Bobby Broom to Present Master Class January 15 at North Park University
Jazz guitarist to reflect on the cultural phenomenon of jazz
Editor's note: The Bobby Broom Trio's master class will take place Thursday, January 15, 2015, at 2:30 pm in North Park University's Anderson Chapel. This event was originally scheduled for October 16.
CHICAGO (October 9, 2014) — When the audience sits down for jazz guitarist Bobby Broom’s master class on Thursday, January 15, they will learn about more than intricacies of the rhythm and sounds of jazz music.
“I don’t believe the average person knows much about jazz, and why it is so crucial to American culture in the last century,” says Broom, a practitioner faculty member in North Park University’s School of Music. “Jazz historically was a culmination of cultural phenomena, with the phenomenon of the Africans winding up here and having to reconcile with European tools, including music. Jazz is the music born of America and its circumstance, and was the popular music for a quarter of a century. As a musical style, it has informed and been a linchpin to most other popular music styles subsequent to it.”
Broom along with his band, the Bobby Broom Trio, will teach a master class that will also include a question and answer time with the artists about their careers and the particular experience of being a jazz musician. The master class, which is free and open to the public, is a tradition in music education, where artists are invited to perform and share insights behind their particular craft. Broom’s class is an opportunity for students, particularly from North Park’s undergraduate jazz studies concentration and jazz ensembles, to interact with the performers and reflect on their own musical development.
It is one of three master classes on North Park’s campus this year; other sessions include Swedish pianist Niklas Sivelov on November 11, 2014, and German pianist Alexander Schimpf on March 5, 2015. "Master classes are a wonderful opportunity for North Park students to interact with a wide range of musical artists in the Chicago area, from symphony and opera performers, to jazz musicians, such as Bobby Broom," says Dr. Craig R. Johnson, dean of the School of Music.
An internationally recognized recording artist and respected jazz educator, Broom acquired his knowledge and skill by working with many of the 20th century's leaders in the field of jazz, including Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine, and fellow guitarist Kenny Burrell, among others. He has performed worldwide in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland, to the famed Village Vanguard and Birdland jazz clubs in New York City. Broom received his master’s degree in jazz pedagogy from Northwestern University and has taught and lectured worldwide, including at North Park since 2011.
“What attracted me to jazz music was how comprehensive it is,” says Broom, who just released his 11th studio album, My Shining Hour, which is currently number three on the JazzWeek charts. “Since I was very young, I was an avid radio listener. And when I heard jazz, it struck me as containing every other thing I heard in music prior to that. I was awash in musical possibility and the freedom with which this person playing was able to express themselves.”
For Broom, jazz quickly became about more than music. “I later learned that jazz also has this rich and meaningful history in the African American experience, and that it is part of my heritage. I didn’t pick it because of that history, but maybe some strain spoke to me subconsciously before I knew anything about it.”
Broom has been teaching master classes since his early 20s, when he began teaching at the University of Hartford, not far from his New York City hometown. “One thing teaching has always done is to keep me on my toes,” Broom says. “I have to look at myself in different ways, and figure out how to impart knowledge to a variety of personalities. Everyone is different, including how he or she understands and processes information. I have to be a jazz musician and use my expertise of improvisation in order to find creative and effective ways to impart my knowledge.”
That sense of improvisation, and the ability to work with different personalities, is also vital to Broom’s work with the Bobby Broom Trio, which includes Dennis Carroll on bass and Makaya McCraven on drums. “Jazz at its best is a collective art form,” says Broom, who formed the trio in 1991 with Carroll as an original member. “There are rules to what we do—musical rules and rules of etiquette, a lot of times unspoken. How you grade your own personal performance should be integrated with how you grade your ability to accompany, or support, or blend with your fellow musician. It requires a lot of listening and split-second decision-making that is not really of a conscious nature. That’s the difficulty in jazz. There are a number of things we need to learn, but it’s sometimes difficult to talk about. The best way to learn is by performance.”
To learn more about Bobby Broom, the Bobby Broom Trio, and the cultural phenomenon of jazz music, join us on Thursday, January 15, at 2:30 pm in Anderson Chapel (rescheduled from earlier date).
Directions
- Directions to North Park's Campus
- Campus Map
- Parking for this event will be available in the University lot at the corner of Foster and Kedzie avenues.
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