work and wound up with over 50 pages of sketches - that's a lot for me. I began to write the score and ended up with three movements - # 1, 2 and 4 on the CD.

The recording was very successful and the mood in the studio - from musicians and producers - was - MORE! We decided to add some time to fit a CD and # 3 came into being. We recorded the whole thing again, with the additions, and decided to try and get it into your hands, somehow. It took about three or four years and at times I despaired of it ever seeing daylight. The aforementioned people made it happen.

While writing for the Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1980, I began to "go over to the other side" - composing for classical players and trying to be very "in your face" and ultra modern. I had spent most my life in jazz music and so NY commercial work and I was very hungry for some new horizons to investigate. Cologne and Stockholm were very open to a new face so, with their cooperation, I was allowed to experiment, fail, succeed and grow in my craft. Without them I would have remained trapped by my past.

Much of this new music fell on surprised and quizzical ears - when you establish a street corner in the Arts you are not supposed to travel very far away - people depend on you remaining where you were. Understandable but dangerous. You are asked to be who you were yesterday and that isn't the best way to mature. So I was happily engaged in electronic One Man Shows (one actually caused babies to cry - I was SO proud!), Chamber Music (Werner Herbers and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble was my first effort), and things gradually got better, culminating in "Red Balloons" for Jim Pugh and Dave Taylor, "Pieces of Pieces" for the Swedish Radio Symphony and the "One Man Show" just mentioned. Some of this will be available on my website - AritstShare - since it's a little too much for a jazz recording.

In 1987, a gradual change began to appear in my music - she was a tall, lovely woman named Jan and for the first time in my life, I got REALLY happy - that will cool down the most radical bomb thrower and my sense of time, space and patience grew accordingly. This work is a culmination of where I have been in my life and where I was fours years ago - it is tonal (with spice) and lyric - "American Beauty" came in on the wings of the Music God. I really have no idea who wrote it and I still hear it with the pleasure of a consumer, not a maker. When the Waltz happened to me in Movement 3 (The Frolic) I just let it run its course. In general, the orchestration is a result of too many odds and ends to list - all of the many and varied things I have done over the past 63 years contributed and I did study and listen carefully to get better. So, you now have some music that I am glad to send to you - I still enjoy it and hope you will also.

In closing, I want to thank the Quartet, especially Arlia de Ruiter, the first violinist. She and Jim McNeely play my music perfectly, the timing and phrasing just as I heard it. Very unusual and very welcome. Mieke, Pauline and Bastiaan are all I could want in just plain superior playing. The Orchestra is the best time I have in studio, in Europe or anywhere else. They have become one of the essential voices in music.

I will forever be indebted to the late Heiner Muller-Adolphi and Wolfgang Hirschmann (WDR-Koln), Bosse Broberg (Swedish Radio), Earle Brown, my dear friend and teacher, Joel Thome, who got me at ease in front of 95 people and Werner Herbers, who encouraged me and told me the truth. The list is very long but can conclude here with a deep bow to Dutch Radio and all who toil in its garden. Thanks - I could not have done it without you all.

Bob Brookmeyer

SPIRIT MUSIC

Bob Brookmeyer
New Art Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. The Door
2. New Love
3. Dance for Life
4. Happy Song
5. Alone
6. Silver Lining
7. The End

NOTES

It's not often for me that a title comes before a CD—this time it did. Sometime around late spring of 2005 I thought of a project for my band that would be different for us. I felt that we were slipping into a pattern and needed to get away from a routine that had developed over the past ten years. Little did I know the monster that would develop from such an innocent name. I thought and roiled and discarded many obvious solutions: the "new age" approach, overtly "spiritual" music and the like, such as Ceremony. I then began searching for an opening gesture that would give the message, lay the foundation for the piece, and be usable as a motive for development throughout the work. A motive can do many things aside from being a concrete intervallic series that furnishes material. It can excite the imagination, make invisible (yet real) connections, and provide a meaning that needs to be present for the work to hang together.

For Spirit Music, I used a combination of new and recently composed(but never recorded) compositions, trying to select combinations and sequences that would make a good program. I hope I have done that—I have been told that aspects of the CD are somewhat "melancholy," which would be an accurate reflection of my mood. 2004 and 2005 were rough emotional years at times, and I had trouble bouncing back to my usual motivated and busy self. I think the making of this CD was cathartic and I feel that the burdens of the immediate past have fallen away. I now have a huge composing schedule and, when frantically working, there is no room for anything else. That's the advantage of “the arts"—they leave no room for outside troubles.

There isn't a lot I can say about the NAO that I haven't said before. They are unique in any world I have ever known, for both their musicality and dedication. I love them dearly and the feeling is returned. We are a band, we have our own sound, and we phrase and interpret my music perfectly. I still recommend our recordings to any bands I encounter, so listen and learn—we are doing it right. The learning process took place because they listened to my suggestions, tried them, found them to be viable, and didn't let them go. Large ensembles depend on two main factors—the lead trumpet and the drummer, and Thorsten and John are the best that I know. Thorsten is modest to a fault and John is too busy with his many projects to get an attitude, so we are safe. The fact that the band gets better every time we play—and they offer very useful suggestions to me because they care—makes it all worthwhile. At 76, I am beginning to feel the need to leave behind music that has some real meaning, and this incredible band makes that possible. Thank you.

