Brian Bromberg
Encyclopedia
Brian Bromberg is an American
jazz
bassist
and record producer
who performs on both electric
and acoustic
instruments. Though he tends to gravitate towards the genre of smooth jazz
, Bromberg has released some straight-ahead jazz
records in which he performs with a trio
, and has even ventured into more rock oriented jazz fusion
territory as of late. His innovative and technically demanding style of playing extends to both electric and upright bass. On his acoustic bass albums, Bromberg performs jazzy interpretations of various pop and rock staples from the 60s and 70s completely solo. Regarding his work with electric bass, Bromberg, among other bassists, helped popularize the piccolo bass, or bass with each string tuned an octave up, by releasing several albums in which he plays both the bassline and melody. For instance, upon first listen many will be surprised to learn that, although soaring guitar can be heard throughout the album, Bromberg's 2005 release “Metal” contains only Bromberg on two overdubbed
basses, one of which is heavily effects-laden to make it sound like an electric guitar
.
. His father and brother, David, who both played drums
, influenced him to take up the instrument himself. At the age of 13, he began seriously pursuing a career as a drummer. However, at around the same time, the leader of his school orchestra steered him towards the upright bass. From then on, he committed to stick to a strict practice regimen and even "tested out of high school early" because of the rigorous schedule he set for himself. Still, plucking away in his basement was only half of the plan. It was integral for Bromberg to gain experience playing in live situations. Thus, he accepted virtually every gig he could get. It was somewhat common for Bromberg to play “five to seven nights a week with several different bands.”
In 1979, Marc Johnson, the bassist working for the jazz pianist Bill Evans
, heard Bromberg's playing. Johnson later suggested Bromberg to saxophonist Stan Getz, who was in search of a new bass player. Getz took the suggestion seriously, and auditioned Bromberg soon thereafter. Within only six years of him picking up the bass, Bromberg found himself touring internationally with Stan Getz at the age of 19. Other than the thrill of playing with a world class tenor-saxophonist, more opportunities began to reveal themselves to the young bass player, who would go on to work with many big names in the music business and eventually become a producer of various artists in his genre.
"Bromberg" is the name which the Polish town of Bydgoszcz bore at the times when it fell under Prussian and then German rule.
At this point, Bromberg had a solid following among smooth jazz fans, which caused him to want to shift gears a little and put out a straight ahead jazz record. His fifth release was the aptly named, ” It's About Time, The Acoustic Project”. This is an all-acoustic jazz record that went to #4 on the mainstream jazz charts in 1991. Here, Bromberg is content with a trio that includes “Freddie Hubbard” and “Ernie Watts”. Like the rest of his albums, he leaves plenty of room to showcase his virtuosity on the instrument. The warm tone of Bromberg's upright bass is very present in the mix, but never reaches a point where it infringes on the other instruments' space.
After “Its About Time…” Bromberg returned to making more modern smooth jazz music. His next record, “BRIAN BROMBERG” (1993), was unsuccessful because the label endorsing it went out of business the week of its release.
In 1996, after a short break from recording to design basses for Peavey and touring as a clinician, Bromberg signed with Zebra records. He recorded what many consider to be his greatest smooth jazz album. In February 1998, Bromberg released “You Know That Feeling” The release featured Bromberg surrounded by other notables in the smooth jazz genre such as Rick Braun, Joe Sample, Jeff Lorber, and Everette Harp. The album became Bromberg’s most successful, later to be topped by “Wood”, and his first smooth jazz #1 record of his career. “You know that feeling” had three singles in a row that each went to #3 on the charts. It Spent 17 consecutive months on the charts, 8 months in the top 10, nearly 6 months in the top 5. Bromberg's CD was the 5th most played CD from the top 100 CDs of the year in smooth jazz. Pieces from “You Know That Feeling” are still regularly played in smooth jazz stations across America. Additionally, in 2003, Bromberg made a record simply titled “Jaco” in which he performs many of Jaco Pastorius’ notable pieces.
