Guitarist Bobby Broom joins the New West Guitar Group for an interview on the High Action podcast. To hear the full episode please visit and subscribe:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…
https://newwestguitar.com/highaction
The Year of Chicago Music will celebrate Chicago’s Jazz and World Music Festivals with virtual performances over the Labor Day holiday and Sundays throughout September.
Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) announced today new and reimagined Jazz and World Music events as part of the Year of Chicago Music – now extended into 2021.
“Music has long been our universal language and the common thread that ties people together across culture, time, and now, more than ever, physical distance,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “These creative renditions of this year’s Jazz and World Music events will provide ways for people to enjoy the spirit of a Chicago festival season while prioritizing health and safety. As the birthplace of Gospel and House music, electric Blues and modern Jazz, Chicago’s sounds and melodies reflect the diversity and dynamism of the people and communities we all call home.”
Millennium Park at Home: Chicago Jazz and the Virtual World Music Festival are part of a robust calendar of virtual events honoring many of Chicago’s beloved festivals that were canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic to protect the health and safety of residents and visitors. Additionally, while Millennium Park remains open and Chicago City Markets continue this fall – permitted special events are canceled and the Chicago Cultural Center will remain closed through the end of this year as part of the City’s comprehensive COVID-19 response plan.
Millennium Park at Home: Chicago Jazz
The “Millennium Park at Home: Chicago Jazz” series will offer four days of free, virtual performances programmed with the Jazz Institute of Chicago over Labor Day Weekend starting Thursday, September 3 through Sunday, September 6 from 4-8 pm. Millennium Park at Home: Chicago Jazz will feature top local and national Jazz artists and include special performances by Chicago artists Tito Carillo and Rempis, Reid, Abrams (September 3), Victor Garcia and Bobby Broom (September 4), Reggie Thomas and Marlene Rosenberg (September 5), and Twin Talk and Bethany Pickens (September 6). Each evening will also showcase the NextGenJazz emerging artist series, highlights from the Chicago Jazz Festival archives, and performances co-presented with local music organizations and filmed at music venues. This program is made possible with support from Millennium Park Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, 90.9fm WDCB Public Radio and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). For the complete lineup and details, visit MillenniumPark.org.
Virtual World Music Festival Chicago
The reimagined “Virtual World Music Festival Chicago” will offer a series of free concerts featuring artists from across the globe each Sunday in September from 1-3 pm. Highlights include the annual celebration of Indian classical music, Ragamala: A Centennial Tribute to Ravi Shankar (September 6) recorded at the Chicago Cultural Center and co-curated with People of Rhythm; Afro-Diáspora y Folklore (September 13) recorded and co-curated with Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center; the Chicago-based traditional Irish supergroup Anam Mór (September 20) recorded at and co-curated with Martyrs’, and the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra (September 27) recorded at Epiphany Center for the Arts and co-conducted by Fareed Haque and Wanees Zarour. This program is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and is sponsored by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). For the complete lineup and details, visit WorldMusicFestivalChicago.org.
Both virtual concert series will air on YouTube.com/ChicagoDCASE and follow a busy summer season of more than 150 new and reimagined DCASE events that included many other virtual concerts, at-home dance parties, drive-in movies, farmers markets, and 21 community meals for frontline workers. To date, the Department’s virtual events have had a combined online audience of more than 365,000 views. Since April, DCASE has booked more than 100 musicians and provided nearly $2 million in financial relief specifically to Chicago musicians and music organizations – in partnership with the local philanthropic community including Arts for Illinois.
“During these Years of Chicago Music, DCASE and our partners are committed to showcasing and lifting up the incredible musicians, organizations, and venues that comprise our diverse and legendary music scene,” said Mark Kelly, Commissioner of DCASE. “While celebrating Chicago’s rich music legacy, we will also welcome artists from across the globe virtually, because music has the power to unite us.”
Additionally, a new fall series of hybrid in-person/virtual events showcasing Chicago musicians at neighborhood clubs and music venues will be announced soon.
Other DCASE venue, programming and permitting updates include:
In June, as a way of response to and support of, the Black Lives Matter movement, an ad hoc group of faculty in the NIU School of Music began collaborating to craft a statement with the objective that it would direct a path forward for the school, its students, faculty and staff.
