Bobby Broom joined Preston Frazier for a Something Else! Sitdown to discuss his new concert recording, ‘Jamalot Live,’ touring with Steely Dan and the enduring power of ‘House of the Rising Sun’:
PRESTON FRAZIER: Tell me how your new live record, Jamalot Live, came about.
BOBBY BROOM: I opened for Steely Dan in 2013. I did my first tour with them in 2013 with the Deep Blue Organ Trio. We had been doing various opening dates for them for a few years, at least two years prior to that. Then we landed the entire tour. It was great, a tremendous experience – and then Deep Blue Organ Trio disbanded. In 2014, I got a call and they’re saying, “Hey, we want you to go out on tour.” And I said, really? They said, we want the Bobby Broom Trio. I said, are you sure you know, because the Bobby Broom Trio was Dennis Carroll [bass] and Kobe Watkins [drums] at that time. At the 11th hour, they realized they wanted the organ trio. I was thinking, I don’t have an organ trio anymore! The group broke up. I’m sure they knew. They said, “Just put something together.” And I thought, “Are Donald Fagan and Walter Becker really telling me to just put something together?” I said, it’s not that easy, right? So I declined at first. I said, “I’m sorry. Thanks, but no thanks.”
Makaya McCraven, my prior drummer, called me and said, “Man, what are you doing? You have to do it! You gotta figure this out.” I went through my phone book to see who I’d consider. You don’t know if the chemistry’s gonna work. I didn’t want to have to deal with that. Organist Ben Patterson’s name came up, and it stirred something. We had never played together prior to that. I’d heard him on a few occasions when he was living in Chicago, and I don’t know what it was, but something just said, “That’s the person.” I followed my hunch, and my hunch was right. That’s really how the group came together. The music for the album was a gift from the monitor engineer. I had no idea the recording existed. However, toward the end of the tour, [Peter Thompson] said to go get a thumb drive. He said, “I got something to give you.” I didn’t ask him why, but I got the thumb drive and gave it to him. And I said, “What is this?” He said he’d recorded all the shows.
When I opened them up to listen, they sounded mixed! He’s a great engineer. I don’t know if you’ve seen the video on the “House of the Rising Sun.” I need to credit him for the sound on that, because the cameras were getting their audio feed from his board mix. I picked five of those songs. We played 20-25 minutes set, tops. I just kind of put the recordings to the side and I’d go back and listen to them every now and again. Over the years, I kind of toyed at the idea of releasing it, getting it enhanced and releasing it. I had one engineer tell me, oh yeah, ‘Those aren’t good enough to release. They’re just good demos.’ I thought “OK, we won’t be using this guy.” I did feel I needed to have more material. I had a gig at the Jazz Showcase, hired [Timothy Powell’s] Metro Mobile [Recording] and they came out and recorded three nights.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Did your set list change during the tour with Steely Dan?
BOBBY BROOM: Not much, given the allotted time. We were playing our butts off! It was a cool thing. Sometimes I’d see Donald Fagan in the wings, watching the band as we played, or various members of the band back there. That was pretty cool.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Yeah. I remember the audience was really into it. I wanna go back a little bit, though. You talked about the Deep Blue Organ Trio. Your intention after the group resolved was to continue to move forward with a trio, drums, bass and guitar?
BOBBY BROOM: Yes, the organ trio had been together playing together for 25 years, if not more. We all matured. We played [now closed ] Pete Miller’s in Evanston, Ill., one night. Man, we were going on this vamp. I felt like the stage was elevating, and the people were into it. And then at the end of the tune, we had a standing ovation in a neighborhood club, which is weird – because, you know, in a neighborhood club, that’s unusual. When that band ended, I felt like in mourning to a certain degree, because that they were like family. We had been together through a bunch of stuff. So, I remember telling a friend, I’ll never have a group with that kind of chemistry. He said, “Are you crazy? I’m sure there’s some young guys right now that would be dying to play with you. You’ll get another organ group. Man, stop tripping.” He was right.
PRESTON FRAZIER: We talked a little bit about Kobe Watkins. How did you meet him?
BOBBY BROOM: At Pete Miller’s, outside of Chicago. There was a young trumpet player at the time, this must have been probably like ’90. There was a buzz about this trumpet player and I think he was going to Northwestern University. Around the Evanston and Chicago area, they were always trying to find the next big thing. I went to hear him at Pete Miller’s and I was even more impressed by the drummer. I got his number right then and started calling him – and that was almost 20 years ago now. Wow, we’ve known each other a long time. He was a kid in his mid-20s when he started playing with me, and now he’s going on 50. I have an affinity really, for drums.
