By Michael Jeffers
Guitarist Bobby Broom has performed with such jazz giants as Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Kenny Burell, and Charles Earland, just to name a few. Bobby has two very interesting recordings coming out this fall. The first is called Modern Man due out August '4th featuring baritone sax ace Ronnie Cuber , Hammond B-3 marvel Dr. Lonnie Smith and Idris Muhammad on Drums. His second album due out on September 25th is called Stand. This recording features his regular working trio of Dennis Carroll on bass and Dana Hall on drums. Stand features songs from the 60's and 70's, with a bit of a twist that only this trio could provide. Hearing this trio perform, and listening to his recordings, makes one wonder how someone developed into such a creative voice on the guitar.
All About Jazz: Bobby how did you get interested in playing the guitar?
Bobby Broom : I started playing when I was about 12 years old. I woke up one day and told my dad I wanted to take guitar lessons. My dad went out and got me a guitar and a microphone. I said "Dad, what's the mic for? I didn't ask for a mic." He said "Well, I don't know too many guitar players who have made it big without singing."
B.B. : I took folk lessons for about a year. Then New York jazz guitarist Jimmy Carter was recommended to my father. Every Saturday I would have a lesson. This started from the age of '3 and continued for about two or three years. I really couldn't play much at all when I first started lessons. The great thing about Jimmy was that he established in me a player's mentality. By that I mean, he taught me chord voicings, theory, etc., but most importantly, we would play every lesson. He would pull out tunes, and he would play the melody and I would play the chords. He would solo and I would solo. I had no idea what I was playing or how he could stand to hear it, but no matter how screwed up it got we wouldn't stop. He treated it as a performance. Jimmy started doing this from the first lesson, and it really helped me get over the feeling of being nervous or scared when I would play.
I practiced, practiced and practiced. I began to learn about the great guitar players such as George Benson and Wes Montgomery, and from there I found out about the history of the style and that there was a lot I could check out and learn about the music. When I got to be about '5 years old, I started realizing what jazz was. I remember first hearing "Chameleon", the Herbie Hancock tune. I could relate to the groove and really began to think jazz was something I wanted to learn . When I first heard a George Benson recording that was it. I couldn't believe someone could play the guitar like that. His playing was so musical it didn't even sound like a guitar. It just sounded like music. From that point on, I just became hungry for the music. I tried to hear and see as much music as I could. There were two jazz clubs near my house in New York. I would try to have my parents take me out to hear music as much as possible, and if they couldn't I would go down and look in the window of the clubs. It was great. Music was all around me.
AAJ: Did you start getting involved with different groups in high school?
In high school, I performed with my band in the high school talent show. We played sort of a mix of styles: jazz and funk. At one of the performances, there was this musician in the audience, Weldon Irvine. He had written some tunes for Freddie Hubbard and played with Nina Simone, among others. Weldon had written a play and wanted some kid musicians to perform roles in the play and also to play in the pit band. He picked myself and two other guys in my little band to be in this play. The play was an off, off Broadway production in Brooklyn. The performances were Tuesday through Sunday for about nine months. I was making some really good money and playing with great players.
After one of the performances, Sonny Rollins' guitar player approached me. He was in the audience and invited me to come to a rehearsal with Sonny. I went to the rehearsal/audition, and the guitar player wasn't even there. Sonny, Bob Cranshaw, and Eddie Moore were there. We played for a while and Sonny asked me if I wanted to do a tour with him. I figured, I was 16 years old and there was no way my mother was going to let me stop going to school to tour with Sonny Rollins. I told Sonny I would have to take a pass. Sonny understood and he said he would call me when he got back. I never thought I would hear from him again, but I did. He called me when he got back in town and wanted me to do this Carnegie Hall concert with him and Donald Byrd.
AAJ: What went through your mind during this time? You were 16 and playing in Carnegie Hall with Sonny Rollins?
