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Brian Bromberg: LaFaro
by Joshua Weiner
As much as one can appreciate the astonishing stylistic breadth of music that is gathered under the banner of “jazz" today, for many listeners there remains nothing like a supremely swinging straight-ahead date for listening pleasure. For those folks, Brian Bromberg's gorgeous new album LaFaro delivers on many levels: musicianship, sound quality, thematic cohesion and classic tunes. Bromberg is a master bassist who has done extensive work as a Los Angeles-based session musician in addition to releasing 28 of his ...
Continue ReadingBrian Bromberg: Thicker Than Water
by Chris Mosey
Brian Bromberg specializes in smooth jazz. That's music with rough edges removed. He plays it on basses, upright and electric, and on piccolo basses which are tuned to sound like guitars. It's all fiendishly clever but Bromberg remains modest. He uses a whole side of the album's cover to thank everyone, including God, “for trusting me with the gifts that you have given me." He's had his ups and downs. In 1979, when he ...
Continue ReadingBrian Bromberg: Brian Bromberg
by Dave Wayne
Talk about backstory! There are multiple backstories going on with bass virtuoso Brian Bromberg's Full Circle. The first actually involves Bromberg's back. Full Circle marks Bromberg's return to recording and full-on playing since suffering a debilitating spinal injury several years ago. Always a chops-meister, Bromberg truly projects the sheer joy of music-making throughout. Cutting loose seems like a great thing to do, as Bromberg could barely hold his instruments, let alone play them, even after months of physical therapy and ...
Continue ReadingBrian Bromberg: Compared to That
by Larry Taylor
Ever sit back dreamily listening to an album, letting the music wash over you when all of a sudden, you hear a number that snaps you to attention? Such is the experience when listening to Brian Bromberg's Compared to That. The noteworthy number here: “Hayride," an original by Bromberg. Earlier tracks are hard-edged smooth jazz arrangements. The title track shows off Jeff Lorber's piano, along with Bromberg's unique work on acoustic bass and hollow body piccolo bass. (Album ...
Continue ReadingBrian Bromberg: Downright Upright
by Jim Santella
Retro-inspired grooves can mean a lot of things--it depends on how far back one wants to go.
On Downright Upright, bassist Brian Bromberg takes a retro tour of the era when Freddie Hubbard and Herbie Hancock were reaching a peak. Joe Zawinul and Eddie Harris were changing the scope of jazz. Weather Report was in, and jazz was changing rapidly. The umbrella was opening up to include innovative ideas and comfortable melodies that lingered in the mind for ...
Continue ReadingBrian Bromberg: Wood II
by Ernest Barteldes
On Wood II, bassist Brian Bromberg, instead of showcasing new material, prefers to give his take on songs by a different range of composers, some of whom, like Paul McCartney and Kansas, are not directly associated with jazz. He opens with a classic Duke Ellington number, “Caravan, showing incredible speed during certain moments and also giving a lot of space to pianist Randy Waldman to show his chops. Another impressive track is Kenny Dorham's “Blue Bossa, which ...
Continue ReadingBrian Bromberg: Wood II
by Franz A. Matzner
Brian Bromberg's extraordinary new release is a jazz album cured of the blues. Devoid of deep suffering pools, spare introspective valleys or convoluted mazes of cerebration, the mostly trio Wood II looks out over a vista of pure musical enjoyment seen from peaks of virtuosic playfulness. Listening to Bromberg take apart and reconstruct such staples as “Caravan, “Blue Bossa and “Bolivia is like watching a child diving into a birthday cake. He consumes these tunes with wild ...
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