Brian Bromberg - Releases As A Solo Artist

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 reached number four on the mainstream jazz charts in 1991. Here, Bromberg is content with a trio that includes Freddie Hubbard and Ernie Watts. 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 It's About Time, The Acoustic Project 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 number one record of his career. “You know that feeling” had three singles in a row that each went to number three on the charts. It Spent seventeen consecutive months on the charts, eight months in the top ten, nearly six months in the top five. Bromberg's CD was the fifth 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 That Feeling, 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 followup, 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 three hundred 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 Joel 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 produced eight top ten hits, seven top five hits and two number one hits to date. Apart from his three hundred year old double bass, he uses Dean, Bob Mick, Mick Donner and Peavey basses with Epifani amplification. He also owns a signature edition Carvin bass.