BOB BROOKMEYER

I would also like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the Spirit Music Project. This art form thrives on your involvement and we couldn’t do it without you.

GET WELL SOON

Bob Brookmeyer
New Art Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. Tah-DUM!
2. Monster Rally
3. For You
4. Over Here
5. Interlude #1
6. Lovely
7. Song, Sing, Sung
8. Interlude #2
9. Elegy
10. Get Well Soon

NOTES

In the fall of 1999, I was asked to do a Young People's Concert in Cologne, at the Philharmonie Hall, featuring a trumpet player named Till Brönner. I had heard a little of him on CD but was completely unprepared when we began 'Tah-DUM' at rehearsal. The jaw hitting the floor was mine. An amazing player AND he swung!! We became friends and planned to work together in the future – well, the future arrived in August 2002 and this may well be your introduction to him. I felt that I had two parts of the Suite that would work well for him (with "fixing") and the ballad ('For You') was specifically tailored for this recording. 'Over Here' comes from 1994 and had been waiting for us to do it justice. Till does many things musically but has maintained has integrity and desire and I am very pleased that he could join us. We don't invite guest soloists often and, from us, it’s an honor. He did us proud.

This – our third CD – also gave me a chance to show you more fully two of our most gifted members – Kris Goessens (piano) and Paul Heller (tenor). With the flood of tenor saxophonists surrounding us, finding Paul in 1994 was a new beginning for me and the instrument. He looks like an angel and plays like the devil. On ‘Get Well Soon’ he had a very difficult task for an improviser – basically playing over one chord type (a half-diminished) which shifts around a narrow center and gives you, in essence, a pair of handcuffs to deal with. His response was amazing AND he gets excited!! When the band begins to roar he cannot help feeling the excitement and joins in. This is NOT a normal response for most musicians playing any instrument these days – people have become careful and organized. Not Paul – he screams with delight! A stunning performance.

The ‘Get Well Soon’ wish was for my dear Norwegian friend Jan Horne, who was recovering from cancer. He, and his lady, Kirsten, were our witnesses when we were married in Norway in 1988 and Jan and I have been friends for 22 years since he made a documentary on me for NRK TV. He IS getting well and says the tune helped.

Kris Goessens is one of the world’s best kept secrets, something he and I hope to alter soon, playing duo on concerts tours. He has a depth of feeling and touch that I find unequaled by anyone I have heard. He also has a quiet, daring use of space and register that break accepted barriers AND patience to allow an idea to unfold and fully speak. His language is his and he feels almost painfully the act of creation. I am unashamedly biased – he and his wife Amanda were students of mine in 1991 when I lived in Rotterdam. They also take care of my beautiful godson, Ilya. My bias, however, is well founded and rarely given.

Another of my essentials is John Hollenbeck. I have extolled his virtues many times before, but every time the Orchestra gathers, he brings new energy and a growing experimental madness that allows him to create without fear. Besides this all, he has a beautiful sound, taste, delicacy and enough rockets and flares to light the sky for days. He is now becoming a composer and band leader but he promised no to forget us. We need him!!

‘Elegy’ is a special piece of music to me – I wrote it while my dear friend, Earle Brown (the great composer), was in the process of dying. He was a close friend, unfailingly supportive, my teacher and a walking sunbeam. I wanted his wife, Susan, to have a graphic “good-bye” that she could possess. When she can listen to it without crying, she will have begun healing. They remain to me two of the most remarkable people I have ever known. ‘Lovely’ just appeared – ‘Song, Sing, Sung’ is a movement from a larger work I did for the Danish Radio. I wanted it for Kris to sing on.

Thorsten Beckenstein is, to me, the best lead trumpet player I could hope for. I hear none that please me more. His presence and musicality guide us all and, surrounded by Torsten Mass and Sebastian Strempel, they don’t allow us to stray far from the center. It has been my good fortune to become associated with an incredible group of people – they love what they do, they thrive on their friendships and they give everything they have to me and my music. A friend told me: “You have found the perfect instrument for you music,” and he is right. What he couldn’t know is the love and heart and friendship these 18 people give to me and to each other. I have never experienced anything like it. Thank you, my dear friends.

