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Alan Broadbent: Intimate Reflections on a Passion for Jazz

By Victor L. Schermer

Pianist, composer, and arranger Alan Broadbent doesn't just “dig" jazz. He has a deep and enduring passion for it. Growing up in mid- 20th-century New Zealand, he quickly went beyond piano lessons to reading musical scores and learning jazz standards. Then, when the Dave Brubeck Quartet came to his relatively isolated hometown of Auckland, his love of jazz escalated to an obsession. Soon he got a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, studied with Lennie Tristano in New York, ...

Alan Broadbent Trio at the Deer Head Inn

By Victor L. Schermer

Alan Broadbent Trio Deer Head Inn Delaware Water Gap, PA August 11, 2018 Believe you me, it wasn't by choice that I hadn't been to the Dear Head Inn in a few years to take in some great jazz in its secluded setting on a wooded hill near the river at the edge of town in the Pocono Mountains. Despite its rural location, it has a musical history to rival New ...

Alan Broadbent: Developing Story

By Edward Blanco

During the late '70s, now multi-Grammy Award-winning pianist Alan Broadbent, birthed the idea of merging the music of a jazz trio with a full orchestra and strings ..."in a complete phrase for woodwind soli, counterpoint..." in telling a musical story that is still unfolding today. This ongoing musical journey begins with Developing Story as Broadbent and his world-class trio of drummer Peter Erskine and bassist Harvie S, collaborates with the multimedia Hollywood industry London Metropolitan Orchestra (LMO) in presenting one ...

Alan Broadbent And NDR Bigband: America The Beautiful

By Edward Blanco

Being a part of the big band sound was an experience pianist Alan Broadbent embraced, endured and eventually, wanted to step away from. Orchestra music--comprised of boisterous reeds and brass sections--were far too loud and too big drowning out the finesse sounds of the acoustic piano. When Broadbent left the Woody Herman Big Band in 1972, he said good bye to the ensemble sound, so he thought. After receiving a commission for a radio program with the renowned NDR Big ...

Alan Broadbent And NDR Bigband: America The Beautiful

By Dan Bilawsky

In the brief liner essay that accompanies America The Beautiful, pianist Alan Broadbent notes that he has “an aversion to being clever," but the rest of the music world never received that memo. Everybody from Irene Kral to Diana Krall and Charlie Haden to Charlie Rich has benefited from his brilliance with a pen and/or a piano. Now Broadbent gets a chance to live within his own well-written constructs. America The Beautiful finds Broadbent in the company ...

Alan Broadbent: Heart To Heart

By Dan Bilawsky

Pianist Alan Broadbent can't be accused of rushing to release his second solo piano album; Heart To Heart comes more than two decades after Broadbent initially took the solo plunge with Live At Maybeck Recital Hall, Volume 14 (Concord, 1991), but it was worth the wait. While only Broadbent knows the exact reason for waiting so long to return to this format, it's safe to assume that it has something to do with his in-demand status in ...

Alan Broadbent Trio: Live At Giannelli Square: Vol. 2

By Dan Bilawsky

Promise of more to come came with the numerical tag at the end of pianist Alan Broadbent's superb Live At Giannelli Square: Vol. 1 (Chilly Bin, 2010); two years later, he's made good on that promise. Live At Giannelli Square: Vol. 2, recorded as its predecessor was just seeing release, finds Broadbent and his brilliantly understated trio mates back at the same San Fernando Valley venue, making magic in their own sweet way. The class, charm and ...

Alan Broadbent Trio: New York, NY, September 24, 2011

By Dan Bilawsky

Alan Broadbent TrioKitanoNew York, NYSeptember 24, 2011 Park Avenue's Kitano briefly seemed like Bradley's in its heyday, as piano jazz royalty like Fred Hersch, Bill Mays and Andy Bey converged on a single location to take in the sounds of one of their own. While Alan Broadbent is rightly hailed as one of the best arrangers in the business, praised for his work with Woody Herman in the '70s, and recognized for his contributions ...

Alan Broadbent: Every Time I Think of You

By Mark F. Turner

The frequent marriage of jazz music with strings has produced matches made in heaven on landmark recordings such as the Charlie Parker's classic With Strings (Verve, 1995/1949-1952) and Greg Osby's recent progressive Symbols of Light (A Solution) (Blue Note, 2002). With any union there's always the potential for things to turn sour, but in the case of Every Time I Think of You, the results are pure bliss. Born in New Zealand and currently living Los Angeles, ...

Alan Broadbent: Every Time I Think of You

By Jim Santella

Working with the Tokyo Strings, pianist Alan Broadbent interprets a program of familiar songs and original works on Every Time I Think of You. Bassist Brian Bromberg and drummer Kendall Kay, longtime associates of the pianist, lend a heartfelt quality to this relaxed affair as the music drives on slowly and meaningfully. Broadbent chooses a somber mood for the album, which adopts romanticism as its theme.

Broadbent's “Nirvana Blues stands out for the touch of drama that the ...

Alan Broadbent: 'Round Midnight

By Ken Dryden

Alan Broadbent is well known for his work as an arranger and accompanist, though the pianist's recordings as a leader best showcase his immense talent. He now lives in Southern California and plays on occasion in Los Angeles. Broadbent's first studio date for Artistry Music, with strong support from bassist Brian Bromberg and drummer Joe LaBarbera, has earned him a Grammy nomination (this same trio will soon release another disc, with strings, on the same label). The ...

Alan Broadbent:

By Jim Santella

With so many musical directions going on throughout Alan Broadbent's career from day to day, it's good that he always finds time for creative sessions with his straight-ahead trio. Over the years, each of his trio recordings has given us a memorable performance, while his nightclub sessions leave everyone in the room with musical souvenirs to carry around inside for months at a time. You don't forget the kind of swinging quality that Broadbent brings to the forum. ...