Guitarist Bobby Broom cut his teeth performing with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, and Dr. John and has amassed a substantial body of work as a leader over the years. In this special performance, the trio plays music from their first CD release Soul Fingers. Featuring Hammond organist Ben Patterson and drummer Kobie Watkins.
An all-star panel of former Jazz Messengers gather to celebrate Art Blakey
The Jazz Congress presents the 2019 Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award to Darlene Chan, a tireless, behind the scenes advocate for so many artists and the music at large.
Also in this video, following the award presentation, members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers gather onstage for a once-in-a-lifetime reunion following the presentation, hosted by Celine Peterson.
Panelists: Terence Blanchard, Randy Brecker, Cameron Brown, Bobby Broom, Donald Brown, Steve Davis, Leon Lee Dorsey, Essiet Essiet, Kevin Eubanks, Jon Faddis, Benny Green, Billy Harper, Donald Harrison, Eddie Henderson, Vincent Herring, Harold Mabern, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Ralph Peterson Jr., Bill Pierce, Lonnie Plaxico, Wallace Roney, Melissa Slocum, Charles Tolliver, Steve Turre, Bobby Watson, Reggie Workman.
It’s no secret that Tennessee is home to a lot of great music. Music fans around the world know about the blues on Beale Street in Memphis and the rich history of country music in the Music City, but jazz in Knoxville? People in the broader world may know that we are home to the UT Volunteers, but Knoxville’s flourishing jazz scene is not as well known.
As it turns out, the University of Tennessee is a good starting point for a conversation about jazz in Knoxville, because there is a direct link between Knoxville being home to our state’s flagship campus and the city’s current wealth of musicians and events. You see, the UT School of Music has been training jazz musicians since the 1950s and has offered a degree in jazz performance since 1976. Today, the school employs five full time jazz professors. Between them, they have toured, performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in the art form: Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard and Tom Harrell to name but a few.
John Pizzarelli and Knoxville Jazz Orchestra at the Tennessee Theatre, photo credit to Eric Smith
While many of UT’s jazz graduates have moved away to pursue careers elsewhere, many others have found the region’s natural beauty, temperate climate and easy livability too attractive to leave. I myself happen to be among this number. I grew up in East Tennessee and began my studies at UTK in 1989. After graduation I spent four years in Chicago, but the weather and quality of life didn’t suit me, so I ultimately decided to return to Knoxville in 1999.
The thing that I missed most when I returned home were the professional big bands that played in and around Chicago. As I reflected on this, I realized that there were enough skilled musicians in Knoxville to put together a big band of our own. After making a few phone calls, the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra was born. We began presenting concerts in the fall of 1999 and by 2001 had put together a European festival tour, performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Jazz a Vienne in France and the Festival Internacional de Ezcaray in Spain.
Live at Lucille’s (featuring Bobby Broom’s Organi-sation), photo credit to Eric Smith
Shortly thereafter, we began inviting international jazz stars to Knoxville to perform their music with our band. We formed a non-profit organization to support our activities and made it our mission to cultivate a local audience for the music that we love. Today, our organization presents several dozen concerts each year. This includes a series of ticketed big band concerts at the Bijou and Tennessee Theatres, a weekly series of free, outdoor small group concerts during the summer months and a brand new series of performances in conjunction with East Tennessee PBS called Live at Lucille’s. This new series features top jazz artists from around the country, is taped in front of a live studio audience in Knoxville and will begin airing on PBS stations across the state in 2019.
In addition to the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra’s events, there are several venues that offer jazz entertainment on one or more nights each week. Bistro at the Bijou, Pero’s, the Crown and Goose and Drink all have regular jazz offerings and jazz bands pop up from time to time in rotation at Pres Pub, Barley’s, Pilot Light and elsewhere. So now you know our little secret. We hope you’ll come discover for yourself everything that our little piece of heaven has to offer soon!
Renowned jazz guitarist Bobby Broom has been appointed assistant professor of music in
the Northern Illinois University School of Music. He will teach jazz guitar and improvisation
in the school’s Jazz Studies Program.
Born on New York City’s Upper West
Side, Broom took up guitar at the age
of 12 and just five years later made
his first appearance at Carnegie Hall,
playing with Sonny Rollins and
Donald Byrd. He relocated to Chicago
in the 1980s and has enjoyed a long
and distinguished career as a
performer and educator.