--- Bob Brookmeyer

WALTZING WITH ZOE

Bob Brookmeyer
New Art Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. Seesaw
2. Child At Play
3. For Maria
4. Waltzing With Zoe
5. Fireflies
6. K.P. '94
7. Sweetie
8. American Tragedy

NOTES

We have become an Orchestra now, touring and recording, planning ahead and growing secure in our feelings for one another. When this recording was made, we had almost completed some changes that I felt necessary. The Baritone chair became a woodwind voice, with Contra Bass Clarinet and English horn – Reed 2 is now a Clarinet soloist, and a very good and individual one. The 3rd trombone became a bass Trombone also, enabling Ed Partyka to double more on Tuba, so we can either cause the ground to rumble or, with the trumpets, make your eyes cross. We have the best in Thorsten Beckenstein. The rhythm section you know from "New Works" – now I presume you own a copy already, right? If not, your next task is clear. We will be trying for on CD a year so keep some shelf space handy for us.

The music came out a little differently for me this time. It arrived as "character pieces," with a will of their own and I sometimes felt like a transcriber, following orders. The title work, "Waltzing with Zoë" is named for the 10 year old daughter of Hal Crook, the great trombonist. We established a friendship over the phone that lasted two years before, in January, we finally met. I loved the title for the CD and Anne and Hein agreed, so that’s how it came to pass. Zoë is a great lady. And for Maria Schneider's piece, I snuck up on her – called her and played this song and said "what do you think?" – "Ooh, it's lovely" she said and I thereupon informed that that was HER song. So, it's been passed by the boss. She and I go back to 1983 when she began studying with me and I am proud of her and we are loving friends.

"Child at Play" is for my beautiful Godson, courtesy of Kris Goessens and Amanda Engels. In the work – and in "Zoë" – I took my biggest risks, structurally, and I think at least the leap was worth it. "Fireflies" was originally from a 1999 WDR/Cologne production, featuring the brilliant German trumpet player Till Brönner. Eric does a great job here in a flowing and unabashedly lyric piece. "Sweetie" comes from the same Danish Radio Suite that produced "Boom Boom." It is for my lovely wife and “sweetie” is often my name for her. "American Tragedy" is how I feel about the country in which I dwell. When the highest Court in the land becomes a political tool, where will justice be?

"K.P. '94" was composed for a book written by Fred Sturm, called "Changes Over Time." Holman, Manny Albam and Clare Fischer were also invited in, the idea being to give a new treatment to a standard Jazz work that had lasted throughout the years. I always liked "King Porter Stomp" since the 1930s, when Goodman's band played it – after warning Fred that he could not expect one note of recognizable melody, I "deconstructed" and recomposed the piece. I like the result so we decided to document it. I wanted to show what John Hollenbeck was capable of, so "Seesaw" was conceived as a dialogue between drums and band. What I did NOT anticipate was that during the 6-7 takes we made, he would grow more "inside" the piece until the final would see him get dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. A stunning performance. Seems like he traveled through history.

At this point, I want to thank the Dutch guys who so ably helped us out - Erik, Angelo, Bert and Jan, Adrian for coming in from Cologne and Achim filling in for Jergen Grimm. Radio Netherlands and Dick Kuijs made the physical side of recording possible and Hein van de Geyn was our more helpful A & R, guiding us through the maze. Anne de Jong and Challenge Records have literally been our mentors. Without Anne and Hein, we would be silent and that would be a sad day for music. Thank you all, plus my regular gang, who know me like a book and still keep coming back for more. You mean more to me than words can express.

Bob Brookmeyer
26 February, 2001 – Grantham, NH

NEW WORKS: CELEBRATION

Bob Brookmeyer
New Art Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. Celebration: Jig
2. Celebration: Slow Dance
3. Celebration: Remembering
4. Celebration: Two And
5. Idyll
6. Duets
7. Cameo
8. Boom Boom

NOTES

This is the recording debut of the New Art Orchestra, an 18-piece ensemble created and directed by Bob Brookmeyer. It was formed in Lubeck, Germany as a new jazz project for the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, founded by Leonard Bernstein in 1986. The musicians are largely from Germany, with two Americans and one each from Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands. "I collect young musicians as I tour and tech," says Brookmeyer, "for they are the future and that is what I am interested in. The players in the NAO are wonderful to work with and have a fresh attitude toward making music. The feeling is unlike anything I’ve experienced in my life. We were together for three summers at the Festival and decided that it was too good to let it go, so the first step was this recording, aided by a 20,000 Mark prize from RTL, the German TV station."

Brookmeyer has long had two careers in one. "Before my California stay (1968-1978) I considered myself a player first and a writer second, although I did a lot of writing, from Ray Charles to That and Mel. Since 1979 I have come to view myself as a composer who also plays trombone; add conducting and teaching, and that gives me four hats to wear. I do not have a swollen head, so they all fit nicely."

He discovered blank music paper at age 13 and by 14 was a professional dance band arranger and trombonist. After arriving in New York in 1952, there followed a succession of jobs that gave him artistic satisfaction, broad experience in all kinds of studio work and association with inspired and inspiring people; Bill Finegan, Ralph Burns, Al Cohn, Eddie Sauter, Gil Evans, Bill Holman and George Russell. Performing with Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Jimmy Giuffre and the Jones-Lewis band plus a quintet with Clark Terry gave him a solid foundation in the fundamentals of his craft. Upon his return from LA, there followed a periods of study and intensive listening to 20th century classical music and the idea of being a "real composer" began to form. It was a teenage dream, from the days at the KC Conservatory and now seemed possible.

