Tonight’s Swingin’, Singin’ and Bob Concert will be will be live streamed at www.ustream.tv/discovery/live/all?q=uofa-som
The University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences School of Music presents The University of Alabama Jazz Ensemble presents Swingin’ , Singin’ and Bob! Paying Tribute to popular vocal jazz standards, contemporary Big Band repertoire and the recent passing of Jazz Composer Bob Brookmeyer. The Jazz Ensemble is directed by Christopher Kozak, director of Jazz Studies and assistant professor. The Concert will take place on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Moody Music Building on the campus of The University of Alabama. The program will include “Whirly Bird” by Neal Hefti, “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” bySammy Cohn and Jimmy Van Heusen, “Orange Colored Sky” by Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein, “I Get a Kick Out of You” by Cole Porter, “Fly Me to the Moon” by Bart Howard, “When I Fall in Love” by Edward Heyman and Victor Young, “The Touch of Your Lips” by Ray Noble, “Soft Light and Sweet Music” by Irving Berlin. “Boom-Boom” by Bob Brookmeyer, “Ding Dong Ding” by Bob Brookmeyer, “Clementine” by Percy Montrose, “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” by Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin
“Something’s Gotta Give” by Johnny Mercer and “Mack the Knife” by Marc Blitzstein, Bert Brecht, and Kurt Weill.
This event is FREE and open to the public. For more information visit http://music.ua.edu/calendar-of-events/ or call 205-348-1477.
The University of Alabama, a student-centered research university, is experiencing significant growth in both enrollment and academic quality. This growth, which is positively impacting the campus and the state’s economy, is in keeping with UA’s vision to be the university of choice for the best and brightest students. UA, the state’s flagship university, is an academic community united in its commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all Alabamian
Biography
Bob Brookmeyer (1929-2011) has an unusually varied and extensive background in all forms of improvised and composed music. He was born December 19, 1929, attended Kansas City Conservatory of Music where he won the Carl Busch Prize for Choral Composition. He arrived in New York playing piano with Mel Lewis and Tex Benecke, staying there to perform the music of Eddie Sauter with Ray McKinley, free lancing with musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, PeeWee Russell, Ben Webster, Charles Mingus and Teddy Charles. After a brief stay with Claude Thornhill, he joined Stan Getz and maintained that association for 15 years. Leaving Stan Getz in 1954 he joined Gerry Mulligan, replacing Chet Baker, producing the ‘Paris Concerts’ and beginning a partnership that lasted until Mulligan’s death. Among his prime achievements was the creation of the Concert Jazz Band. In 1958, he spent a year with Jimmy Guiffre Three, including Jim Hall, which turned out to be the first group to employ regular free improvisation as a staple of the concert fare. Along the way, he made a 2 piano album with Bill Evans, played on George Russell’s ‘New York, New York,’ and became a regular in the studio musicians “A” group. The Quintet with Clark Terry began in 1961 to great success and continues to this day. The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band once again found him as a key member and contributing composer/arranger. Also in 1979 he and Jim Hall played as a duo exclusively for 1 year, garnering critical acclaim.
In 1981 he began to work extensively in Europe as a composer and conductor, creating many works for Cologne and Stockholm. He also was appointed Musical Director of the Mel Lewis Orchestra, while beginning a career in University teaching at the Manhattan School of Music. In 1988 he was appointed Director of the BMI Composers Workshop and in 1991 he moved to Holland to start a radical new school for improvised and composed music. Upon the demise of this venture he returned to the United States and settled in New Hampshire, assuming a position as Chair of the Jazz Composition Department at the New England Conservatory. While in Europe he was invited to initiate a jazz project at the Famed Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, which in turn became the beginnings of his New Art Orchestra, an 18 piece group that remains his composition voice. They have recorded 3 CDs for the Challenge label – ‘New Works,’ which was CD of the Year in England, ‘Waltzing With Zoe’ and ‘Get Well Soon,’ which was nominated for a Grammy in 2005. Bob still continues write for and perform with his New Art Orchestra and mentors young writers and performers at the New England Conservatory, always expanding his horizons and continually seeking new challenges both in education and music.
Bob Brookmeyer passed away December 15, 2011, just four days shy of his 82nd birthday. Bob was an integral force in music, making some of the greatest groups in jazz history what we know and admire today. Whether as a composer, arranger or trombonist, his voice is immediately discernible from the very first note, always bringing a smile and one word: “Brookmeyer.”
For many of us, Bob has always been a tremendous inspiration and an overflowing wealth of knowledge. You’d be hard to find a large ensemble composer that doesn’t have Bob’s name on the top of their list of favorites. For those lucky enough to have the opportunity to study with him, we were given more than just an education in the art of being a great composer, we were given a level of both love and support that expanded far beyond the classroom. He had a wonderful ability to cultivate our inner strengths, yet pull us out of our comfort zones and stretch us farther than we could have ever imagined possible.
Bob’s newest album, STANDARDS, which was officially released a few weeks ago, was a record Bob was incredibly proud of. It is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word, with each arrangement encompassing everything that is “Bob Brookmeyer.”
Bob, you were an amazing force and a fearless leader to all jazz composers. Thank you for your years of inspiration, support, and for leaving a legacy of music to continually inspire us for years to come.
— http://www.bobbrookmeyer.com/
In a career that has spanned more than five decades composing musical scores to films, composer John Williams has scored fewer than five Westerns, which judging from this exemplary work for the 1972 score for the film of the same name, seems something of a shame. The Cowboys is the story of a tough veteran cowpoke, portrayed by John Wayne, who is helping to bring a group of inexperienced young hands to manhood on a cattle drive in the American “Wild West”. Williams offers a robust, brassy score that leans heavily on the composers’ heavy influence from another American composer, Aaron Copland.