The members of the committee: Reggie Thomas (professor and head of jazz studies), Rodrigo Villanueva (professor of jazz studies), Mary Lynn Doherty (assistant director of the School of Music, associate professor and coordinator of music education), Bobby Broom (assistant professor), Eric Johnson (professor and coordinator of choral activities), Geof Bradfield (professor of jazz saxophone and jazz studies) and Andrew Glendening (director of the School of Music and professor of music) sought to create a statement that promised actions they would commit to take.
“The intent,” Thomas said. “Was not to release an obligatory response filled with empty gestures, but a statement of real support and accountability. We wanted to express our desire to be purposefully anti-racist and create measures to hold ourselves accountable. Our statement is meant to be a framework for those in our community to create meaningful change when needed to our teaching, curating and recruiting.”
Glendening said the working group functioned as a “think tank” and he envisions that they will continue to work as a steering committee to develop a web page to report out on the progress of their intended actions.
The seven members of the committee were among those who had previously participated in a Diversity+Equity (CODE) workshop, and Villanueva said their discussions from the very beginning revealed the group was determined to develop a statement that would boldly defend the Black Lives Matter movement and make a commitment to seek real change.
Villanueva said he believes the outcomes from this process would include a commitment to actively engaging in anti-racist actions in a variety of areas from the recruitment of a more diverse body of students, faculty and guest artists, to multi-cultural experiences that proactively facilitate multicultural understanding and programming music that enlightens the minds of students related to social justice, to discussions of the history of civil rights in America and the importance of art—specifically music—as a catalyst towards meaningful social, cultural and economic progress.
“Going forward, our community should expect to see thoughtful programming in our performances that reflects our entire society,” Thomas said. “Students should expect to see language and practices in course materials that have been vetted for any unintended biases. We will hold ourselves accountable and responsible for recruiting efforts that make NIU accessible to all populations.”
NIU School of Music Black Lives Matter Statement
Black Lives Matter
Therefore we…
Commit to anti-racist practices that affirm our diverse School of Music community.
Pledge to continually critique our curriculum and pedagogy for bias, marginalization and inequity.
Listen to and learn from each other’s lived experiences to strengthen both our music making and our community.
Perform and study music that represents diverse voices and perspectives.
Recruit with the intention to build diversity in the School of Music that reflects the world in which we want to live.
We state this not as a platitude but as advocates in the fight for real change – change to systems that have too often been discriminatory to Black Americans. We recognize that to be silent is to be complicit in support of such systems.
In our community, we see one another fully and see ourselves in one another.
Therefore, we stand with members of our beloved community, especially when they need us most.
Milestone, 1979
The bashful title suggests a dismissal of the turkey track here ‘Disco Monk’, and Larry Coryell tries to play too fast, but Rollins recalls the ‘Harlem Boys’ (one of Bobby Broom’s favourite Rollins’ themes) with meaningful gusto, dabbles appositely in Asian mode with the lyricon and offers a gallant love song ‘And Then My Love I Found You.
Complete article/URL: https://www.jazzwise.com/features/article/sonny-rollins-albums-that-shook-the-world
Tuesday, May 26th @ 8PM (EST) – Bobby will be live streaming for Blue Note at Home, a weekly live concert series presented by Blue Note New York, is now streaming shows daily. Featuring artists such as Bob James, Monty Alexander, Nicholas Payton, Bobby Broom, Joey Alexander and more, Blue Note at Home aims to reconnect the Blue Note jazz community while we are temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Each set will be broadcast live from the Blue Note New York Instagram (@bluenotenyc) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/bluenotenyc) pages.
The Jazz Foundation of America is a charitable organization committed to “saving blues, jazz and roots, one musician at a time.” On Thursday, May 14, the JFA will enter the livestream realm to further this mission through an all-star online benefit dubbed #TheNewGig. Keegan-Michael Key will host the event, which will raise money for the Foundation’s COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund designed “to help musicians and families affected by the pandemic by covering basic living expenses.”