"I was de-facto musical director of Mel Lewis' band by 1981 and began to experiment with the band, often in ways that were only interesting to me, so I – in effect – proceeded to write my way out of the band, with Mel's blessing, since by him, I could do no wrong. From 1982-1988 it was gradually turning up the musical pain factor, until '88. I married well that year and thing seemed to calm down and have more meaning, more depth." While living in Holland (1991-1994), Bob was contacted by Till Janczukowicz (Jan-choo-ko’-witz, if you want to actually say it) in Cologne and a 2-hour dinner turned into a 6-hour marathon – excitement, music and planning were in the air. For the first season ('94), a guest artist was discussed and Gerry Mulligan agreed to be the first (later followed by Clark terry and Michael Brecker). The Festival commissioned a piece for Mulligan, which became 'Celebration.'

"This was quite a job," recalls Brookmeyer, "finding a meeting ground that would enable Gerry to quickly absorb the piece and stylistically be relevant to his playing. SO… I had to step back a few years to stay honest, by practical. It was a big success and we owe a debt of gratitude to Gerry for helping us get underway. It was also the first time HE had worked for ME, so there were some funny exchanges during rehearsals. It was also our last work together."

The recording debut of the New Art Orchestra took place during a four-day period in Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, at Studio Bauer, with Carlos Albrecht as sound architect. A documentation of 'Celebration' was planned and Scott Robinson was the choice to play the baritone solo part. "He did an absolutely amazing job," recalls Brookmeyer, "sounding to me like Mulligan if Gerry had been born 30 years later, plus all the personal history Scott brings." Scott, who plays every reed instrument, brass instrument and probably a few that HE invented, has been heard in settings ranging from Dixieland to the avant garde. He is the main star of the CD and displays his warmth and sensitivity on 'Remembering,' part 3 of the Suite. Pianist Kris Goessens is also prominent throughout the thoughtful work, which is somewhat typical of Brookmeyer’s work in that it grows in interest with each listen. The opening 'Jig' is an Irish homemade folk song, followed by 'Slow Dance,' based on some of the same material. Structurally, 'Remembering' came from a "white note" exercise, used by the composer in his teaching process. 'Two And' utilizes a modernized version of the Charleston dance rhythm and Robinson is particularly effective, "swinging his ass off" I believe it’s called. While ‘Celebration’ was written directly for the NAO, the four accompanying works come from other sources. 'Idyll' was written for Lee Konitz at a recording with Henri Texier, Steve Swallow and Paul Motian. The melancholy ballad has solos from Brookmeyer, Kris Goessens and Nils v. Haften. Of Nils, Brookmeyer says "he's a Dutch tenor player whom I met at the Rotterdam Conservatory and has a different way of playing, almost sounding like Stan Getz – quite unusual these days – and is a very exploratory player." 'Duets' was commissioned for the West German Radio (WDR) as a piece for the WDR Big Band and Mel. The piece is made from the opening phrase and consists of continual variations on a single idea. The drum breaks by John Hollenbeck are very creative and the composer says, "I think that John is finding some new ways to treat the large ensemble. We love to work together." Jurgin Grimm is the featured synthesizer player and the tenor solo is by Paul Heller, a Brookmeyer favorite. "If I could play like that, I would!" he says. "Nils and Paul compliment each other beautifully." 'Cameo' was a WDR project and is a trombone solo with touches of ensemble color. 'Boom Boom' was commissioned by Danish Radio as the last movement of the 'Danish Suite.' It ends the set in a cheerful mood and has a trumpet solo from Ralf Hesse, "a man I want to utilize more in the future." Brookmeyer is also quick to praise Thorsten Beckenstein, "one of the world’s great lead trumpet players."

These days, in addition to the NAO, teaching at the New England Conservatory and guest conducting and playing, Bob is concluding a 4-year Composition Workshop in Copenhagen and preparing programs for the WDR and the Metropole Orchestra in Holland. "I am pretty well booked until 2001 at this point and I can choose my projects, which is a luxury. I also think I am playing my best now and for the future I just want to do more and better work – always better!" Brookmeyer is a composer and player who continues to grow and develop and on the basis of their initial recording, the NAO ranks as one of the finest jazz-based big bands around today.

Scott Yanow
Editor,
All Music Guide To Jazz

Recorded July 28-30, 1997

DREAMS

Bob Brookmeyer
Stockholm Jazz Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. Cats
2. Lies
3. Tick Tock
4. Dreams
5. Missing Monk
6. Ceremony

NOTES

Bands are all the same and all bands are different – they are, soon after you meet them, individuals, with separate gifts, favorite places and varying degrees of desire, flexibility and, most important, cooperation.

