| B i o g r a p h y |
Bob Brozman
(March 8, 1954 - April 23, 2013) was an American guitarist and
ethnomusicologist. Brozman was born to a Jewish family living on Long
Island, New York. He began playing the guitar when he was 6.
He performed in a number of styles such as gypsy jazz, calypso, blues,
ragtime, Hawaiian music, and Caribbean music. Brozman also collaborated
with musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds such as India, Africa,
Japan, Papua New Guinea and Réunion. He has been called "an instrumental
wizard" and "a walking archive of 20th Century American music." Brozman
maintained a steady schedule throughout the year, touring constantly
throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. He
recorded numerous albums and has won the Guitar Player Readers' Poll
three times in the best blues, best world and best slide guitarist
categories. In 1999, Brozman and Woody Mann founded International Guitar
Seminars, which hosts over 120 students annually at sites in
California, New York, and Canada. From 2000 to 2005 his collaborations
landed in the European Top 10 for World Music five times.
He was formerly an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Contemporary
Music Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Brozman was
well known for his use of National resonator instruments from the 1920s
and 1930s, as well as National Resophonic resonator instruments. He also
used Weissenborn style hollow neck acoustic steel guitars. Among his
National instruments were a baritone version of the tricone guitar,
which was designed in conjunction with him in the mid to late 1990s.
This instrument is now part of National's range of products. Brozman
committed suicide on April 23, 2013.
Home page: www.bobbrozman.com