Kobie Watkins, drums, and Bobby Broom, guitar at the 2012 Ballard Jazz Festival (Jim Levitt photo)
What better way to celebrate April’s Jazz Month than the Tenth Annual Ballard Jazz Festival? There were four nights featuring drums and guitars, a jazz walk among a dozen venues featuring some of Seattle’s top jazz talent, and culminated in a concert which co-billed pianist Orrin Evans’ Quartet and The Bobby Broom Trio. The latter is featured in the first broadcast from this year’s festival on Jazz Northwest, Sunday May 6 at 1 pm PDT on 88.5 KPLU and kplu.org.
Bobby Broom grew up in Harlem, began guitar at 12 and played his first gig with Sonny Rollins at 17 at Carnegie Hall! Now based in Chicago, he’s toured and recorded with Sonny Rollins several times since then, and leads his own trio as well as being integral to the Deep Blue Organ Trio. Both groups have long-standing weekly gigs in Chicago as well as touring and recording for Seattle-based Origin Records.
For this concert, the Bobby Broom Trio played music featured in his 2009 release “Bobby Broom Plays for Monk” and his forthcoming Origin release, “Upper West Side Story.” The Bobby Broom Trio includes Dennis Carroll, bass and Kobie Watkins on drums, whose sensitivity and energy match the leader’s joyful spirit and intensity.
Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced by Jim Wilke, exclusively for 88.5, KPLU. It airs each Sunday afternoon at 1 pm Pacific and is streamed at kplu.org. The program is also available as a podcast after the air date.