BB: I had a player's mentality, I didn't feel like I shouldn't be there because he asked me to be there. It was what it was. I had fun, and I got paid. That year I graduated high school and went to Berklee College of Music for a year from 1978-1979. During the time I was in Boston at college, I saw my friends Marcus Miller and Omar Hakim end up on various recordings back in New York. I began to feel like I needed to be back in New York to have a chance at recording and performing. I decided the next year I would go home and go to school. Plus, everyone in Boston was talking about going to New York at that time anyway. So why not do both things: Go to school, and live at home in New York.
AAJ: Berklee College of Music at that time had a lot of up and coming jazz musicians.
BB: While at Berklee, I played with a bunch of people. For example, a lot of the current Tonight Show band was there, Kevin Eubanks, Marvin 'Smitty' Smith and also Brandford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrisson, Tommy Campbell, Cindy Blackman... the list goes on. It was great. We would have jam sessions every night in the school's rehearsal rooms. The sessions would go on for hours and that happened every night.
AAJ: Once you were back in New York who did you end up playing with?
BB: I got home and there was a club just up the street from my house in New York, Mikell's. Art Blakey was playing there with his Jazz messengers and James Williams was playing piano. James asked me, " Where's your guitar?" I said "It's three blocks away." I ran and got it and sat in with Art Blakey. I was sitting in with them, and so was Wynton Marsalis. After that Blakey asked me to join the band. I wanted to be a jazz musician and playing with Art would have been an unforgettable experience, but I didn't want to rule out all the other kinds of music I loved. I wasn't ready to be a jazz purist like some other young guys around at that time. Plus I knew guys that were starting to play with this trumpet player by the name of Tom Browne. Tom Browne was starting to record for this new label, GRP, and most of my friends were doing that. So I decided to go on the road with Tom Browne instead of with the Jazz Messengers. Tom ended up with a gold album, and I performed on it. Once the work with Tom Browne was over, GRP signed me. I did a record called Clean Sweep. It got good air play, and it featured Marcus, Omar, Poogie Bell, Victor Bailey, and other great young musicians. It was funky, but also had some swinging stuff on it. We were all like 20-21. People still remember that record and ask me about it.
AAJ: When did you start performing with Sonny Rollins again?
BB: Sonny Rollins saw an ad for my record in the paper, and he called me. I always wanted to play with him again and it was a dream come true. I went on the road and did two records with him and I learned everything about the jazz life from the best person possible. I was with him from 1982-1986. On some off times from his band I did some teaching and other recording dates with various artists. While I was on the road with Sonny Rollins, I met a woman who lived in Chicago. I eventually moved to Chicago and finished up my degree at Columbia College in music performance. I began teaching at many of the area colleges and performing around town. During this time I was sitting in at the Jazz Showcase and Kenny Burrell heard me playing. He decided to put a group together with three guitars called the Jazz Guitar Band. It was myself, Kenny, and Rodney Jones. The group did two live recordings at the Village Vanguard for Blue Note Records. I also met Charles Earland in Chicago and started playing in his group. I had listened to his recordings from an early age, and when I heard he was looking for a guitar player for his group, I figured it had to be me.
AAJ: You have two new recordings being released this Fall, Modern Man on Delmark records featuring Ronnie Cuber (Bari Sax), Dr. Lonnie Smith (Hammond Organ), and Idris Muhammad (Drums). Also out this Fall is a recording of your trio called Stand featuring Dennis Carroll (Bass), and Dana Hall (Drums). You were playing with Charles Earland, Kenny Burell and different well know musicians, what made you want to get your own group together?
BB: I got tired of just booking gigs and putting guys together and playing tunes. I felt like it was sort of a dead end direction. I know that's what jazz musicians do, but I felt a stronger pull to do something original, something that's me. I knew I would have to do two things A) I would have to write, and B) I would have to have a steady group so that I could hone an original sound for myself and the group. Along with Dennis Carroll and my first drummer George Fludas , this was the first incarnation of the trio. The group started playing at a club called the Underground Wonderbar on Walton St. and Rush St. every Sunday Night for about three years. Some years into that we started playing "Layla" by Eric Clapton and maybe one or two other songs from that era. The response was great. People in their 20's recognized the tunes either because they had heard the songs on the radio or their parents had played them. I like to know that I am making some kind of connection with the audience. It gives us some kind of common ground to work from, for me and for them as listeners. We started developing a following. College kids and other musicians from town would come in and listen. People started coming up to me regularly saying "I'm from out of town and I was told that if I wanted to hear good jazz guitar on Sunday night to come over here." That's where it started, and where I began getting the ideas of what I wanted the trio to sound like.
