The Bobby Broom Organi-Sation: Jamalot

When Jimmy Smith brought the tablets down from the mountain, one of the commandments decreed that the job of an organ trio was to mix jazz standards with pop tunes and mash them all up into a seamless joyous brew. Guitarist Bobby Broom keeps to the original recipe on the live album Jamalot, recorded in 2014 and 2019, the earlier tracks from a tour supporting Steely Dan. It is his second disc with his Organi-Sation trio completed by Ben Paterson on Hammond B3 and Kobie Watkins on drums

Broom comes with an impressive provenance. In the 1980s, in his twenties, he was featured with Charles Earland's band. In the 1990s, he founded the Deep Blue Organ Trio (DBOT). He has gigged with Al Haig and toured with Sonny Rollins. He was a member of Kenny Burrell's Jazz Guitar Band. He spent six years with Dr. John. There is plenty more.

The Jamalot press materials inform us that we have the, in 2014, little known outside Chicago drummer and composer Makaya McCraven to thank for the formation of the trio and for Broom taking the gig with Steely Dan. When the band asked Broom to tour with them, Broom was between B3 players. Unable to find someone he was happy with, he turned the offer down. At the time, McCraven was one of Broom's regular drummers. He urged him to accept the gig and was instrumental in introducing Broom to Ben Paterson. "Ben was a perfect fit," says Broom. "As much as I love the blues, I don't want to hear someone play blues and that's it. Ben plays melodies."

The are eight tunes on Jamalot: Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon's "Layla," Pee Wee King's "The Tennessee Waltz," Fats Waller's "The Jitterbug Waltz," the traditional "The House Of The Rising Sun" (check the video below), Tadd Dameron's "Tadd's Delight," Lennon & McCartney's "The Long And Winding Road" and Kurt Weill's "Speak Low."

Half the album was recorded on the big venue Steely Dan tour. The other half was recorded during an engagement at Chicago's more intimate Jazz Showcase in 2019. Good as the 2014 tracks are, it is the closing three tracks, which take up the final half-hour of the disc, recorded at Jazz Showcase, which are the real business. Broom's talent for reharmonising shines strongly on "Tadd's Delight," "The Long And Winding Road" and "Speak Low," and the extended playing times on the first and third of these allow the band to stretch out to optimal effect.

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