Brian was born December 5th, 1960 in Tucson Arizona. He grew up in a family of musicians and artists. His father and brother played the drums. With all that music around the house, and drums all over the place, it was natural for Brian to start playing the drums as well. Brian was two and a half years old, beating up the furniture and banging on anything that didn't move. After some years of playing and practicing, Brian began his professional career as a drummer at the age of thirteen.
In elementary and Jr.high School, Brian also played the cello. That was one instrument that Brian did not feel very comfortable playing. One day in orchestra class at jr. high, the orchestra director came over to Brian and said, hey Brian, you see that big bass over there in the corner? You know that nobody is playing it. Don't you want to play that big cool bass over there? You see, the orchestra director had a plan. He thought that having one bad bass player was better then not having one at all. That was his way of getting Brian to stop trying to saw his cello in half!
That day was a blessing in disguise. Brian didn't realize that he had the gift for melody as well as rhythm. With his drumming background, and all this new melody available to him from the bass, Brian knew that this was going to be his path.
From ages fourteen to eighteen, Brian locked himself up in a room and practiced day and night. Testing out of high school early and devoting all his time to music, for the next few years Brian played every type of gig imaginable. Quite often Brian would play five to seven nights a week with several different bands.
Brian's first big break came in 1979 when Marc Johnson, the wonderful bassist with the great jazz pianist Bill Evans, heard Brian play. Several months later while on tour, Marc ran into legendary jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. Stan was looking for a new bass player and asked Marc if he knew any new young players. Marc told Stan about Brian. Brian auditioned for Stan and joined the Stan Getz quintet in December of 1979. Brian had just turned 19 and spent nearly a year touring the world with Stan and his band.
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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 instrument’s space.
After “Its About Time…” Bromberg returned to making more modern smooth jazz music. His next record, “BRIAN BROMBERG” (1993), was unsuccessful due to the fact that 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 Wayward Son” and Paul Mcartney’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 would more than 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, and Peavey basses with Gallien Krueger amplification
review
This is a CD that inspired by the late great Antonio Carlos Jobim. The recording is 50/50 Jobim classics and Bromberg originals in the Jobim (Brazilian) style. This CD features an all star cast of musicians as well as Brian on nylon string piccolo bass (sounds like a classical nylon string guitar) and upright bass. This is also Brian's first recording to feature a full orchestra on most of the selections. This project was also recorded for King Records in Japan.
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