“I’m thrilled and honored to assume the position of assistant professor of jazz guitar at Northern Illinois University,” Broom said. “I’m looking forward to sharing with my students, colleagues and the community, all that I’ve gleaned throughout my life and career of making music with many of the 20th century’s jazz masters. I’m so pleased by the prospect of continuing my work in musical expression and jazz guitar studies under the auspices and with the support of NIU.”
Broom holds a Master’s of Music degree in jazz pedagogy from Northwestern University, and has taught at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, DePaul University, North Park University and Chicago’s American Conservatory of Music. He conducts clinics, master classes and lectures nationwide and abroad, is a teaching artist with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and has been a Ravinia Jazz Mentor to Chicago Public School students for more than 18 years. Broom has written guest editorial and instructional pieces for national magazines, DownBeat, Jazz Times and Jazziz.
Heralded as “one of the most musical guitarists of our times,” by author and jazz critic Ted
Gioia, Broom has spent the new millennium focusing on his musical output as a leader. He
has recorded with both his Bobby Broom Trio and the disbanded, Deep Blue Organ Trio for
the Premonition, Delmark and Origin labels. His Plays for Monk was released in spring 2009,
The Way I Play in April 2008, and Deep Blue’s Wonderfu1! in 2011 and Folk Music in 2007.
Bobby was recognized as one of the top guitarists in Down Beat magazine’s annual Readers’
Poll in 2015 as well as their Critics Poll for four years, from 2012–2014 and in 2017.
Throughout his career, Broom has continued to garner praise and encouragement from his
peers and elders. Sonny Rollins has said, “Bobby is the reason I like the guitar.” Fellow
guitarists also laud Broom, including those that he admires such as John Scofield, George
Benson and Pat Metheny, who cited Broom’s 2007 Song and Dance recording as “one of the
best (jazz) guitar trio records ever!”
Broom’s latest recording is with his new organ group, the Bobby Broom Organi-Sation,
which was the opening act for Steely Dan’s fifty-city, North American tour in 2014. The new
recording, Soul Fingers, is arguably Bobby’s most ambitious to date. Produced by the
legendary drummer/producer Steve Jordan, Bobby once again revisits the music of his
youth, this time employing a wide range of instrumental palates, in addition to palpable
group interplay and his own, always soulful and singularly personal, guitar sound and style.
I’ve had the good pleasure of catching Chicago-based jazz guitarist Bobby Broom live a number times, including no less than three shows in one year when he opened for Steely Dan. I’ve always been amazed by Broom’s tone, economy and arranging prowess. On his current release Soul Fingers, all of these elements are evident – and much more.
Produced by music legend Steve Jordon, Soul Fingers features Bobby Broom with organist Ben Paterson and drummer Kobie Watkin. Additionally, Jordon picks up the drum sticks on a track. The album, built around rock and pop covers, is surprisingly cohesive and engaging. Part of its charm is no doubt due to Jordon’s acumen behind the boards, but another large part is the interaction of Broom with the Organi-Sation.
The band was originally created after a call came from Steely Dan for Broom and his “organ group” to open their shows in 2014. They have a telepathy which is quite evident from the first notes of the opening song “Come Together,” Bobby Broom’s interpretation of the Beatles’ classic. Over the backdrop of Paterson’s Hammond B-3 organ, Broom’s guitar sings with a theme that is both familiar and different. Paterson’s smoking solo brings it all together. “Come Together” swings with authority, and seems all too brief.
“Ode to Billie Joe” offers something different. Ron Blake and Chris Rogers add a little spice to this Bobbie Gentry hit, playing sax and trumpet, respectively. Broom’s arrangement is jaunty and the song benefits from guest Justefan Thomas on vibes. Steely Dan’s “Do It Again” is a nice shuffle with a time signature change and effective solos by Broom and Peterson. The trouble with Broom covering this particular track is that it makes you envision an entire Steely Dan cover album from the Organi-Sation. Here, Paterson’s solo bounces of the shuffle played by Watkins and Broom elegant lead lines are intertwined with his tasty rhythm work.
The well-worn “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is here, too. Broom’s guitar seems faithful to the main melody, while Sergio Pires and Luciano Antonio contribute acoustic guitars. Broom is even encouraged to add bass on the song; percussion was also included for a larger feel. Speaking of well worn, Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze” is also represented. The MOR classic shines partly due to Broom’s arranging chops, and partly to due to drummer Watkins’ perfectly off-kilter touch on the song. Unlike “While My Guitar Gently Weeps, “Summer Breeze” proves less is better.
