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Brother Cleve

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Brother Cleve
Born
Robert Francis Toomey

(1955-02-02)February 2, 1955
DiedSeptember 9, 2022(2022-09-09) (aged 67)
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
Years active1975–2022
SpouseDiane Dodge

Robert Toomey (February 2, 1955 – September 9, 2022),[1] publicly known as Brother Cleve, was an American musician, DJ, record producer, mixologist, and writer. Known as the godfather of the local bar and cocktail scenes in Boston, Massachusetts, Cleve grew up in nearby Medford.[2]

His "Brother Cleve" moniker originated as a personality he created for Sports Palace, a weekend program on college radio station WMBR in Cambridge; he also utilized the name in live appearances and recordings for the Church of the SubGenius, a parody religion.[1][2]

Music

Toomey played piano, organ, accordion, vibraphone, and a variety of electronic keyboards. He was adept at sampling and multi-track remixing as well.

In the 1980s Cleve was a touring keyboardist for the rock band the Del Fuegos,[2] during which time he developed an interest in cocktails and bartending.[3] Around this time he also served as touring keyboardist for Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, and appears on their 1994 album Ritual of the Savages.

In the 1990s, Cleve was hired as touring keyboardist for the neo-lounge band Combustible Edison, before becoming a full band member.[2][4] He appears on their 1998 album The Impossible World, issued on Sub Pop.

Toomey performed and recorded with numerous other artists, including The I-Tones, Wheelers & Dealers, Huge Voodoo, Dragonfly, and The Singhs, covering a variety of styles, including reggae, country, exotica, Bollywood, and R&B. He also recorded original material under the name Brother Cleve & His Lush Orchestra.[4]

In the late 1990s, Cleve befriended, visited, and worked with the legendary Mexican-American bandleader Juan Garcia Esquivel, who was elderly, bedridden, and retired in Mexico. In 1996 Cleve recorded Esquivel's voice and mixed them into two new Christmas recordings, which included members of Combustible Edison. The tracks, "Jingle Bells (Greetings From Esquivel!)" and "Auld Lang Syne (Adios From Esquivel!)" were issued on the full-length Esquivel compilation album Merry Xmas From The Space-Age Bachelor Pad (Bar/None Records).[5]

In 2004, he contributed "Bwana Bwana (Br. Cleve's Bongo Congo Mix)" to the compilation album Adulterated - The Remix Project (Taboo Records).[6] The following year he contributed "School 4 Robots" to the compilation album, Dimension Mix: A Tribute To Dimension 5 Records - The Music Of Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson.[7] In 2006 he remixed Esquivel's recording of "Pecado Mortal" for the compilation album Esquivel! Remixed (SonyBMG Music).[8] In 2010 he produced the album The Unforgettable Sounds of Esquivel, by Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica.[9][10]

In 2018 Cleve co-produced (with Irwin Chusid) Barrence Whitfield & the Soul Savage Arkestra: Songs from the Sun Ra Cosmos, featuring new takes on the repertoire of the noted Afrofuturist musician-composer-bandleader Sun Ra. The album was issued in 2019 on the Modern Harmonic label. Cleve played keyboards on and arranged several tracks, and helped mix the album.

Cocktail Culture

While touring with the Del Fuegos, "One day in the mid-1980s, at a diner in Cleveland, [Toomey] noticed scores of cocktails listed on the menu," wrote James R. Hagerty in a September 2022 Wall Street Journal obituary. "He began searching thrift shops for cocktail-recipe books and learned to mix and tweak classic drinks."[11]

Cleve began bartending at Hoodoo Barbecue near Fenway Park, and was a DJ on weekly lounge nights at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge.[3][12] In 1998, he helped open Cambridge's B-Side Lounge.[2][3] The Boston Globe once referred to him as “The Lounge King of Boston.”[13]

Toomey specialized in pairing cocktails with music. At a Boston bar, he blended daiquiris with Cuban jazz and 1970s cocktails with disco.[11] "Some of the people he inspired and mentored helped lead the rebirth of the cocktail on a national scale," according to Noah Rothbaum, associate editor of The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails.[11]

"He can go very deep into a sub-genre of music and connect it to bar culture in a way very few people can," said Jackson Cannon, bar director of Boston’s Eastern Standard in 2017. "[Cleve] brought a maturity to all this. His artistic sensibility and his libertarian streak all come together in a very unique way of relating everything."[13]

"I’ve never met anyone who possessed more experience or interest in quirky regional foods and drinks than Cleve," wrote journalist and friend Robert Simonson in a 2022 tribute. "He ate pig snoots and toasted ravioli in St. Louis, hamburgers with peanut butter and red onion in Springfield, Missouri; fried alligator in Mississippi; boiled peanuts in the Carolinas; Dynamite sandwiches in Woonsocket, Rhode Island; carne seca in Phoenix; chow mien sandwiches in Massachusetts; and Dole Whip in Lake George."[14]

In 2022, Cleve co-established Lullaby, a cocktail bar in the Lower East Side of New York City.[2]

Cleve died of a heart attack on September 9, 2022, while visiting Los Angeles for a tiki-themed bartending event.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b "Robert 'Brother Cleve' Toomey, "Godfather of Boston's Bar Scene" and Global Tastemaker, Dies at Age 67". AP News (Press release). Ein Presswire | Newsmatics. September 19, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Simonson, Robert (January 13, 2022). "A Boston Bar Legend Comes to New York". The New York Times. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c First, Devra (September 13, 2022). "Brother Cleve was the godfather of the local cocktail scene". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Kelley, Dennis, "Robert 'Brother Cleve' Toomey, The Music Museum of New England
  5. ^ Merry Xmas From The Space-Age Bachelor Pad at Discogs.com
  6. ^ Adulterated - The Remix Project at Discogs.com
  7. ^ Dimension Mix: A Tribute To Dimension 5 Records at Discogs.com
  8. ^ Esquivel! Remixed at Discogs.com
  9. ^ The Unforgettable Sounds of Esquivel at Discogs.com
  10. ^ The Unforgettable Sounds of Esquivel credits at Orchestrotica.com
  11. ^ a b c d Hagerty, James R. (September 22, 2022). "Robert Toomey, aka 'Brother Cleve,' Inspired Cocktail Revival". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  12. ^ Morse, Steve (February 13, 1997). "The revival of the lounge lizard". The Boston Globe. p. 28. Retrieved June 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Simonson, Rob, "Brother Cleve Is a Difficult Man to Define," Imbibe Magazine, April 21, 2017
  14. ^ Simonson, Robert, "Remembering Brother Cleve", at Robertsimonson.substack.com