However, after “You Know…” some of Bromberg's newer releases have stylistically deviated from his smooth jazz roots. 2002’s “Wood”, produced by a Japanese label, features straight ahead acoustic jazz playing, much like “Its About Time….”, but this time with pianist Randy Waldman and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. However, “Wood” along with its 2005 sequel: “Wood 2” contains jazz renditions of pieces that other artists in his field would not touch. Songs such as Kansas’ “Carry on My Wayward Son” and Paul McCartney
’s “Let ‘Em In” are tackled by Bromberg alone. One may think that the solo tracks would feel empty when played by only one instrumentalist. However, on these tracks, Bromberg showcases all of his techniques, such as tapping on the upright bass and his ability to play two and three note chords on demand, and musical ability to sound often like four players at once, having his 300 year old Matteo Guersam Italian upright bass digest the rock pieces and spit them out with jazz flavoring that doesn’t completely alter their original feel. Other than the strictly solo pieces, “Wood” and “Wood 2” contain the trio’s interpretations of various pieces from other jazz composers such as Wayne Shorter and Woody Herman.
On an even sharper turn away from his smooth jazz past, Bromberg released 2005’s “Metal”, which featured Bromberg on bass, Bromberg on a heavily altered piccolo bass made to sound exactly like a guitar, and drummer Joe Taylor. Bromberg uses the entire album to display his modern rock riff writing abilities, as well as his knack for soloing over them. Fans of Bromberg’s technical side will not be disappointed here. The entire album contains furiously rapid-fire solos that successfully compete with the most accomplished guitar players today.
As a producer, Bromberg has made 8 top 10 hits, 7 top 5 hits and 2 #1 hits to date. Apart from his 300 year old double bass, he uses Dean, Bob Mick, Mick Donner and Peavey basses with Epifani amplification. He also has a signature Carvin bass.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
who performs on both electric
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and acoustic
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
instruments. Though he tends to gravitate towards the genre of smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
, Bromberg has released some straight-ahead jazz
Straight-ahead jazz
Straight-ahead jazz is a term used to refer to a widely accepted style of jazz music playing that can be thought of as roughly encompassing the period between bebop and the 1960s styles of Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
records in which he performs with a trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
, and has even ventured into more rock oriented jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
territory as of late. His innovative and technically demanding style of playing extends to both electric and upright bass. On his acoustic bass albums, Bromberg performs jazzy interpretations of various pop and rock staples from the 60s and 70s completely solo. Regarding his work with electric bass, Bromberg, among other bassists, helped popularize the piccolo bass, or bass with each string tuned an octave up, by releasing several albums in which he plays both the bassline and melody. For instance, upon first listen many will be surprised to learn that, although soaring guitar can be heard throughout the album, Bromberg's 2005 release “Metal” contains only Bromberg on two overdubbed
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
basses, one of which is heavily effects-laden to make it sound like an electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
.
Biography
Brian Bromberg was born December 5, 1960 in Tucson, ArizonaTucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
. His father and brother, David, who both played drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, influenced him to take up the instrument himself. At the age of 13, he began seriously pursuing a career as a drummer. However, at around the same time, the leader of his school orchestra steered him towards the upright bass. From then on, he committed to stick to a strict practice regimen and even "tested out of high school early" because of the rigorous schedule he set for himself. Still, plucking away in his basement was only half of the plan. It was integral for Bromberg to gain experience playing in live situations. Thus, he accepted virtually every gig he could get. It was somewhat common for Bromberg to play “five to seven nights a week with several different bands.”
In 1979, Marc Johnson, the bassist working for the jazz pianist Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, heard Bromberg's playing. Johnson later suggested Bromberg to saxophonist Stan Getz, who was in search of a new bass player. Getz took the suggestion seriously, and auditioned Bromberg soon thereafter. Within only six years of him picking up the bass, Bromberg found himself touring internationally with Stan Getz at the age of 19. Other than the thrill of playing with a world class tenor-saxophonist, more opportunities began to reveal themselves to the young bass player, who would go on to work with many big names in the music business and eventually become a producer of various artists in his genre.
"Bromberg" is the name which the Polish town of Bydgoszcz bore at the times when it fell under Prussian and then German rule.
