Bill Meredith

To call Bob Brozman a guitarist would be accurate, yet dismissive. The Brooklyn native may record and tour with several unorthodox guitars (he wrote a book on the National resonator), but he also uses a variety of stringed and percussive instruments from around the world that match the list of global influences gained through a lifelong study of ethnomusicology. The nephew of Barney Josephson, late proprieter of the New York City jazz club Cafe Society, Brozman's new [i]Post Industrial Blues[i] (Ruf Records) combines his influences within an American blues framework. He and his wife, Haley Brozman, live in the San Francisco Bay area. www.bobbrozman.com

What do you make of the term "world music?"
First there was indigenous music, unaffected by other cultures, as music was originally around the world. Then, due to the advent or recording, transportation, and the curiousity of musicians, music began to travel and overlap. For me, the term encompasses the interaction between indigenous and non-indigenous music.

You have wide-ranging musical interests. Is there a common thread that holds them all together?
I'm fascinated with rhythm and syncopation, and with the way things actually [i]sound[i], as opposed to just a blizzard of notes.

You've spent several years studying Hawaiian music from the 1920s and 1930s. What sparked your interest?
I got obsessed with National resonator guitars as a child, and found out that Hawaiian guys were playing them in the '20s. Then I recorded a collaboration in 1989 with 80-year-old Tau Moe and his family. We re-recorded his 1929 Hawaiian material, which I'd cherished on 78s.

Your new CD is steeped in American blues, yet infused with world music influences. Is that by default or design?
It's the result of a long process. Twelve-bar, three-chord blues is diatonic music, so it didn't develop overnight. European culture was diatonic, but African musicians were modal, with fretless banjos and fiddles. They had one chord, because modal music doesn't have chord changes. Major and minor scales arrived with white people.

You play different guitars, ukuleles, banjos, dobros, plus Bolivian, Okinawan, Greek, and Indian stringed instruments. Do you have a favorite?
It'd have to be the National resonator. I started playing it at a young age, and it became my passion.

Why did you reunite with your 1980s bassist, Stan Poplin, and drummer, Jim Norris, on [i]Post-Industrial Blues[i]?
They're great players. It's all improvised, live, one-take stuff, but I trust those guys' instincts.

After your composing and playing, seminars and lectures, producing, authoring books, and a foundation for third-world musicians, what's left?
I have collaborative recording with Irish musicians coming up, and endless touring around the world. At 54, I think I can go on like this for another 10 years.