Brookmeyer was born on Dec. 19, 1929, in Kansas City, Mo., the only child of Elmer Edward Brookmeyer and the former Mayme Seifert. He began playing music professionally as a teenager and attended the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, but left before graduating
Brookmeyer played piano with the big bands of Tex Beneke and Ray McKinley, but switched his focus to valve trombone when he was with the Claude Thornhill orchestra in the early 1950s.
While active on the New York jazz scene in the 1950s and ’60s, Brookmeyer was also busy in the city’s television and recording studios. He was in the house band for “The Merv Griffin Show” and wrote arrangements for Ray Charles and others. He abandoned the uncertainties of the jazz life for the financial security of full-time studio work after moving to Los Angeles in 1968.
In the 1960s he also worked as a studio musician, co-led a quintet with Clark Terry and worked in and wrote for the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. In 1980 this band recorded an album of his compositions/arrangements on which two tracks featured Terry.
During his decade on the West Coast he struggled with a serious drinking problem and, after overcoming it, briefly considered quitting music to become an alcoholism counselor. Instead, in 1978, he returned to jazz, and to New York.
Brookmeyer’s primary instrument was an unusual one: the valve trombone, played with valves like a trumpet’s rather than a slide. His big, blurry sound and graceful style were an integral part of small groups led by the saxophonists Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan and the clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre in the 1950s, as well as a popular quintet he co-led with the trumpeter Clark Terry in the 1960s. He was also an occasional pianist, good enough to have held his own on a two-piano album with a master of that instrument, Bill Evans, in 1959.
But he was best known for his writing, especially his arrangements for big bands, which at their best captured the spirit of past masters like Duke Ellington and Count Basie while remaining thoroughly contemporary. His charts in the 1960s for Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra helped invigorate the big-band genre at a time when many critics considered it moribund. He later expanded his palette to include ideas from modern classical music.
After a period in Europe, he returned to the United States, where he continued to write and record. Bob Brookmeyer also taught jazz composition at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
He was a highly respected teacher, at the New England Conservatory of Music and elsewhere, including a music school he founded and ran for several years in the Netherlands. Many of the best-known members of the current generation of bandleaders consider him a mentor, among them Maria Schneider, who studied under him at the New England Conservatory.
In June 2005, Brookmeyer joined ArtistShare and announced a project to fund an upcoming third album featuring his New Art Orchestra. The resulting Grammy-nominated CD, titled Spirit Music, was released in summer 2006.
Brookmeyer, who lived in Grantham, N.H., was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006. He recently received the eighth Grammy Award nomination of his career (none of the previous seven had resulted in a victory) for an arrangement from the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra’s album Forever Lasting.
In September 2011, possibly his last recording Standards was released. It features the New Art Orchestra with vocalist Fay Claassen.
He died December 15, 2011.
Ain't Misbehavin'
Bob Brookmeyer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All by myself
No one to walk with
But I'm happy on the shelf
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
I know for certain
I'm through with flirtin'
It's just you I'm thinkin' of
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
Like Jack Horner
In the corner
Don't go nowhere
What do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin' for
Believe me
I don't stay out late
Don't care to go
I'm home about eight
Just me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
Like Jack Horner
In the corner
Don't go nowhere
What do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin' for
Believe me
I don't stay out late
Don't care to go
I'm home about eight
Just me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm savin' my love for you
The lyrics of Bob Brookmeyer's "Ain't Misbehavin'" touch upon the theme of loneliness and unrequited love. The song's narrator admits that they are alone and do not have anyone to talk or walk with, but they are content being alone and saving their love for someone special. The singer establishes that they are through with flirting and have set their sights on a specific person that they love. The line "ain't misbehavin'" lets the listener know that the singer is not engaging in any reckless or inappropriate behavior, but is remaining faithful to their love.
The chorus of the song emphasizes the singer's loyalty and commitment, comparing themselves to a character in a nursery rhyme, Jack Horner, who sat in a corner eating his Christmas pie. The singer does not care about going out and does not stay out late, but rather spends their time at home with their radio. The repetition of the chorus reinforces the singer's devotion to their love interest and the unwavering principle of saving their love.
Line by Line Meaning
No one to talk with
I don't have anyone to converse with.
All by myself
I am completely alone.
No one to walk with
I don't have anyone to take strolls with.
But I'm happy on the shelf
Despite this loneliness, I enjoy being alone.
Ain't misbehavin'
I'm not seeking any other love interests.
I'm savin' my love for you
I am reserving all of my love for you.
I know for certain
Without a doubt, I am sure.
The one I love
The only person I love.
I'm through with flirtin'
I am done with flirting with others.
It's just you I'm thinkin' of
You are the only person on my mind.
Like Jack Horner
Similar to a character in a nursery rhyme.
In the corner
Secluded in a nook.
Don't go nowhere
I stay in one spot.
What do I care?
I don't mind.
Your kisses are worth waitin' for
I am willing to wait for your affection.
Believe me
Trust what I am saying.
I don't stay out late
I don't go out at night.
Don't care to go
I have no interest in going out.
I'm home about eight
I come home early.
Just me and my radio
I enjoy spending time listening to music.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., BMG Rights Management
Written by: Andy Razaf, Fats Waller, Harry Brooks
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind