Bob Brozman - Official Website

Bob Brozman in Australia

Having wanted to go to Australia for years, Bob was happy to be invited in November 1999 for his first tour. Covering most of the country, Bob had the opportunity to meet and play music with some of Australia's finest acoustic musicians, including Jim Conway, Skip Sail, Mic Conway's National Junk Band, The Ten-Cent Shooters, Scott Wise, and many more. Bob immediately fell in love with the country and its enthusiastic music environment.

In January-March 2001, Bob returned to Australia for nearly 3 months touring and recording many of the shows for LIVE NOW, his recently released live album that includes tracks with star Australian harmonica player Jim Conway, and Carolyn "Cazzbo" Johns, principal tuba player for the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. Bob also had the opportunity to enter into discussions with Philip Hayward and Denis Crowdy, of the Department of Music at Macquarie University in Sydney. As a result, Bob is now an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University, and over the next several years will be lecturing there and creating more interesting projects around the Pacific/Indonesia/New Guinea area under their auspices.

On that same tour, Bob played several shows with the above mentioned artists, and also had some exciting onstage jams with Jeff Lang, resulting in a decision to tour part of Australia and record together in January 2002. The shows on the tour were all packed, and exciting musical magic was happening every night, with Jeff and with Angus Diggs, Jeff's amazing drummer with who has some of the deepest swinging grooves Bob had ever played with. The CD was recorded live at Jeff's house (houses make the best studios) in 2 days, and features some real musical stretches for both Jeff and Bob. Of course, Bob had to infect these guys with his love of Réunion Island upside-down 6/8 rhythm, and now they'll never get work in a polka band or a marching band! The CD, ROLLING THROUGH THIS WORLD, was released in March 2002 in Australia, and is now available at this site. ROLLING THROUGH THIS WORLD won the ARIA Award from the Australian Recording Industry Association, for Blues Album of the Year.

Bob returned to Australia in March-April 2002 for another tour throughout the country, which included dates with Skip Sail and with Jeff Lang. In 2003, he made another solo tour of the entire country, featuring select dates with Jeff Lang and with Skip Sail, from Feb. 27-April 27, 2003. This tour also included dates in Tasmania, and performances at both WOMAD Festivals: in Adelaide, AUS and in New Plymouth, New Zealand with Takashi Hirayasu.

2004 saw another marathon tour of the entire country, for March and April, a lot of great shows with Skip Sail, and a few special performances with Lucky Oceans. Bob went to Papua New Guinea just after that for an exciting recording and filming project (National Junk Band’s Phil Donnison behind the cameras!) and returned again in October 2004. See Bob’s Notes from the Road page for interesting details.

2005 was a busy year in Oz, for Bob. He toured twice in Australia in two formats. First for New Year’s, Bob was very happy to return to the incredible Woodford Festival, followed by a couple weeks of shows with his Aussie pal, Jeff Lang. Then in mid-March to mid-April, Bob returned to Australia with a completely different show - a quartet with the legendary René Lacaillle, from the Indian Ocean Island of Réunion. Bob was very excited to present his collaborator René to Australian audiences; Réunion Island rhythms are definitely the hottest on the planet. Reactions to the ensemble at festivals and venues across the country were phenomenal.

Bob saw the Australian springtime for the first time in September 2006, as he returned to favorite venues and toured most of the country. Bob will return in November 2007, for a very exciting new guitar festival in Adelaide, crossing paths with old friends Jeff Lang, Lucky Oceans, VM Bhatt, and Cindy Cashdollar. Following that, plans are in the works to record with musicians in Vanuatu, through the auspices of Macquarie University. Bob will again tour in Oz during January 2008, and September-October 2008.

See Bob's Tour Schedule here.