Releases as a solo artist
Bromberg's first several albums were of the smooth jazz variety. He began with two records that caught smooth jazz radio’s attention: “A New Day” in 1986 and “Basses Loaded” in 1988. His third effort, 1989’s “Magic Rain” “became the most played album on radio during the first week of its release”. Bromberg's fourth record, “BASSically Speaking” which is technically his oldest material re-mastered with some new additions, went top 5 on the radio charts and reached 7th on the Billboard sale's charts.At this point, Bromberg had a solid following among smooth jazz fans, which caused him to want to shift gears a little and put out a straight ahead jazz record. His fifth release was the aptly named, ” It's About Time, The Acoustic Project”. This is an all-acoustic jazz record that went to #4 on the mainstream jazz charts in 1991. Here, Bromberg is content with a trio that includes “Freddie Hubbard” and “Ernie Watts”. Like the rest of his albums, he leaves plenty of room to showcase his virtuosity on the instrument. The warm tone of Bromberg's upright bass is very present in the mix, but never reaches a point where it infringes on the other instruments' space.
After “Its About Time…” Bromberg returned to making more modern smooth jazz music. His next record, “BRIAN BROMBERG” (1993), was unsuccessful because the label endorsing it went out of business the week of its release.
In 1996, after a short break from recording to design basses for Peavey and touring as a clinician, Bromberg signed with Zebra records. He recorded what many consider to be his greatest smooth jazz album. In February 1998, Bromberg released “You Know That Feeling” The release featured Bromberg surrounded by other notables in the smooth jazz genre such as Rick Braun, Joe Sample, Jeff Lorber, and Everette Harp. The album became Bromberg’s most successful, later to be topped by “Wood”, and his first smooth jazz #1 record of his career. “You know that feeling” had three singles in a row that each went to #3 on the charts. It Spent 17 consecutive months on the charts, 8 months in the top 10, nearly 6 months in the top 5. Bromberg's CD was the 5th most played CD from the top 100 CDs of the year in smooth jazz. Pieces from “You Know That Feeling” are still regularly played in smooth jazz stations across America. Additionally, in 2003, Bromberg made a record simply titled “Jaco” in which he performs many of Jaco Pastorius’ notable pieces.
However, after “You Know…” some of Bromberg's newer releases have stylistically deviated from his smooth jazz roots. 2002’s “Wood”, produced by a Japanese label, features straight ahead acoustic jazz playing, much like “Its About Time….”, but this time with pianist Randy Waldman and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. However, “Wood” along with its 2005 sequel: “Wood 2” contains jazz renditions of pieces that other artists in his field would not touch. Songs such as Kansas’ “Carry on My Wayward Son” and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
’s “Let ‘Em In” are tackled by Bromberg alone. One may think that the solo tracks would feel empty when played by only one instrumentalist. However, on these tracks, Bromberg showcases all of his techniques, such as tapping on the upright bass and his ability to play two and three note chords on demand, and musical ability to sound often like four players at once, having his 300 year old Matteo Guersam Italian upright bass digest the rock pieces and spit them out with jazz flavoring that doesn’t completely alter their original feel. Other than the strictly solo pieces, “Wood” and “Wood 2” contain the trio’s interpretations of various pieces from other jazz composers such as Wayne Shorter and Woody Herman.
On an even sharper turn away from his smooth jazz past, Bromberg released 2005’s “Metal”, which featured Bromberg on bass, Bromberg on a heavily altered piccolo bass made to sound exactly like a guitar, and drummer Joe Taylor. Bromberg uses the entire album to display his modern rock riff writing abilities, as well as his knack for soloing over them. Fans of Bromberg’s technical side will not be disappointed here. The entire album contains furiously rapid-fire solos that successfully compete with the most accomplished guitar players today.
As a producer, Bromberg has made 8 top 10 hits, 7 top 5 hits and 2 #1 hits to date. Apart from his 300 year old double bass, he uses Dean, Bob Mick, Mick Donner and Peavey basses with Epifani amplification. He also has a signature Carvin bass.
Discography
- BASSically Speaking (1985)
- New Day (1985)
- Basses Loaded (1988)
- Magic Rain (1989)
- It's About Time: The Acoustic Project (1991)
- Brian Bromberg (1993)
- You Know That Feeling (1997)
- Wood (2002)
- Jaco (2002)
- Brombo! Jb Project (2003)
- Choices (2004)
- Bass Freak Out (2004)
- Metal (2005)
- Wood II (2006)
- Downright Upright (2007)
- Hands (2009)
- It Is What It Is (2009)
- Bromberg Plays Hendrix (2010)