I’ve been in the guest conducting business for about ten years now – from Mel Lewis to the occasional amateur group and I thought I had the business pretty well figured out. In May of 1987, I discovered I was mistaken. That’s when I met the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra and that is when they proceeded to show me what wonderful things can happen when all the good stuff is in place. We spent four days of intensive rehearsal and concert giving and, somehow, we became permanently attached. Since then, we’ve toured Sweden, played festivals in Umea and Stockholm and, this summer of ’88, made a recording – the one you are hopefully listening to right now.

I don’t believe in telling you how fine the play, how good the solos are, etc. – you make up your own mind. I must, however, remind you that the ensemble sound, especially on the slower pieces – where it is so difficult to achieve – is just superb. As a conductor, they make your hands feel soft and expressive and your ears tingle. That does not happen in real life often and they do it now all the time for me. We understand each other, exchange respect and share and unusual warmth and affection that is close to, indeed probably is, love.

The music is from two periods in my life – close chronologically but further apart developmentally than the years indicate. Cats, Lies, Tick-Tock and Dreams date from May ’86 - Missing Monk and Ceremony April ’88. All the pieces were commissioned by West German Radio in Cologne, where I am a composer in residence, I have been increasingly involved with classical forms, attitudes and players and, I am told, my music is sounding more like concert music than not. The more extreme side of me is not much heard on recordings so this type of writing is an adjustment in time and is more historically connected – from necessity.

We plan now to compose music specifically for this wonderful orchestra and we plan to record more, play more over a larger area and we plan to grow together and become absolutely the best that we can. On behalf of these fine men, and for myself, I thank you for your interest and we hope to see you in person soon.

MAKE ME SMILE

Bob Brookmeyer
Mel Lewis & The Jazz Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. Make Me Smile
2. Nevermore
3. The Nasty Dance
4. McNeely's Piece
5. My Funny Valentine
6. Goodbye World

NOTES

There comes a time when an artist just has to sit down and say, “It’s my turn.” So it’s my time to say something and I couldn’t be happier to be able to express my feelings about this band and our music. When I took over sole leadership of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra after Thad left for Denmark at the end of our wonderful thirteen years together, it was evident that we were going to have to find a new sound, and be better, too.

I think we have done just that with this album. To have Bob Brookmeyer as our music director was the best thing that could have happened to us. I think he is one of the most creative composers, arrangers and improvisers in the world. Our lives have been intertwined for over 32 years and I think we are into the best future any two musicians can envision. Years ago we began recording in this new direction and we received a Grammy award nomination.

Ever since, Bob has been composing for the band and rehearsing us in a way that brings out the best in everyone. As Bob says, “We are concerned with the future through the past. In short—first we swing, then we look ahead, basing our innovations upon our experiences. We have many joyous roads to travel and are, I think, contributing to the necessary development of orchestral jazz music.”

He and I are very proud of all the members of this jazz Orchestra. We have, to start, an excellent rhythm team in pianist Jim McNeely and bassist Marc Johnson. I love playing with them.

Band veterans Dick Oatts, John Mosca and Earl Gardner work together with such love and respect for each other that is followed happily by their section mates. What emerges is truly unique. Listen to the way this band feels rhythm. And that’s the way they are with each other. A real music family. The addition of Stephanie Fauber on French horn gave us even more color.

When we planned to make this album we were going to use a studio situation, but then heard the results of how jay Yampolsky, who worked at the club, had been testing his recording equipment on us there. I flipped over the sound so we went to Max Gordon, our beloved boss at the Village Vanguard and asked him for a week so we could put on this concert in our very favorite playroom.

This album continues to develop one of the luxuries of the Ellington and Kenton bands: Writing around special soloists. Bob knows each artist so well you can hear how much each composition suits the man. Dick Oatts, Joe Lovano, Tom Harrell and Jim McNeely are destined for jazz greatness and I know this album will help them. You’ll meet some others on future recordings. Oh yeah, on the last track, “Goodbye World” the two newcomers, Brookmeyer and Lewis, are showing a little of what they’ve been learning from the young folks.

I think we are saying something new and good and healthy. We thank you for listening, and while the music in this album is quite serious, we hope it will “make you smile.”

Mel Lewis

BOB BROOKMEYER: COMPOSER, ARRANGER

Bob Brookmeyer
Mel Lewis & The Jazz Orchestra
with Clark Terry

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TRACKS

1. Ding Dong Ding
2. First Love Song
3. Hello and Goodbye
4. Over Here
5. Skylark
6. El Co
7. The Fan Club

NOTES

Jazz has, from its humble beginnings, developed dramatically into an important art form. While improvisation still remains the touchtone of the idiom, composed jazz is now demonstrably in evidence as an important segment of 20th century music.

Brookmeyer has for the last twenty years been known to followers of jazz as a unique composer and arranger as well as a premier instrumentalist. This album of new music by Brookmeyer will once again call attention to his particular writing gifts and we hope impel him to continue to compose.

