Bobby Broom Trio

saturday, september 28

TIME: 4:00-5:00pm

VENUE: dusable Black History museum and Education Center. 740 East 56th pl.

Bobby broom

Guitar great Bobby Broom fell in love with the jazz organ at age 10, when he put on an album his father had brought home: Charles Earland’s Black Talk! When Earland moved to Chicago in the late 80s, there was no doubt in Broom’s mind who his guitarist had to be. The dream gig became a reality, and Broom went on to play not only with Earland but also with other Hammond B-3 masters including Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Melvin Rhyne, and, once, the king of them all, Jimmy Smith. But he made his strongest mark with his own organ groups: first the Deep Blue Organ Trio, a Chicago collective featuring Chris Foreman that lasted 25 years, and then its ongoing successor, the Bobby Broom Organi-Sation, featuring B-3 whiz Ben Paterson. 

Broom was born in Harlem and raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He began studying guitar at age 12, concentrating on jazz under the aegis of Jimmy Carter. At 16, chaperoned by Weldon Irvine to an East Side jazz club for the purpose of learning to sit in, Broom was invited by Al Haig, pianist for Charlie Parker, first to join in for a couple of tunes and eventually to play with Haig at Gregory’s on the Upper East Side, where he got to play with another notable Bird keyboardist, Walter Bishop, Jr. Soon, he was pursued by an even greater jazz legend, Sonny Rollins, who invited him to perform with him at a Carnegie Hall concert, initiating a long musical relationship that would eventually result in a six-year stint for Broom as a member of Rollins’s band. 

Broom’s first two albums were Clean Sweep (1981) and Livin’ for the Beat (1984), pre-smooth-jazz efforts that transcended the limitations (and sometimes harsh criticisms) of that category. While maintaining ties with New York groups including Kenny Burrell’s Jazz Guitar Band, followed by a jaunt with Miles Davis’ group, and then a six-year stint with Dr. John, in 1984 Broom moved to Chicago, where he hooked up with Windy City-based artists Charles Earland, Ron Blake, and Eric Alexander before setting out to establish himself as an important artist in his own right. He recorded two mainstream albums, No Hype Blues (1995, with pianist Ron Perrillo) and Waitin’ and Waitin’ (1997, with Ron Blake). Beginning with Stand! (2001), he brought a serious improvisational jazz sensibility to pop classics such as Sly and the Family Stone’s title song and the Mamas and the Papas’ “Monday, Monday.” 

Holding a B.A. in music from Columbia College and an M.A. in jazz pedagogy from Northwestern University, Broom is a tenured Associate Professor of Jazz Guitar and Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University and has taught at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, and the American Conservatory of Music. He has also instructed music students in public high schools throughout Chicago as part of a jazz mentoring program sponsored by the Ravinia Festival Organization and has been an instructor and mentor with the Herbie Hancock Institute. 

The musicians:

Bobby Broom — guitar
Dennis Carroll — bass
Kobie Watkins — drums