A time-locked groove is at the core of Broom’s distinctive style, but on his new record, The Way I Play: Live in Chicago [Origin], the guitarist often launches into passages that demonstrate a conversational feel that seems to suspend the time. His experience with Rollins, with whom he first played as a teenager, helped him develop this controlled looseness.

“For some reason, horn players and piano players tend to play with a rhythmic freedom that I wanted to have,” says Broom. “There is a way that Sonny floats on top of the rhythm without playing actual subdivisions of the time. It is somewhere removed, but in a time that is emotionally relative, and, of course, he is able to return to the actual subdivision of the beat at will.”

As a teen, Broom played along with the Jamey Aebersold music-minus-one records, but he feels most of his rhythmic development came later.

“In my mid 20s, I did a lot of practicing by myself, playing through tunes as though I was playing in a real situation, and only stopping to work on something I missed,” he says. “The most important part of that was keeping time for myself.”

Though extremely concerned with groove, the 47-year-old guitarist is not a fan of artificial timekeepers.

“I had a metronome, but I soon realized it felt stiff, like it was pushing the beat,” he explains. “I was used to listening to music that was made by humans, so I decided to practice so that I can be the metronome—which is something I try to instill in my students. It takes a lot of work to let go of the metronome. Most often, it is a crutch, and a way to give up the responsibility for keeping time.”

Melody, too, is a part of Broom’s musical world. On The Way I Play, his previous outing Song and Dance, and with the organ trio, Broom favors standards both new and old, such as “Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” or the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home.” He approaches these chestnuts not just as changes over which to solo, but as songs to be sung—albeit with the guitar as the voice.

“Singers are very influential to the way I think about melody interpretation,” says Broom. “I would be doing myself a disservice if I just listened to saxophonists playing the melody of a tune, because it could be great, but not the whole experience. I get to a different level of emotion with singers, and that level of emotion is what the great instrumentalists are going for. When I play a melody, I want to feel it that deeply.”

The guitar that provides Broom’s voice is a Hofner Jazzica archtop.

“It has a contoured body where it hits your chest, so where the low strings resonate the most they shaved off about an inch of the depth, which cuts down the feedback on the lower strings,” he says. “F-hole plugs come with the guitar, but I only use the one down by the lower strings. I think the guitar has a very distinctive and unique kind of punch. The low end is very clear and prominent, but the sound across all of the strings is very even.”

Broom’s Hofner is strung with DR Legend flatwound .013s, and he favors Golden Gate picks.

“I like the warmth and lack of attack you get with blunt ends,” he explains. “The Golden Gates have three blunted ends, and they are extra, extra heavy.”

Broom collects amps and effects, but only because the ones he uses have been discontinued.

“I started using transistor Peavey Special 130 amps back in the late ’80s, and they are workhorses,” he says (On the road, Broom carries two small Crate CPB150 PowerBlock heads that he uses to power the rented speaker bottoms du jour). “When I plug in, I am just hearing the amplified sound of whatever guitar I am playing. And I like to play with two amps, one on each side. I use a Korg ToneWorks AX30G to split the signal. Basically, I just use some Aural Exciter and reverb programs—stuff that no one else probably hears.”

On YouTube, you can witness Sonny Rollins relating how a guitar in the band is less harmonically obtrusive than a piano, and Broom’s approach to accompaniment may be why he got that coveted gig.

“I am thinking more about harmonic following than leading—not that I have to catch every little thing he does,” relates Broom. “If someone is painting with red, I don’t want to throw red all over everything, I just want to enhance the environment so that that color makes a little more sense. And I don’t want them to notice me. If someone turns around to look at you, and there is no smile, then you are doing something that is not right. If they are not looking at you, that’s probably a good thing.”

In his role as a teacher, Broom is imparting knowledge garnered playing with Rollins and other jazz greats such as Kenny Burrell and Miles Davis to a new generation of guitarists.

“Whatever technique you develop is best used to express something you feel—something you can hear, not just something you can play,” emphasizes Broom. “And, by the time you can play what you hear, you will be hearing more. You never graduate. Music is a process.”

www.bobbybroom.com