Because we believe that composed music is needed and wanted, arrangements have been made with Kendo music to print the scores of this music and will be made available to the many stage bands and ensembles in existence. It is from these bands that the future instrumentalist will emerge and it is just the kind of music that they need to learn the idiom. It is our intention at Gryphon to continue to dedicate ourselves to the purpose of developing “20th century music.”

NORMAN SCHWARTZ

The conversations in my house that deal with music contain words such as ‘shape, form, color, attitude and structure.’ I began pieces where they begin and stop when they are through. These were colored as I heard them, reflecting probably what my life was like as well as what my palette held. Building a piece holds the fascination for me and if it feels good at the end, I am glad and ready to start another.

The four band pieces are simply four attitudes towards solving some problems, with some unexpected turns. ‘Skylark’ turned a happy and optimistic song into a dark, almost funeral look. ‘First Love Song’ is just that. ‘Ding Dong’ would not go away and ‘Hello” had to be coaxed for three months to come in. I didn’t expect it to be as windy and garrulous as it is but I don’t have too much control over these things sometimes.

The suite for Clark was intended to give a relaxed view of an incredibly gifted soloist as an equal partner with a large ensemble. He is an old friend, associate and hero of mine and it was often an eerie sensation writing down notes on paper that he so readily can turn into lyric experience. Oh yes, the ‘El Co’ goes back to our co-leading days when we knew each other as ‘Co.’ The ‘Fan Club’ is an affectionate and good humored look at our quintet from the 1960s.

The orchestra is an orchestra because they choose to be together. That doesn’t occur very often and they are a rare and gifted group – sensitive, devoted and relaxed and talented and many good and fine things. It is the only band extant that I would willingly sit down and write for without benefit of financial prodding – higher praise I cannot offer. Mel is, and has long been, the epitome of the musical drummer and as a big band percussionist is without peer. The best there is, simply said.

Mel, Norman and I set out to make the best music we could at this time in our lives. My gratitude and appreciation to Mel and the orchestra and to Norman and the company is hereby tendered. A twelve year written silence preceded this album so I am glad to report this summer will be spent writing for and N.E.A. grant and the fall completing a Swedish radio commission. Music fro larger orchestras will follow. It’s very nice to be back in business.

BOB BROKMEYER
4/30/80 New York City

GLOOMY SUNDAY AND OTHER BRIGHT MOMENTS

Bob Brookmeyer Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. Caravan
2. Why Are You Blue
3. Some of My Best Friends
4. Gloomy Sunday
5. Ho Hum
6. Detour Ahead
7. Days Gone By, Oh My!
8. Where, Oh Where?

NOTES

Although Bob Brookmeyer has figured prominently in a number of jazz orchestral albums, he feels with justification that this is his most successful venture yet as a leader in that challenging area. He wrote the arrangements on the entire second side and commissioned Ralph Burns, Gary McFarland, Al Cohn, and Eddie Sauter to undertake the other four numbers. “The basic idea,” Brookmeyer points out, “was maximum self-expression for all the writers involved. This is definitely not jazz-a-la-mode in the sense that we were trying to exploit what is currently fashionable. Everything here is entirely personal. There’s a lot of whimsy in it, much delight in using the full color range possible in a jazz orchestra, and a series of equally personal improvisations by the soloists within the particular context of each arrangement.”

What especially strikes this listener is that although there has been a great deal of concentration by the five writers on freshly detailed, interweaving voicings, the overall feeling throughout is remarkable relaxed. Since the sidemen involved have worked together frequently, there is an exuberant collective unity which results in an incisively swinging big band performance. The musicians, moreover, all have extensive experience in big band playing so that they blend and shade expertly, an increasingly rare skill in jazz. With so supple and multi-colored an orchestral setting, the solos become absorbingly integrated into the total musical experience. In short, this is not simply a string of choruses over a conventional, predictable set of backgrounds. This is a uniquely orchestral album.

Of Ralph Burns, who scored Caravan, Brookmeyer observes that “he always comes up with just what you need. He not only has the imagination, but also an extraordinary reservoir of technique.” Aside from Brookmeyer, the soloists are altoist Gene Quill and Eddie Costa on vibes. As on the rest of the tunes, the rhythm section is flowingly cohesive with Mel “The Taylor” Lewis fusing all the various ensemble and solo strands into a pulsing unity. Note too the exhilarating bite and brio of the brass section.

Gary McFarland is clearly on of the most resourceful of the younger arrangers. He has contributed to recordings by the Modern Jazz Quartet, Johnny Hodges, Anita O’Day, and Ray Brown, among others; and his jazz version of How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying (Verve V/V6-8443) excels every other jazz interpretation of a show score in recent year in high spirits and ingenuity. His Why Are You Blue has also been recorded by Johnny Hodges (Blue Hodges, Verve V/V6-8406). Here, the melody at the beginning and the end is played by Clark Terry with Nick travis taking the mocking plunger solo. On this an all the other tracks, the trombonist is Brookmeyer.

