Bobby Broom

Did You Know?

• His first release of exclusively original compositions, Upper West Side Story (2012), reached No. 1 on the College Music Journal jazz chart.
• He began his work as an educator in 1982 for Jackie McLean, Director of African American Music Studies at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.

Career

Robert Broom Jr., an American jazz guitarist, composer, and educator, was born in Harlem in 1961 and grew up on New York City's Upper West Side during the 1970s. He picked up the guitar at twelve, starting with folk music before studying for two years under jazz guitarist Jimmy Carter in Harlem. At the High School of Music and Art, now LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, he performed in the jazz ensemble and earned an Outstanding Jazz Improvisation award as a senior.

While still in high school, he played at New York clubs alongside Charlie Parker pianists Al Haig and Walter Bishop Jr., and in 1977 appeared at Carnegie Hall with Sonny Rollins and Donald Byrd. After a year at Berklee College of Music from 1978 to 1979, he returned to New York and attended Long Island University while launching his career. He worked as a guitarist for Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Dave Grusin, Hugh Masekela, and Tom Browne, and signed with GRP Records.

In 1985, he relocated to Chicago, which has been his home since. He formed the Bobby Broom Trio in 1990, the Deep Blue Organ Trio with Chris Foreman and Greg Rockingham in 1999, and the Bobby Broom Organi-Sation in 2014. His early influences include Wes Montgomery, George Benson, and Pat Martino, and his collaborators span Art Blakey, Max Roach, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Garrett, Miles Davis, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Charles Earland, Dr. John, Kenny Burrell, Ron Blake, Eric Alexander, Ron Carter, and Ramsey Lewis.

In 2009, he released Bobby Broom Plays for Monk, whose cover features the red wagon from Monk's Music. His first album of all original tunes, Upper West Side Story (2012), hit number one on the College Music Journal jazz chart and made Jazz Week and Down Beat's top albums of 2012. Broom began teaching in 1982 for Jackie McLean at the Hartt School of Music, and has since lectured at the American Conservatory of Music, Chicago Musical College, the Thelonious Monk Institute, DePaul University, and North Park University.

Since 2000, he has mentored Chicago high schoolers through the Ravinia Festival's Jazz Scholar Program. He earned a master's in jazz pedagogy from Northwestern in 2005 and became a tenured associate professor in 2022. His fourteenth leader album, Keyed Up, came out in 2022 to positive reviews, and in May 2024 he released Jamalot (Live) with his organ trio on Steele Records.