#TheNewGig will feature appearances by Jon Batiste, Bettye LaVette, Robert Cray, Shemekia Copland, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Ivan Neville, Angelique Kidjo, Dee Dee Bridgewater and many others. The night also will include archival performances from the Foundation’s annual fundraiser A Great Night in Harlem, with Sonny Rollins, Brittany Howard, Herbie Hancock, Donald Fagen and Patti Smith, among the participants.
Steve Jordan will run point on Thursday as the #TheNewGig’s event’s musical director. He currently serves as the Artistic Director of the JFA alongside his wife (and fellow bandmate in The Verbs) Meegan Voss.
The show will be streamed on the Relix YouTube channel on May 14 at 8 p.m. ET, with a 10 p.m. ET rebroadcast.
Can you talk about the scope of the Foundation and the range of musicians who are assisted by it.
We work with a wide range of musicians, not just jazz and blues musicians, but musicians of all ilk because as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington both said, “There’s only two kinds of music: good music and bad music.” Most musicians worth their weight can play most anything as long as it comes from the heart and soul.
The Foundation itself takes care of a wide range of people. We create jobs through the Gig Fund, which is a program in which we actually give money to players who are in need by creating jobs for them to play. We have another grant for musicians who play for people in hospitals and nursing homes. We have another program called Jazz and Blues in the Schools, where musicians go to schools to teach kids who have never heard jazz and blues before and get an appreciation of it. We’ve done that in New Orleans, New York, all over the country—it’s a fantastic program. So there’s a wide range of initiatives that we have in place that create jobs for musicians and have an educational message.
What led to your involvement with the organization?
I was putting on a concert that was supposed to be a birthday celebration for Hubert Sumlin’s 80th birthday. Unfortunately, he passed away about a month and a half before he turned 80, so we thought we would turn the birthday party into a celebration of his life. It was supposed to be underwritten by another foundation but that foundation did not have a license to have a fundraiser in the state of New York.
That’s when I was told about the Jazz Foundation of America, which I had never heard of. When I started to find out more about the Foundation, I thought. “Wow, this is the best kept secret in America.” I was amazed by all the programs that they had implemented and all the people that they helped through the years—people like Abbey Lincoln, Odetta and Clark Terry. There are also a lot of people they take care of that the public doesn’t know about because of the wonderful discretion that they have about keeping people’s business private.
So I decided to work with them on this particular program. The Jazz Foundation underwrote it and we had an incredible show. It was with Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Derek Trucks, Doyle Bramhall. You name it, everyone was on it. It was a bang up show. It’s always great to throw a show at the Apollo Theater and we also were able to get in touch with some of the players who played on some of the original Howlin’ Wolf stuff. So we had people from Chicago and friends of Hubert, that was the main thing. We put together an all-star band and it was just a wonderful evening. We raised over $1 million that night.
A little while later I went to an event where I saw a very close friend of mine, a person I considered my brother. He had developed cancer and it obviously had curtailed his work. I had been wondering how he was managing but he was very private about so I didn’t want to pry. Then I learned that the Jazz Foundation was sustaining him and that to me was incredible because they didn’t let on that they were doing it. I thought that was pretty amazing because most organizations of this caliber like to advertise who they’re taking care of. It’s completely the opposite with this foundation.
So that was the thing that really attracted me and I talked to Meegan about doing some more work with the Foundation. We have a lot of friends who are either getting up in age or have fallen on hard times because the music business is so volatile. The Foundation has been able to help people in need—there’s not a lot of red tape with this organization so people get help pretty quickly. That’s important as well.
Another thing that attracted me to the Foundation is all the good people who are part of it, like Richard Parsons, the chairman, Wendy Oxenhorn, the longtime executive director, Joe Petrucelli, the new executive director and Jarrett Lillian, our president. So you have a real family type of vibe and the social workers are great—Alisa Hafkin, Melaney Mashburn and Will Glass. That also makes it fun to work in this environment.
The Jazz Foundation of America hosts its annual “A Great Night in Harlem” fundraising gala every spring. What is that state of the gala? Will this livestream take place in lieu of it for 2020 or complement it?
