See him Oct. 11 at 25th Annual Jazz at the Point Fall Festival
By Bruce Klauber
Bassist Brian Bromberg is a musical monster. While there’s no doubt he is a jazz musician who has taken the bass to places the instrument has never been before, Bromberg is fluent in virtually every musical genre. And his extensive resume reflects that, as he has performed alongside artists ranging from straight-ahead artists like Dizzy Gillespie and Anita O’Day, to pop stars such as Sting and Whitney Houston.
The Tucson, Ariz., native, who will appear at the Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point on Friday, Oct. 11, as part of the 25th Annual Jazz at the Point Fall Festival, is as upbeat and excited about his music today at the age of 63 as he was when he first picked up the bass when he was a teenager.
In a recent telephone conversation, Bromberg explained that he actually started as a drummer.
“My father was a drummer,” he recalled. “He studied with Henry Adler, who was actually Buddy Rich’s coach back in the 1940s. At heart, I guess I’m still a drummer, and I think that way musically, especially when it comes to tempo.
“One of the things I had always wanted to do was to play bass with Buddy Rich,” he continued. “I used to practice by playing drums with his records. I think I would have really nailed it playing bass with Buddy. We think the same way about time and how to inspire a soloist.”
However, he admitted, he hasn’t played the drums for some time. “If you don’t use it you lose it,” he said.
He came to the bass after playing the cello for a time in junior high school.
“I was never comfortable with the cello,” he said. “My band director actually steered me to the bass.”
According to his official bio, “From the ages of 14 to 18, Bromberg “locked himself up in a room and practiced day and night.”
He took to the bass relatively quickly, and as a high school junior, he was already taking music classes at the University of Arizona. He graduated high school early, and as a U of A student, played in virtually all of that school’s jazz ensembles. Before long, he was working regularly in the Tucson area with almost every type of band.
“One thing that was challenging about coming up in Tucson was that I really didn’t get to hear a lot of the great jazz bass players in person,” he said. “But in terms of my influences, I listened to almost all the greats on record like Ron Carter, Ray Brown, George Mraz, Stanley Clarke, and everybody else.”
His first, big-name breakthrough came in 1979 with jazz saxophone legend Stan Getz. Bromberg was 19 years old.
“I was just a kid playing with local players in Tucson,” he told the Smooth Jazz Network not long ago. “I got recommended to Stan by Marc Johnson, the bassist with jazz piano legend Bill Evans. He heard me play when the Bill Evans Trio came to Tucson for a week of workshops and concerts. Seven months later Marc recommended me to Stan Getz.”
The late pianist Bill Evans remains one of the most influential pianists in jazz history. The music of Evans and his ground-breaking trios have played a big part in Bromberg’s current musical activities, a tribute to Evans’ innovative and legendary bassist, Scott LaFaro. The LaFaro tribute can be heard on a new CD, and it’s what listeners will hear on Oct. 11 in Somers Point.
LaFaro’s importance is monumental. Although he died tragically in an automobile accident in 1961 at the age of 25, his playing with the Bill Evans Trio changed the course of bass playing. By way of his astounding technique and unparalleled melodic and harmonic sense, he made the bass an equal, interactive voice in the trio. Certainly there were great bass soloists before LaFaro, but none that interacted as intuitively and as beautifully as Scott LaFaro.
It’s hard to believe but at first, Bromberg didn’t want to do the project.
“I was approached with the idea by the King record company in Japan,” he said. “I really didn’t want to do a tribute-type thing, especially when it involved someone as important as LaFaro.”
Thankfully for jazz fans, he did the project, and had a good deal of input and encouragement from LaFaro’s sister, Helene LaFaro-Fernandez.
“She published a book about her brother in 2009 called, ‘Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro.’ She keeps the flame alive.”
When it came to actually recording the tribute, Bromberg had a lot of options in terms of whom his sidemen in the trio would be. Given his fame in the jazz world, he could have had any big name he wanted. Explaining the process, Bromberg said, “I did considered Joe LaBarbera to play drums, as he was in Bill Evans’ Trio for a few years until Bill died. But I hooked up incredibly well musically with my regular guys: drummer Tom Zink and drummer Charles Ruggiero, and that’s who I used on the recording.”
The results, released digitally, on CD and on LP via Bromberg’s own Be Squared Productions label, are extraordinary. Bromberg’s trio reinvents a number of compositions made famous by Bill Evans’ Trio, including “Waltz for Debby,” “Israel,” “Blue and Green,” and a standard done early on by Evans’ trio, “What is This Thing Called Love.”
To his credit, Bromberg musically channels the sensitive and interactive side of Scott LaFaro, but in his own, individual way.
“Even in a project like this, that celebrates LaFaro’s interactive nature and solo ability, there are times I just like to swing, and play four-to-the-floor,” he said. The jazz standard “Solar” is a good example of that. It swings, but it swings gently, in the Bill Evans tradition.
Bromberg is proud of the results and believes that “the music on the record is accessible enough to a point where even those who are not jazz fans will enjoy listening to it. In the end, it’s listenable, and that’s what I wanted.”
Fans of Brian Bromberg, and there are many, never know what the bassist might come up with next musically. In addition to touring with the LaFaro tribute project, he also has appearances lined up for his groove-centered Super Band as well as his big band.
Some jazz writers have taken notice that, despite Bromberg’s standing as a hit-maker in smooth jazz circles, he keeps returning to straight-ahead jazz. But whatever the style is, he takes it all very seriously.
“I’ve recorded a lot of different kinds of jazz, in a lot of different styles that all mean something to me,” he recently told Down Beat magazine. “I put every ounce of who I am into everything that I do. My heart is in everything.”
That is very clear. Just listen.
If You Go
Brian Bromberg’s “A Tribute to Scott LaFaro” will take the stage from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, at the Gateway Playhouse, 738 Bay Ave., Somers Point, as part of the 25th Annual Jazz at the Point “BASSes Loaded” Fall Festival.
Tickets/info: www.SouthJerseyJazz.org.
The full festival lineup kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 10, from 7 to 9 p.m., with Ciara Moser and Friends performing at the Gateway; followed by Bromberg on Friday, Oct. 11, from 7 to 9 p.m.; and by Andy Lalasis and Musical Collusion from 9 to 11 p.m. at Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar, 900 Shore Road.
The festival continues on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m., with The John Patitucci Brazilian Trio at the Gateway Playhouse. The program concludes with the Mike Boone Group featuring Mekhi Boone from 9 to 11 p.m. at Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar.
Tickets are $50 for an all-event pass and $20 for individual events at the Gateway Playhouse. The events at Gregory’s are free.
For more information call 609-289-0326 or 609-653-0553 or go to www.gatewaybythebay.org or www.SouthJerseyJazz.org.
