Bob Brozman

The American world music legend Bob Brozman, one of the most prolific and respected musicians on the planet, returns to Australia to introduce live audiences, to not one, but two of his latest releases; Lumière and Post Industrial Blues. Brozman, who may just be the music industry’s answer to the United Nations, is a must-see, his shows a true delight.

Lumière is the culmination of guitar virtuoso Brozman’s musical memories formed over a lifetime of travelling and playing music with other musicians around the globe. His years of absorbing influences from cultures worldwide is expressed through the establishment of the Bob Brozman Orchestra - a unique concept where Bob intricately plays each instrumental part, building layer upon layer to formulate the tremendous sound of an extensive orchestra.

He revisits the influences drawn from his many previous collaborations with artists such as Debashish Bhattacharya, René Lacaille, Djeli Moussa Diawara and Takashi Hirayasu to reflect on the profound imprint travel has had on his life. The album reflects the vast range of Brozman’s influences, adopting various instruments along the way – the kantele (ten-stringed Finnish harp), the chaturangui (twenty-two-stringed Hindustani slide guitar), the tiny Greek baglama, the ten-stringed Bolivian charango, and of course the National Guitar.

He explores the rhythms of tango, the slide-guitar sounds of Hawaii, the maloya and sega rhythms of Réunion Island, and the African rhythms learnt from his work with Malian master kora player, Djeli Moussa Diawara. In several of his compositions he pays tribute to friends and heroes, including his Hawaiian musical hero, Tau Moe. Lumière is a musical journey; an exploration which Bob himself describes as ‘living muscle-memories that convey emotions and places; burning curiosities pursued with vigour’.

Post Industrial Blues features a passionate Brozman playing and singing at his improvisational best. Brozman brings a multitude of influences to Post Industrial Blues from India, Africa, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean, but anchors it all with the rootsy sound of blues and Americana.

His choice of additional percussion – including an array of non-traditional instruments such as a knife blade, grass clippers, disassembled marimba pipes and a broken toy piano – give the music an almost otherworldly feel at times, but Brozman brings it all back home in his own inimitable style. The album also reunites him with bassist Stan Poplin and drummer Jim Norris, both mainstays of his earliest albums from the 1980s.

Throughout Post Industrial Blues, Bob Brozman enhances the stunning instrumental performances with many original and contemporary lyrics, including songs about American geo-politics (“Follow the Money” and “Crooked Blues”), Hurricane Katrina (“Look at New Orleans”), modern travel (“Airport Blues”), immigration and war (“Three Families Blues”), and the world’s orphans (“Lonely Children”).

All demonstrate the universality of the blues as interpreted by Brozman. He also delivers his own unique take of The Doors classic, “People Are Strange,” creating a renewed spirit of the song that pays homage to its roots while redefining it through experimental instrumentation and intonation.

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