This is a completely separate event to deal with the hardships that impact musical communities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s going to complement the gala because we’ve postponed it. Our gala was going to be on April 14th where we were going to honor Carlos Santana and Buddy Guy. We’ve rescheduled it for the fall, depending on the reach of the pandemic and whether we’re surging or we’re on the decline. We’ll see. Whatever is safe. We’re not putting people at risk and then we’re going to follow all guidelines.
You’ve served as musical director for numerous live events over the years, including the Foundation gala. How will you approach the livestream?
With a live show you have the ability to run over timewise. Luckily, I’ve been working in television for many years so this is basically like a television show. I have a finite amount of time to work with. You’re in trouble if you don’t have enough content to fill the time and you’re in trouble if you have too much. Right now we’re on the border of having too much, which is a good thing.
We’re putting together a really fine concert which consists of some household names, some people that you’ve never heard of, some up-and-coming people and then some previously in-the-can performances that took place at the Apollo. We filed away those performances for archival purposes, never for television but this is a new frontier, a dire situation. So we decided that we wanted to show the world some of these performances and if it helps us raise more money, then that’s the right thing to do. The musicians have been gracious enough to sign off on that because this is for a good cause, even though some of these people are very particular about their performances. It’s a whole different vibe because when you’re doing a live show and you know that it’s not going to be broadcast in any way, you tend to be a little bit more loose, a little bit more relaxed. Whereas if it’s a television show you’re a little bit more on edge.
So the performances we’re going to share have a different vibe than if it were just a television show. People are a little bit looser and it’s a little bit more fun. This also is going to be a rare thing where you’re getting to see something that otherwise you would have had to be there to see. It’s only going be up for 24 hours and then that’s it.
Can you name a few of the unheralded musicians that people shouldn’t miss?
We have a few kids that we’ve had at previous events—they’ve grown up a little but they’re still kids to me. People like Matthew Whitaker are going to perform. He’s a great piano player and keyboard player, who’s also a great multi-instrumentalist but his main thing is piano and organs. Another kid we’ve been working with for years is Brandon Goldberg. A wonderful singer named Alexis Morrast also will be performing, She’s really fantastic, kind of a prodigy. Those are some of the young ‘uns we have that I think will surprise people.
#TheNewgig will appear on the Relix Channel, which recently streamed the BB King tribute, another event in which you were the musical director. What are your memories of that night?
The Capitol Theatre is a great place to play and what an audience that was. I mean, they were ready to go, couldn’t get enough of the music and it was a wonderful experience. I felt B.B. King in the house that night for sure. It also was great working with Pete [Shapiro] on it. He’s just so enthusiastic about music. That’s what you need and it’s a change of pace. Not all promoters or club owners are that enthusiastic about music, they’re more enthusiastic about the bottom line. So when you have someone like Pete who really loves the music and will do anything for it, that’s a great thing.
That night was a great tribute in front of a loving audience and it was pure fun. I also got to see old friends—one of my favorite moments was being backstage with Buddy Guy, William Bell and Bobby Rush while the three of them were talking to one another and having a good time. I was so happy being in their presence while they were communing. It was fantastic.
I think it’s great that Thursday’s event will be streamed on Relix because it’s going to get this music to a different demographic. It will turn a whole lot of people onto these musicians, so we’re really excited about it.
As NIU and the world around us deals with a global pandemic, artists continue to find ways to express themselves. In the College of Visual and Performing arts the learning and teaching hasn’t stopped, it’s simply evolved to meet the needs and limitations of the situation. Over the coming days, we’ll be featuring how NIU students, alumni and faculty in the arts are continuing to do what they love.
Bobby Broom performed “I’ll Be Seeing You” as part of a “Shelter in Place” concert with fellow NIU School of Music faculty Reggie Thomas and Liam Teague on Facebook Live, March 21, 2020.
Harlem Born, New York City raised, Bobby Broom has been heralded as “one of the most musical guitarists of our time” by jazz historian and author, Ted Gioia. Playing Carnegie Hall with Sonny Rollins and Donald Byrd at age 16, Broom recorded his debut as a leader, “Clean Sweep,” for GRP Records at age 20.
