Dave Rivello Pays Tribute To Bob Brookmeyer At Kilbourn

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On Wednesday night at Kilbourn Hall, composer/conductor Dave Rivello will lead the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble in a tribute to veteran valve trombonist/composer Bob Brookmeyer in honor of Brookmeyer's 80th birthday. The concert program consists entirely of Brookmeyer compositions, as well as five premiere arrangements of “Happy Birthday.” Brookmeyer himself – who has played with Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Clark Terry, and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra – will also play the concert.

Legendary composer and valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer will be in town for Eastman bandleader Dave Rivello's celebration of his life achievements and 80th birthday. (Photo: William Claxton)

Brookmeyer will also be onhand the following night as a guest soloist when the Dave Rivello Ensemble records a live album at the Village Rock Cafe in East Rochester.

Rivello, a faculty member at the Eastman School of music and a longtime composition student of Brookmeyer's, keeps a fairly high profile around town with frequent gigging by his all-student band. Rivello brims with excitement at the opportunity to bring Brookmeyer into town, and it promises to be especially surreal catching Brookmeyer at the Village Rock Cafe, where the Rivello Ensemble has enjoyed a longstanding bi-weekly residence. While Brookmeyer's distinct sound as a player can be somewhat attributed to the rarity of the valve trombone, his vision and voice as a composer continue to exert a huge influence on Rivello, who is himself steadily carving out an individual path as a composer of modern big band/orchestral jazz.

“In the ten years that I studied with him,” explains Rivello, “Brookmeyer opened a whole world for me, musically and compositionally. I still take lessons from him and I'm still learning from him. Every time I talk to him, I learn something else.”

Rivello sought to draw attention to the fact that “this living legend is turning 80 years old and is still playing and writing some of the best music of his life.”

The concert will feature a rendition of Brookmeyer's arrangement of “My Funny Valentine” for Gerry Mulligan's band. (Brookmeyer wrote a darker, more impressionistic arrangement for Mel Lewis's band in 1982, which the Rivello Ensemble will be performing at its final concert of the season next year.) Even though Brookmeyer is still alive, Rivello says he still had to do quite a bit of digging for some of the music, and says he received invaluable help from Brookmeyer's assistant Ryan Truesdell. In fact, Rivello and Truesdell had to procure the music for some of the pieces from Gerry Mulligan's widow.

“It's not something that you can just go to a regular music store and say ‘I want this by Bob Brookmeyer,'” chuckles Rivello.

Where And When:

Dave Rivello and the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble Celebrate Bob Brookmeyer's 80th Birthday
8pm Wednesday, December 2nd at Kilbourn Hall
26 Gibbs Street
Free Admission

The Dave Rivello Ensemble with Special Guest Bob Brookmeyer
9pm Thursday, December 3rd, at the Village Rock Cafe
213 Main Street, East Rochester
Free Admission

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