Bob Brozman

A champion of the blues, guitar player and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman combined his instrumental prowess and academic background to explore the connection between blues and indigenous music from around the world. Born in New York City on March 8, 1954, Brozman was a noted master of the slide guitar, as evidenced on his 1988 album Devil’s Slide and A Truckload of Blues in 1992. While his musical pursuits remained too esoteric to cross into the mainstream, he cultivated an audience and collaborated with other artists who shared his passion for music from bygone times and far-flung locales. Brozman’s appreciation for vintage instruments, sounds, and recording techniques came through on his records, which primarily celebrated blues and jazz of the 1920s and 30s. His taste for the arcane makes him the sort of figure whose records fit alongside Nick Cave, Tom Waits, and Leon Redbone in the collections of listeners with a taste for older, sometimes off-kilter sounds refracted through a contemporary prism. He would travel the globe to learn from and collaborate with musicians from India, Guinea, Japan, and Ireland, and taught at Macquarie University in Australia. He also joined the outfit R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, a band created by the popular illustrator to revisit early blues sounds. Brozman continued to release albums up until his suicide on April 23, 2013.

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