Broom has released 17 recordings in total as a leader. Many have received airplay resulting in national jazz radio chart positions of #1 to #3, resulting in his being recognized as one of the top guitarists by Down Beat magazine’s annual Reader’s Poll in 2015, as well as their Critics Poll for four years, from 2012-2014 and again in 2017.
A dedicated jazz educator throughout his career, Professor Broom holds a Master of Music degree in Jazz Pedagogy from Northwestern University.
Glass ceilings aside, jazz’s die-hard, urban six-stringer Bobby Broom, remains relevant in today’s jazz world. His recordings typically find themselves among the top spots on national jazz radio charts. When performing live with either of his units, the Bobby Broom Trio or the Organi–Sation, whether at home or abroad, audiences receive a deeply heartfelt show, that represents his lifelong dedication to jazz and music.
Recently, Bobby appears in two new jazz texts. The first, by Lilian Dericq from France, who has written a modern-day answer to the book, “Three Wishes,” by Baroness De Koenigswarter. Koenigswarter, known as the ‘Jazz Baroness,’ was a descendant of the Rothschild family and a friend and patron to many of the leading jazz figures of the 1940s and 50s. In 2006, a book of her transcribed interviews with 300 musicians, conducted between 1961-’66, was posthumously published.
“3 Questions For Today’s Jazz Musicians” similarly engages 334 modern-era jazz musicians. Along with 333 of jazz’s remaining legends and current stars, Bobby responds about his dream-band, fondest musical memories and hope for the future.
Broom also shares his anecdote about his time with jazz icon, mentor and fellow guitarist Kenny Burrell, in a new book about Detroit musicians called, “Jazz From Detroit.” Written by Mark Stryker, the book chronicles jazz music via the involvement of influential musicians such as Barry Harris, the Jones brothers – Hank, Thad and Elvin, Milt Jackson, Joe Henderson, Donald Byrd, Burrell, etc. Bobby recalls a story from his time in Kenny’s “Jazz Guitar Band,” the group that Burrell assembled in 1987 for which he hand-picked the young guitarists, Rodney Jones and Broom, to present them and the new band for international touring and live recordings at New York City’s Village Vanguard.
When Bobby was asked what being included in these books means to him, he reminisced: “There was a point during my early relationship with jazz music, when I became despondent because I thought that I was born too late to ever be involved in the music with the people and to the degree I wanted to. Even though I was very disappointed about that at the time, I vowed to practice hard anyway because what was most important to me was that I learn to play up to the level that I heard coming from those recordings. It seems that when I made that decision, my life in jazz began.”
“I’m deep into my very first semester as Assistant Professor of Jazz Guitar/Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University, which is extremely exciting. I’m teaching a bunch of students (12), plus I have a Jazz Improvisation course that I teach. Next semester I’ll add a Music Business course to my load.
During this semester I’ve also been able to get out and about a bit with both of my groups – the Bobby Broom Trio (the guitar-based, bass and drums unit) and the Organi–Sation (the organ-based, guitar trio). About a month ago, the BBT performed at the first-ever, Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival in Arvada, CO (where you and I were able to meet in the flesh!). It was an industry show dedicated exclusively to luthiers of archtop (jazz) guitars, jazz guitar players and fans. I was proud to represent my guitar maker, Danny Koentopp and my amp manufacturer, Peter Henriksen (who produced and hosted), all in one! I have close, long-standing relationships with both of these guys. Then last week, the BBT made a short Midwest run, hitting Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and ending with a jazz guitar festival at a university in Ohio.
Next Month the Organi–Sation will do a couple of dates on the East Coast, in Boston and CT. The BBO just recorded some live material, that I plan to use to supplement some live concert material to release together. I thought it would be interesting to present the group live in contrasting settings – live concert with huge audiences and an intimate club setting. I’m also contemplating another BBT tribute album similar to the one that we did ten years ago for Monk. I’m thinking about another, iconic piano figure. So, 2020 might be one of those years for me that mirrors 2000, when I released two recordings back to back – one organ-based and the other, guitar trio.
It’s also great that I’m genuinely supported in my giving back in the form of teaching. Just the other day, I had a young man visit the school who was very familiar with my body of work and was super-excited to be sitting with me. How cool is that??! For him and me!” Bobby Broom