AAJ: On your new release "Stand" which is due out on September 25th on Premonition Records, the trio features yourself, Dennis Carroll and Dana Hall on drums. It is a collection of 60's and 70's tunes that you have played in your own style. How do you go about choosing which songs to use, and what sort of preparation is involved?
BB: Because I was exposed to many styles of music, classic rock, R&B, funk, etc., as well as all the jazz music I listened to, I am able to be somewhat open regardless of style or genre. If I am moved by a piece of music it is due to the combined power of its melody, rhythm and harmony, as well as the performance of the piece. I decided to start playing more songs from the late 60's and 70's about three years ago. I did some research to pick the songs. I went to the record store and bought compilations, got the Time/Life recordings, etc. I have a million favorite songs from that era but not all of them can be used in my trio's format. Some won't transfer well melodically to the guitar. Others are not quite right harmonically for jazz and what we're trying to do. I don't always want to re-harmonize these songs. I feel that there's inherent beauty in them already. We do a little bit to some of the songs. Some of the time signatures are changed around, and just a little bit of re-harmonization added so we can play jazz around and through them. Most of those tunes have fairly interesting harmonic movement, for example the Beatles song "I Will". I remember reading somewhere that McCartney and Lennon, in the beginning of their writing careers together, wanted to be a team like Rogers and Hart. They were interested in melody, song form and good lyrics. "I Will" is just a perfect melody, the harmony is beautiful. It moves, not just staying in one key. So that is a perfect vehicle for me as a jazz musician.
AAJ: You mentioned younger people in their 20s identifying with Layla and other easily recognizable songs. What do you feel is the benefit of personalizing songs the audience finds familiar?
BB: After all, what I do can be somewhat self indulgent. It is improvisation, and it is a very personal thing. But of course, I want it to come across and reach the listener. By playing these kinds of tunes I can accomplish this. It helps the audience get past the fact that it is jazz, and just appreciate the music. Hopefully, this will open up some listeners to new and different things.
AAJ: What are the differences you have to think about between picking songs for a guitar trio, or another type of group, like for the organ recording?
BB: The organ, guitar, saxophone, drums, is a classic sound. It makes you think of a certain time and feeling in jazz history. Listening to and seeing some of the great organ groups of the past, I had some idea in my head about what I wanted it to sound like. I wrote a couple of things for the Modern Man date with the players in mind. I also thought "Layla" would be great with the organ. We also did a rhythm changes tune, Hank Mobley's "A Pec A Sec".
AAJ: The role of a bass player seems to get overlooked in guitar trios. It seems the audience focuses on the drums, and obviously the guitar player. How important is Dennis Carroll, the bass player, to your group's sound?
BB: Dennis is like the glue of the group, in that he lays the foundation. He also leads in a sense. He is very much like the director in terms of the harmonies that he plays. I can't say enough about how interesting he makes the group sound. He has helped me to hear things more clearly. I will take the liberty to say that it is not the typical jazz guitar trio sound. We sometimes get a little raucous, and at times, we slip into power trio mode. The way we approach music is from our experiences from the 60's, 70's and 80's. There are going to be influences of rock and roll, funk, pop, R&B and other things that we are not afraid to explore naturally included in our approach. It is a jazz group, and I'm a jazz musician, but I also need to draw from common contemporary culture to keep me interested, to keep the guys interested, and the audience interested. I feel that I can take some liberties with my trio, because we know each other so well we feel safe in taking chances and trying to be creative.