“Eyes of Faith” breaks with the album’s theme as it is Bobby Broom’s sole original composition. This, however, is in no way a negative, as Broom has proven he’s as capable a composer as he is an arranger. “Eyes of Faith” moves with authority and grace, wearing a gospel veneer which lays evenly over its jazz underpinnings. It’s simply beautiful, with an optimism represented by the song’s main theme and a grace supported by the string arrangement of Matt Jones. “Eyes of Faith” is my favorite song on Soul Fingers, which is quite an accomplishment given the classics surrounding it.
“Get Ready” ties together Broom’s arrangements of the Temptations favorite with a subtle horn chart and percussion by Stanley Jordon, Sammy Figueroa and Kobie Watkins. Add Watkins’ march-like drumming and a conga solo turn, and this cover becomes something worthy of the original R&B classic. Soul Fingers draws to a close with another unlikely cover, Bread’s “Guitar Man.” Their George Benson-influenced reading is another wistful journey with a deceptively simple arrangement that’s much more than meets the eye.
The song and, indeed, the entirety of Soul Fingers is brilliantly engineered by Andy Taub, whose work compliments Steve Jordan’s production yet retains the live in-studio feel of a project which was recorded in just five days. Is this my favorite Bobby Broom album? No, that honor goes to 2014’s My Shining Hour. However, Bobby Broom and the Organi-Sation deliver a compelling, thoroughly entertaining piece of work.
***JUNE 2019*** > Bobby Broom Organi-Sation featuring w/ Ben Paterson, Hammond organ and Kobie Watkins, drums @ Jazz Showcase – Chicago, IL – June 6, 7, 8, 9 – Mark your calendars Chicago! The Bobby Broom Organi-Sation will be recording these performances for an upcoming live release.
Last year, I wrote a Take Five piece dedicated to Thelonious Monk Tribute Albums That Aren\’t Terrible. Add Bobby Broom\’s latest record, Plays For Monk, to that list.
Raised in New York, Broom eventually settled in Chicago, where he\’s now seen as a local luminary. Being Sonny Rollins\’ guitarist will get you there, as will playing every Wednesday (when not on tour) with his trio at Pete Miller\’s restaurant in Evanston, Ill. (\”Good food, and great jazz,\” Broom told me.) When I caught the band\’s act in Washington, D.C., it was a remarkably tight unit, developing every solo into a deft narrative. Broom and company even played a Monk tune, \”Light Blue,\” which Broom had forgotten about when planning out the record — but one he calls \”the essence of Monk\’s harmonic irony, playfulness and mischief.\” The considerate, interactive way the trio performed the tune, it showed.
For this year\’s Thelonious Monk birthday anniversary, I spoke with Bobby Broom about making an album of (mostly) Monk\’s music, recorded with longtime associates Dennis Carroll on bass and Kobie Watkins on drums. Specifically, we focused on how the trio arranged the tune \”Evidence\”:
Bobby Broom, \”Ask Me Now,\” Bobby Broom Plays for Monk
Booby Broom was born and raised in New York City but moved to Chicago about 30 years ago. While versed in trad jazz (bebop and post-bop), Broom draws from a variety of American music forms such as funk, soul, R&B and blues. Here\’s a song from his highy regarded 2009 album of Thelonious Monk songs, Bobby Broom Plays for Monk. The record established Broom as a thoughtful and innovative interpreter of some pretty challenging music.
This is the type of record I love and what I have advocated for jazz players forever. A well-chosen playlist of classic rock, soul and pop music; rendered in a breezy and confident style. Broom is the tastiest of the tasteful soul-jazz six stringers, and herein with his “Organi-sation” an organ-based trio, he chooses familiar tunes, tweaks time signatures, slows down and gives ample room for his fretwork and Ben Paterson on Hammond B-3 to scoot and show-off without the pyrotechnic indulgence.
“Ode to Billie Joe” is a soul-jazz strut, instantly hummable and splashed with brass flourishes and enhanced with a sterling vibes solo by Justin Thomas. Steely Dan’s radio Staple “Do It Again” receives a loping swing, with Broom picking the melody and solos with restraint but precision.
The highlight is the odd choice of Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” – sublime in Paterson’s crawling organ underpinning and then Broom plucking out half-woozy staggering notes to mimic the original song’s vocals – euphonic and splendid – a twilight harkening favorite at our house all of 2018….and today.
Wonderfully straight-ahead jazz, covering songs that are refreshed by the breezy tempos and savvy approachable arrangements.