Al Cohn’s romping Some of My Best Friends has an Ellington tinge in its coloration and underlines Al’s capacity to write for sections so that they play with an infectious looseness and rhythmic ease. The first trumpets solo is by Joe Newman and the second by Clark Terry. Eddie Costa is on vibes, and in the final spirited dialogue between Newman and Terry, Newman again is heard first. Along with the shifting ensemble textures, there’s an intriguing interplay between the distinctly different sounds of Newman and Terry and Brookmeyer’s burry range of colors.

Brookmeyer names Eddie Sauter his favorite writer, and Sauter responsible for this continuously surprising arrangement of Gloomy Sunday which combines romanticism, pungent humor (“Sauter can never stay serious for too long,” Brookmeyer explains), and several brilliant contrapuntal passages. Phil Woods is the alto soloist.

The rest of the album is Brookmeyer’s. His own Ho Hum is literally spoken by trumpets and trombones at the top and the soloists in addition to Brookmeyer are Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Al Cohn, and Terry again. Detour Ahead illustrates Brookmeyer’s characteristically oblique humor. (“It sort of sounds like a Spanish marching band in places,” he adds.) Phil Bodner is on English horn.

On Brookmeyer’s arrangement of "Days Gone By, Oh My!," the trumpet solo is by Clark Terry and Phil Woods is on clarinet. Here, as in all the Brookmeyer charts, there is a beguiling play of sonorities through a skilful variety of voicings that indicate the command Brookmeyer now has of his materials. The brass writing in particular is both ingenious and often euphoric for both the player and listener. The final Where, Oh Where is from Cole Porter’s 1950 show, Out of This World. After setting the verse gently, Brookmeyer handles the graceful theme with good-humored affection and imagination.

All that remains to be said is that as diversely accomplished as the arrangements and the other soloist are, the core of the album is Brookmeyer himself. Few instrumentalists have shown so steady a growth as Brookmeyer during the past ten years. From his first appearance on the New York jazz scene, Brookmeyer evidenced a highly individualized style. He has since grown not only technically but in terms of the subtleties of expression – textural, conceptual, and rhythmic – he draws from his valve trombone. There is a pervasive warmth and unpretentiousness in his work that is the mark of a mature musician who is free of the pressures of hi-status-seeking that have constricted some of his contemporaries. And above all, there is playful Brookmeyer wit – ironic, sardonic, and sometimes just brimming with all unalloyed pleasure of making music that is unmistakably and refreshingly his own.

--- Nat Hentoff

Cover painting by Olga Albizu
Recorded in New York City
November 6, 7, & 8, 1961
Produced by Creed Taylor

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST: BOB BROOKMEYER

Bob Brookmeyer Orchestra

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TRACKS

1. Blues Suite: Introduction & First Movement
2. BlueS Suite: Second Movement
3. Blues Suite: Third Movement
4. Blues Suite: Fourth Movement
5. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
6. Mellow Drama
7. Out of Nowhere
8. Darn That Dream

NOTES

Robert Brookmeyer is tall, lean, sardonic, epigrammatic, and utterly serious about music, if not always about himself. He has become recognized as on of the most expressive trombonists in jazz history. It is his not only that he plays the valve trombone with remarkable facility, but rather it is his imagination, intensity and cutting wit that make him an authentic jazz individualist. Although he is very much his own man, Brookmeyer reminds me of the harmonic taste and venturesomeness of the late Brad Gowans, the shaggy dog narrative humor of Vic Dickenson, and the urgency of Jimmy Harrison. I do not mean that he has necessarily been directly influenced by these men, but I do mean that he has a largeness of spirit and musicianship that these three shared.

This album, however, finally underlines another aspect of Brookmeyer – his writing and arranging. The only man in jazz who is more self-deprecatory than Brookmeyer is Pee Wee Russell, who is introvertedly similar to Bob in other areas of temperament. Characteristically, therefore, Brookmeyer terms himself an arranger rather than a composer and mutters that he does not consider himself in the same league as the more acknowledged jazz “composers.”

Let us hear. First there is the Blues Suite, which takes all the first side of the album. The work was written in February and March of 1959 and is Brookmeyer’s first large-scale jazz composition. “The piece,” he points out, “is very simple. There are no complicated transitions from one movement to the other. It is as long as it is only because that was the space I needed to develop what I had to say.” The work reflects Brookmeyer’s long-term involvement in the blues as well as his lack of rigidity, as both a composer and player, in addition to what he terms his occasional predilection for whimsy. I have been surprised when critics keen about the relative lack of humor in modern jazz and then overlook Brookmeyer. He is, in a way, the Krazy Kat of our time and like the mouse in the Herriman cartoons who kept conking the canine police official with a brick, Brookmeyer’s humor is of the loving kind.

The brief introduction is anchored on four help notes and presents in fragmentary form some of what is to come. The first movement is essentially constructed in elongated a-b-a song form. Note the melodic inevitability of the theme. Brookmeyer is one of the relatively few jazz writers who are actually melodists. There are touches of Ellington in the way the melody falls and in the voicings, particularly the reeds. The influences on the Brookmeyer piano, which is heard extensively and pungently in the work, are several. The include Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, Count Basie, certainly Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, and most recently, Bill Evans.

In this first movement, his piano is both rhythmically incisive and thematically, a connective protagonist. The atmosphere is remarkably relaxed, with the development unfolding with organic, sensuous ease.

The second movement, with its train-like, Monkish introduction is episodic. I cannot resist noting that the “jazz” Henry Mancini thinks he is writing for Peter Gunn is unwittingly a parody of the form and spirit Brookmeyer delineates here. The trumpet solo is by Ernie Royal. The movement continues with a thrusting urgency that has overtones of ominousness.

The third movement is whimsical. “Just a jump tune,” says Brookmeyer. The bursting tenor is Al Cohn, a musician of such consistency that he has for too long been taken for granted by a jazz audience ceaselessly hunting the “new.” Brookmeyer’s piano solo following Cohn has elements of Duke in its spare, propulsive economy. The fourth movement, like the first, is basically in a a-b-a song form. I am much struck by the rocking melody, which has a folk quality not unlike the themes Aaron Copland used in Appalachian Spring. Brookmeyer’s solo and the brass guar he has chosen for himself are rugged and yet lyrical and underline Brookmeyer’s key skill – a feeling for drama, or, as he puts it later, “mellow drama.”

Brookmeyer’s treatment of Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) begins like the founding of Rome, and then Brookmeyer plungers into the marrow of the message. If there is indeed a vocalized essence of jazz instrumental playing – and I believe there is – it is pungently projected in Brookmeyer’s solo. The first trumpet solo is by the crisp, underestimated Nick Travis. The second burst is by Ernie Royal. The driving alto saxophonist is Gene Quill, currently an enlivening member of the Gerry Mulligan big band.

Mellow Drama is a long ballad composition. The mood is dark and the message would not have been unfamiliar to Edgar Allan Poe. The incisively fresh interpretation Out of Nowhere is brisker and is introduced by Brookmeyer. Gene Quill explodes on alto, and the blaring trumpet solo is by Ray Copeland. The concluding Darn That Dream is broodingly lyrical. The urgent, muted trumpet solo is by Ray Copeland and the open-hearted sequel is by Irving “Marky” Markowitz.

This album, I hope, will aid considerably in the re-evaluation of the Ambrose Bierce of the trombonists. Brookmeyer has the capacity to be one of the most ecbt of all jazz writers. The Blues Suite, for instance, is stripped clean of frills. It is a thoroughly unpretentious, but deeply felt piece. Similarly, the other arrangements are vigorously personal, often sharply edged in their humor, and always logically developed.

After a term of commercial writing in New York, Brookmeyer is now a key member of the Gerry Mulligan band. He has become on of that unit’s most enthusiastic writers and one of its most invaluable soloists. As this album indicates, Brookmeyer has a good deal to say as a writer, and he says it with trenchant economy and directness. This is indeed a Portrait Of The Artist as sketched by himself.

NAT HENTOFF
Co-Editor, The Jazz Review

ELECTRICITY

Bob Brookmeyer
with John Abercrombie, Rainer Brüninghaus, Dieter Ilg, Danny Gottlieb, and the WDR Big Band

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TRACKS

1. Farewell, New York
2. Ugly Music
3. White Blues
4. Say Ah
5. No Song
6. The Crystal Palace

NOTES

My attraction to the guitar began in the mid-1950s, with Jimmy Raney and Jim Hall as frequent partners in my musical life. In the mid-1980s, and equally strong fascination began with the synthesizer, and its use in conjunction with acoustic instrumentation, often as a unified sonic entity. John Abercrombie had become one of my "new" favorite guitarists by then, and his interest in sound manipulation – along with his broad range of musical language – made him an ideal choice for this project. His musical gifts were a strong contributory factor to the piece, and his strength and good will gave us all inspiration. This was also my first chance to work with Danny Gottlieb, something he and I had looked forward to and he also is a giver of good feelings, good energy and willingness to become part of the ensemble.

I am in Cologne every year with new work for the WDR (now some 14 or 15 times!) and felt that a slightly reduced instrumentation would make more of a chamber music setting. Structurally, this is a child of On The Way To The Sky, done in 1989 with Jim Hall and Mel Lewis. By that time I had become interested in limiting the number of voices used and in increasing the horizontal aspect of my work. Sky had only three voices, or lines, and Electricity usually has no more than five. I have also grown more patient in my work, taking longer with exposing and developing ideas. Maybe it's getting older or living in the countryside or being, at last, happily married – whatever the reason, I think that I’m looking more for meaning and worrying less about coloring the orchestra and keeping "busy" with the music.

BOB BROOKMEYER
July 1994