{"id":3793,"date":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jazzusa.com\/brian-bromberg-wood\/"},"modified":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","slug":"brian-bromberg-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/?p=3793","title":{"rendered":"Brian Bromberg – Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BrianBrian Bromberg
<\/font>Wood<\/font><\/b>
(A440 Music Group – 2002)
by S.H. Watkins, Sr.<\/p>\n

<\/font> It looks as if Brian Bromberg, a member in good standing with the Smooth-Jazz Mafia<\/i> may actually have been working undercover for the jazz police. With the release of his new CD Wood<\/i> A440 Music Group has just blown his cover. It seems he was caught performing the eleven tracks entirely on an 18th century Matteo Guersam<\/i> Italian made upright bass, working with a trio! Playing acoustic music, even!<\/p>\n

Seriously folks… Brian shows another side to his musical personality here and I was pleasantly surprised. Performing with his brother David Bromberg<\/b> on drums and Randy Waldman<\/b> on piano the trio puts down some very tight tracks with not a trace of smooth jazz influence. Herbie Hancock’s Dolphin Dance<\/i> is delightful as Brian takes the lead, strumming and dancing on the strings. When Bromberg does the Beatle’s classic Come Together<\/i> all by himself, popping the strings and patting the case as his own accompaniment, your foot begins to tap and your finger starts popping right along with him.<\/p>\n

Goodbye {for my father}<\/i>, the sole original track on the CD, is a slow and pensive piece with some sweet piano work by Waldman. Freedom Jazz Dance<\/i> is another example of Bromberg standing out there all alone, giving expression and life to Eddie Harris’ tune with absolutely no accompaniment. He does it even better on Miles’ All Blues<\/i>, playing the melody AND bass at the same time! This is a sweet piece of work.<\/p>\n

The trio also covers standards like I Love You<\/i>, Days of Wine and Roses<\/i> and Straight, No Chaser<\/i> with the same accomplished professionalism, giving the other players opportunity to showcase their own talents as well. Brian finishes up with a solo bass version of The Star Spangled Banner<\/i> that would make Jimi Hendrix proud. Just like Jimi, Bromberg took the Anthem and made it his, cajoling his bass into putting the song out with feeling and snazz<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Kudos to A440 Music and Kent Anderson for coming up with this idea. In an era when we’ve got smooth jazz albums covering hip-hop tracks, and smooth jazz albums covering R&B tracks, it’s nice to see a smooth jazz artist still doing classic jazz, and doing it well. <\/p>\n

For more information visit the A440 Music Group<\/a> web site. <\/font><\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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