Robert Edward Brookmeyer (December 19, 1929 – December 15, 2011) was an American jazz valve trombonist, pianist, arranger, and composer. 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