Special Collections
Robert Brookmeyer Papers

Jazz trombonist Robert "Bob" Brookmeyer was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1929. He studied piano and composition at the Kansas City Conservatory. As a pianist, Brookmeyer began his professional career in the early fifties. He started doubling on valve trombone in 1952 and first came to prominence playing in a quintet with Stan Getz. During 1957, Brookmeyer recorded one of his most acclaimed albums, Traditionalism Revisited, for Affinity. Brookmeyer was a charter member of the famed Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1965, dividing his chores between arranging and playing and finding steady work as a band member in the Mort Lindsay band on television's Merv Griffin Show.

Brookmeyer was relatively inactive as a jazz musician from 1968 until 1978, when he released a new album, Black Again, and in 1979 began a long term relationship as a composer-arranger and musical director of Mel Lewis's big band. To date, Brookmeyer has released more than twenty-five albums as a leader and more than 30 as a sideman. In 1996, Brookmeyer accepted the post of chief conductor for the Danish Radio Big Band. Sound recordings from this collection are housed in the Marr Sound Archives on the ground floor of the Miller Nichols Library.

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Special Collections is a non-circulating and non-browsing resource center. The Special Collections Reading Room is open to researchers Monday through Friday during the academic year. Public service hours for the current semester are listed at http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/index.html#hours but researchers are encouraged to call ahead for verification of hours due to University intersessions and other events. Special Collections is located on the fourth floor of the Miller Nichols Library at 5100 Rockhill Road in Kansas City, Missouri. All inquiries concerning access to the collections should be addressed to Special Collections Library Information Specialists Teresa Gipson or Kelly McEniry.

Teresa Gipson Special Collections Library Information Specialist Miller Nichols Library 5100 Rockhill Rd Kansas City, MO 64110 (816) 235-1532 Teresa Gipson Fax (816) 333-5584

Kelly McEniry Special Collections Library Information Specialist Miller Nichols Library 5100 Rockhill Rd Kansas City, MO 64110 (816) 235-1532 Kelly McEniry Fax (816) 333-5584