McConnell, Rob

McConnell, Rob , Canadian trombonist; b. London, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 14, 1935. He is best known as the band leader and arranger of the Boss Brass, a potent part-time organization featuring many of Canada’s best jazz musicians. He began studying music in his teens, learning valve trombone in high school. By the early 1960s, inspired by Bob Brookmeyer’s smooth, harmonically sophisticated style, he had become one of Canada’s premier valve trombonists. From 1965–69 he was featured in Phil Nimmons band, Nimmons ’n’ Nine Plus Six. In 1968 he founded the Boss Brass as an all-brass orchestra (and rhythm section) with a repertoire of pop tunes. The group broke up briefly in the late 1980s when he moved to L.A. to teach, but reassembled in 1991 and has been together ever since. Over the years the group has featured such superior players as Moe Kaufman and Rick Wilkins (reeds), Ed Bickert and Lome Lofsky (guitar), Ian McDougall (trombone), and Terry Clarke (drums). As a vehicle for his swinging and innovative charts, the Boss Brass is about as good an ensemble as a writer could want.

Discography

Mel Tormé/Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass (1986); The Rob McConnell Jive Five (1990); The Brass Is Back (1991); Brassy and Sassy (1992); Our 25th Year (1993); Trio Sketches (1994); Overtime (1994); Don’t Get around Much Anymore (1995); Three for the Road (1997); Play the Jazz Classics (1997).

—Andrew Gilbert