On Thursday, Sept. 11, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Roland Hayes Concert Hall will resonate with the music of one of jazz’s finest storytellers.
Grammy Award-winning pianist, arranger and composer Alan Broadbent will perform a solo piano concert at 7:30 p.m., with proceeds benefiting WUTC-FM 88.1.
Made possible by a gift from Ken and Nancy Dryden, the concert represents a rare chance to experience Broadbent’s intimate approach to improvisation and melody – one rooted in decades of artistry yet deeply present in the moment.
A journey half a world away
Broadbent’s path to becoming one of jazz’s most respected pianists began in Auckland, New Zealand, where he was first introduced to American jazz through the radio.
“When I was 14, New Zealand radio started to play this music,” he recalls over a video call, playing the beginning of Dave Brubeck’s 1959 release “Take Five” on a nearby keyboard. “A few months later, Brubeck was coming to Auckland with his quartet – and I had to get tickets to hear them, to see what this music was all about. The first song they played was a beautiful tune called ‘Tangerine.’”
Broadbent still remembers the shift in feeling – the revelation of what jazz could do.
“This is the way I played ‘Tangerine’ from dad’s sheet music,” he says, tapping out a straightforward, measured version on his keyboard. “But they did something different.”
He pauses, then his hands glide into an expressive, time-bending line.
“That feeling – I had to figure out how to do it.”
That moment set Broadbent on a path of relentless discovery. As a teenager, he answered a newspaper ad from other young musicians forming a jazz group, then found himself playing alongside older, more seasoned players who challenged him daily.
“I’d go home in tears at the age of 15 because they were putting me down,” he laughs. “But I was determined to get back up again until I found that feeling. I remember finding it for the first time and looking at Tony, the drummer, and he’s looking at me and saying, ‘Yeah, keep it there, Alan. That’s where it is.’”
The road to America
That pursuit eventually led Broadbent to the United States on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Though he hadn’t imagined music as a livelihood, opportunities found him.
“It never occurred to me that I should make a living doing this,” he says. “But through a teacher at school, I got a gig playing solo piano at a bar and then that developed into a trio. One night, Jake Hanna, the famous drummer, and Nat Pierce, the arranger for Woody Herman, heard me. Woody was looking for a pianist-arranger, so that summer, I’m on the road with Woody.”
After three years with Herman’s Thundering Herd, Broadbent “fell off the bus” in Los Angeles, where his career took off. There, he began working with vocalist Irene Kral, forging a collaboration that remains one of his fondest memories.
“She was pivotal,” he says. “We did a couple duo recordings in the early seventies. They still mean the world to me.”
From there, the saga unfolded: tours, collaborations and recordings with some of jazz’s brightest names, from Charlie Haden’s Quartet West to Chet Baker, Diana Krall and Natalie Cole. Broadbent’s lush orchestral arrangements for Cole’s “When I Fall in Love” and Shirley Horn’s “Lonely Town” earned him two Grammys and cemented his reputation as one of the finest arranger-conductors of his generation.
A musical philosophy
For Broadbent, jazz isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about discovery – the alchemy of structure and spontaneity, played out in real time.
“I’ve been playing American standard songs since I was a teenager, just as my students are now,” he says. “But the way that we play them and improvise them – it brings a certain structure, a certain feeling, up to the present time. The way I interpret these songs is never the same way twice. And that’s the stimulating thing about this music.”
Improvisation will be central to Broadbent’s UTC performance.
“The music will be in the moment, right now. Even though these tunes were written 80 years ago, they’re still valid to us as improvising vehicles.”
It’s a tradition that stretches back to the roots of jazz.
“The feeling was created by Louis Armstrong and developed along the way,” Broadbent explains. “Especially pivotal were Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. Powell, for pianists, changed everything. Instead of a pianistic approach, it became a melodic, horn-like approach. We could make the piano sing.”
Drawing audiences in
Broadbent believes in inviting audiences along for the journey. While his improvisations move in unexpected directions, his performances always begin with clarity.
“I try to state the melody as clearly as I can,” he says. “So even if you don’t know it, if you’re musically sensitive, you’ll say, ‘Now he’s going to improvise on that structure he’s just given.’ I like to be clear that way and bring people into the experience.”
That philosophy will shape Broadbent’s Chattanooga program, which will blend classic standards, personal favorites and his own compositions – depending on how he’s feeling.
“I might play a couple of my tunes and some standards from way back when,” he says. “’Round Midnight’ by Thelonious Monk. A beautiful ballad called ‘What Is There to Say?’ ‘All the Things You Are’ by Jerome Kern. Then some jazz standards – ‘On a Misty Night’ by Tadd Dameron – one of my favorite composers – and ‘Four’ by Miles Davis. Things like that.”
If the audience is lucky, Broadbent will also perform his composition “Heart’s Desire” – a deeply personal tribute – at this concert.
“Sheila Jordan recorded it in the nineties,” he says softly. “She just died within the past two weeks. The concert will be dedicated to her.”
Passing the torch
At 78, Broadbent continues to balance performing with his role as a teacher at New York University, where he’s been on faculty for a decade. It keeps him connected to younger generations and to the ongoing life of the music he loves.
“It’s a great thing at my age to keep the generational thing going for jazz,” he says. “There are kids that are still interested in it, despite all the pop inundation they get. They want to know about this music.”
Broadbent’s latest album, a 2025 release titled “Threads of Time,” reflects that spirit of mentorship and continuity. Recorded with a sextet that spans three generations – including one of his own students on drums – the album recently climbed to No. 5 on the JazzWeek charts.
“It proves that this music doesn’t belong to the sixties – it belongs to us now,” he says.
Lessons from the masters
When asked what inspires him, Broadbent returns to the artists who shaped his understanding of jazz: Powell, Oscar Peterson and his own teacher, Lennie Tristano.
“With Bud, every note means something,” he says. “Lennie called it a ‘note-to-note process,’ and you have to find that as a student by improvising slowly, with that feeling. It comes with playing with other people, too. For me, it was internalizing an improvisation that I loved, going to the piano, slowing it down and making sure I was playing what was in my mind. That creates a connection between your feelings, your mind and your fingers.”
Broadbent’s advice to young musicians is both practical and poetic:
“First of all, if you’re worried about making a living doing this, you should find something else to do,” he says, his tone serious. “The feeling I’m talking about is something you have to discover for yourself. And when it clicks, you have to go with it – completely. You have to knuckle down and listen, listen, listen.”
Music for now
For all his accolades – the Grammys, the storied collaborations, the international tours – Broadbent remains deeply connected to the emotional core of music.
“I remember the first time I heard jazz,” he says. “I didn’t want to dance, but it was making me move in a way when I was listening to it. ‘What is that? What is it doing to me?’ People can feel it without really knowing what it is.”
He hopes to provide his Chattanooga audience with the same sense of discovery.
“There’s the beauty of the music,” he smiles. “And maybe a few wrong notes – but what the hell.”
A special night at UTC
Though Broadbent has performed around the world, his Sept. 11 concert marks his first visit to Chattanooga. He plans to make the most of his brief stay.
“This is my first time,” he says. “I intend to enjoy my two days there.”
The concert is made possible by the Drydens, longtime jazz advocates whose support of WUTC-FM and the local arts community helped bring Broadbent to the city. Their gift ensures that ticket proceeds will directly benefit the station – enriching Chattanooga’s cultural landscape.