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Anthony Bruno: Blue Velvet

By Dan McClenaghan
June 1, 2025
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Chicago-based saxophonist Anthony Bruno wraps up a terrific triptych of album releases with 2025's Blue Velvet. The journey began with the release of his album Anthony Bruno (2023), followed by Cefalu (2024). All of these are on his Anthony Bruno Music label. Bruno counts Sonny Rollins as a major influence. He says as much in the All About Jazz spotlight interview (read it here). That influence shows from the get-go on Blue Velvet, with its high octane energy, the soul, the rhythm and blues shadings. Bruno has worked with the Temptations and the Four Tops and guitarist Bobby Broom. Some soul and pop ideas have edged into his artistry. Back to Bruno's main influence: the cover art of Blue Velvet tips a hat to Rollins' classic Saxophone Colossus (Prestige Records, 1957).

Bruno fronts a cohesive quintet, with Matt Gold's guitar and Julius Tucker's piano and electric keys adding an impressive complexity to the sound. The overall mood might be called the classic Rollins of the late 1950s, but it is more in line with the saxophonist's Milestone Records recordings released from 1972 to 2000. Rollins was then playing accessible sounds. Some said it was less challenging music, and not nearly as good as albums like 1972's The Bridge (RCA Victor) or as important and topical as 1958's Freedom Suite (Riverside Records). Maybe. Take that for what it is worth. Rollins' Milestone years were a long stretch, and a lot of accessible, catchy music went down. Following in those footsteps is a fine idea.

One of Blue Velvet's major strengths is the rhythm section. There is never a sense of the saxophone sitting out front, playing over rote charts. Bruno knows how to pick them. The combination of guitar, the electric piano and synths often makes for rich and tightly woven orchestral sounds, bringing the arrangements of Don Sebesky's productions on CTI Records, when he stayed with just the small ensembles, leaning away from strings. The fact that Bruno gets the same effect on his previous two albums, with line-up shuffles, says he knows his stuff when it comes to putting a band together. His rhythm teams are as tight as Motown's Wrecking Crew, and hearing a couple of chording instruments mix it over this up with joy in their hearts is pure magic.

Track Listing

Blue Velvet; Bread And Circus; Savior; Bubblegum; For Biggs; February; The Tease; Together.

Personnel

Anthony Bruno

saxophone

Julius Tucker

piano

Matt Gold

guitar

Vinny Kabat

bass

James Russell Sims

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Julius Tucker: keys, synths.

Album information

Title: Blue Velvet | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Anthony Bruno Music

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