I like to stand next to the drums when I play. I just love the feeling. I love drummers that are active, but also have great dynamic sense. Somebody just responded to a video up on YouTube saying, “Man, I don’t know how they were playing it with that drummer. It must have been loud” – because Kobe is so dynamic and emotional when he plays. He looks like he’s banging on the drums. I saw the comment and I had to write him back. I said, “You know what? Actually, he’s the most dynamic drummer I’ve ever played with.” I’ve played with a lot of great drummers. He’s passionate about the music.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Given that you were playing in an amphitheater setting with a rock crowd, you had to draw the audience in with the playing and songs – but my recollection is you really did.
BOBBY BROOM: I appreciate it. That’s how I felt. First of all, there’s the music. When I would listen, sometimes I get goosebumps. I’m almost listening as a third person. I still respond to music the way I did when I first started listening to music as a fan and as a music lover. I’m not listening to music analyzing it or any of that. I’m listening to it just for the feelings that it gives me and the ride. And so when I would go back and listen to those recordings, I would get those feelings. That was the most important thing. Also, the recordings were so clear. I have to mention Patrick Smith, who is a supreme engineer. I believe he is lead engineer on American Idol. He does other projects because he loves jazz. That’s his way of giving back and being involved in the community.
PRESTON FRAZIER: You alluded to the “House of the Rising Sun.” Why’d you pick that song?
BOBBY BROOM: I picked it because it’s such a part of our culture – a public-domain song. It’s been around; it’s a classic. I remember hearing that song by the Animals when I was a kid and loving that little Farfisa organ, and the interludes in between the verses. The drive, the clarity, all those characteristics were what made me feel like releasing that first as a representation of what the rest of the record is. Plus, we had the video. The video is different in that it comes from a soundcheck, and has Mackay McCraven on drums. That tour was split about 50/50 between Kobe and Mackay. Most of the music captured for the release was Kobe.
PRESTON FRAZIER: I love your My Shining Hour album which came out a few years ago. I think that had “Tennessee Waltz” on it, which was included in your set.
BOBBY BROOM: That was a song that I actually learned and started playing with Sonny Rollins, so that’s kind of how I became familiar with it. And I just carried on playing it; I don’t really know why. I know one time I was going to Tennessee and I thought, “Let me pull this song out and start doing it.” We really only did it at the Ryman Theater on the Steely Dan tour. I think we played there a couple of nights, but to hear the reaction after the first couple of strains of the melody? That was pretty cool. And to be in the home of the Grand Ole Opry and that whole thing.
PRESTON FRAZIER: One song I wasn’t familiar with was “Tadd’s Delight.”
BOBBY BROOM: “Tadd’s Delight” is a Tadd Dameron tune, who was a composer and a pianist from the bebop era. He wrote a lot of those bebop melodies. Sometimes, I’ll just hear music and go like, “Ooh, that song – I could do this to that song!” That’s one of those tunes.
PRESTON FRAZIER: “The Long and Winding Road” is equally fascinating.
BOBBY BROOM: I’ve been playing that song for decades. I’m a huge Beatles fan. It gives me goosebumps. Just the whole vibe of the Beatles original recoding of the song. Check out Ray Charles’ version of that, too. I just go through my albums and pick songs that I’ve played on record and play those, because these folks are at least my age and they will get it.
PRESTON FRAZIER: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention “Layla” and “Superstition.” The version of “Layla” is amazing. My favorite part really is the coda written by Rita Coolidge [though credited to Jim Gordon], which is was a piano part originally. You have guitar part there and the arrangement is so great.
BOBBY BROOM: That’s another one, you know, that reminds me – I went to summer camp that year and so that ending especially reminds me of summer camp. It’s so much fun to play those power chords. In the beginning, there’s that Alvin Jones kind of rolling. It’s almost modal in a sense. So it’s just so many different things all rolled into one. And then to go into that, the coda, the ballad part – which is so beautiful. People really responded to that, to that tune. I’m sure they weren’t quite expecting what we did with those songs.
PRESTON FRAZIER: Given that you did the shows at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, is there more material that has not been released?
BOBBY BROOM: That is probably about it for right now. When we did record, we did different material. I guess if we ever get to tour with Steely Dan again, we can play some of the stuff from Soul Fingers and still be okay with the audience.
PRESTON FRAZIER: You’ve been extremely busy over the last few years. You worked on Ron Blake’s amazing album, which came out last year.
BOBBY BROOM: Thank you. That was so much fun. So I’m so happy for him. I was just really committed to having him seen in the light that he deserves – to be seen as a tenor player of this era, alongside the Joshua Redmonds and the Chris Potters and Ravi Coltranes.
PRESTON FRAZIER: So what’s next for you?
BOBBY BROOM: I’m taking a well deserved rest from recording. I am finally able to just focus on a few projects, some of them are university related. We have a few dates coming up to support the album. I’m beginning to envision another trio record. It’s been about 10 years.
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