Bobby Broom

Description

Harlem Born, NYC raised, Bobby Broom has been heralded as "one of the most musical guitarists of our time." After apprenticing with Charlie Parker alumni pianists, Al Haig and Walter Bishop, Jr., and playing Carnegie Hall with Sonny Rollins and Donald Byrd at age 16, Bobby recorded his debut album as a leader, Clean Sweep, for GRP Records at age 20. During the first half of his career, 1980-2000, he performed and/or recorded with Kenny Burrell, Hugh Masekela, Stanley Turrentine, Charles Earland, Miles Davis, Kenny Garrett, and Dr. John, among others.

Since 2000, Broom has released 12 recordings in total, and has been recognized as one of the top guitarists by DownBeat magazine's annual Reader's Poll in 2015 and 2020, as well as their Critics Poll for four years, from 2012-2014 and again in 2017.

Professor Broom holds a Master of Music degree in Jazz Pedagogy from Northwestern University and is currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University. He continues to conduct clinics, master classes and lectures worldwide and is a teaching artist/instructor and mentor with the Herbie Hancock Institute and the Ravinia Jazz Mentor Program.

The Bobby Broom Trio and *Quartet consists of:

Broom, guitar
Dennis Carroll, bass
Kobie Watkins, drums
*Justin Dillard, piano/keyboard

Work Sample

I have provided two YouTube links to work samples displaying the option of my two available ensemble performance offerings.

In the first link, The Bobby Broom Trio performs the song, "Superstar," a classic by composer Leon Russell that was made famous by Karen Carpenter and later by Luther Vandross. The Broom Trio performed this during their two-night engagement at Middle C Jazz Club in Charlotte, NC on July 10, 2020. This group also recorded this piece on their sophomore recording, Song and Dance (Origin Records, 2007).

Personnel:
Bobby broom, guitar
Dennis Carroll, bass
Kobie Watkins, drums
(Total running time: 7:24)

https://youtu.be/aNsLLcUux78

Link #2 presents Bobby with piano in a quartet setting performing the composition, "Blues On the Corner," written by legendary jazz pianist, McCoy Tyner. This video was shot on 9/2/21 during the ensemble's recording session at SoundMine Studio in Chicago, for their upcoming album release, "Keyed Up!" (Steele Records, 2022).

Personnel:
Bobby Broom, guitar
Justin Dillard, piano
Dennis Carroll, bass
Kobie Watkins, drums
(Total running time: 6:20)  

Sample #1 represents a popular song and radio hit from my childhood that has become a classic. Over the years, I realized that certain popular songs would make for attractive jazz guitar interpretations where I could display my melodic ‘voice,’ as well as my improvisational abilities, and celebrate the songs that attracted me to music and the art form that I came to love, jazz. The very trio seen In the sample began playing this song during our weekly engagements, and we recorded a version of it in 2007.

This song type and our approach to it represent fine examples of both a recurring theme in the type of repertoire that appears throughout my recorded body of work, as well as the processes that make up a large part of our ensemble's performance operation. We begin with material selection and the development of our interpretation in live performances prior to recording, then move to documentation via recording and the revisiting in subsequent live performances of material included in my recorded body of work.

Within themes of each recording project, I have continued to add popular songs to my ensembles' repertoire, in addition to jazz compositions by our past and present, great jazz instrumentalist/composers, and my own original compositions.

History

After approximately twenty years spent developing a career as a "sideman" (accompanying musician) for legendary and notable figures – such as Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell, Hugh Masekela, Dr. John, Charles Earland, Kenny Garrett, etc. – in the year 2000 I directed my focus toward the development of my own recording and performing output as a jazz instrumentalist and bandleader.

Having formed two working ensembles based in Chicago – the Bobby Broom Trio (formed in 1999) and the Deep Blue Organ Trio (in 2000) – both evolved musically and grew their fan-base via the combination of multi-year, continuous weekly Chicago-area engagements, periodic record releases, national airplay and touring (nationally and internationally).

Twenty years later, some of my career highlights of the past decade have been reaching a #1 national jazz radio chart position and multiple Top 10 placements; a sold-out engagement at London's famed Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club; playing the Blue Note Jazz Club in Beijing; leading groups in tours of the U.S. and Europe; two 50 city, North American tours as the opening act for the legendary jazz-rock group, Steely Dan; and a ten-day performance residency at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy. A 2020 highlight was a performance with my trio for Blue Note NYC Jazz Club, which was live-streamed from my backyard, attracting 12.5K international views within 24 hours!

Artistic Vision

My artistic vision is centered around realizing interesting ways of presenting myself as a jazz instrumentalist through music that will continue to maintain and grow my listenership. I also feel the charge of representing the rich legacy of jazz that focuses on the presentation of stylized, musical self-expression through interpretations of classic and modern, folk and popular American music forms.

In my attempt at attaining relevance in the field of jazz in the past twenty years, I’ve used the model of many of my predecessors and mentors who have had success in the ways I describe above. By fulfilling my need to express myself passionately by interpreting music that has relevance within various modern American music and cultural subsets with which I can identify, I believe that I am able to consistently record and perform material that exudes urgent meaning for me and is received as such by jazz and jazz guitar fans. Additionally, depending on the material I choose to present, I may find opportunities to reach beyond an anticipated or typical fan-base to reach new listeners and perhaps bring them closer to jazz music.

Programs for Specific Audience(s) Expertise

Depending on the venue and/or type of event, I do design my performance material to be potentially more well received. I.e., for audiences of elderly to baby boomer listeners, I would choose to play more American Songbook standards. Similarly, for boomers and younger, I would perform more classic rock song interpretations.

Examples that I recall clearly come from my experiences in performing as opening act for Steely Dan. Although those fans were not initially mine, I was able to have success with them because I programmed sets that consisted of my arrangements of jazz interpretations of classic rock songs – all of which were already developed and in my recorded catalogue. Another memory was during the same tour and playing the Ryman Theater in Nashville, TN. As part of our set there I played "The Tennessee Waltz," which I had just recorded. Although that move wasn't rocket science, the crowd showed their tremendous appreciation after just a few notes of the song.

Traditional Folk/Ethnic Artform Statement

Although I see jazz as largely a Black-American folk art, I also realize its trending universality because of its propensity to absorb other musical styles and often cross cultures and generations (especially with the advent of jazz education). I feel that factions within the industry (particularly jazz journalists and certain institutions) are looking further and further away from the jazz models that marked success for my forebears. Because of my musical upbringing and the relative success I’ve seen in my career, I feel compelled and bolstered to continue operating within the original paradigm in fulfilling my artistic vision.

As traditional models in jazz are seemingly threatened by trends toward world-music and away from the blues, away from feeling and toward more voluminous notes, and toward detailed complexities of compositional elements in lieu of stylized instrumentalist voices; I will remain aligned with the ethnic heritage of jazz music and its relations to American styles of folk and popular music songwriting, and historical performing artist success. I continue to believe in the relevance, importance, and relatability of this path as the best way to present myself and jazz music to non-musician audiences of music lovers.