Music on Our Radar

Brian Bromberg – Bromberg Plays Hendrix, In the Spirit of Jobim, Compared to That

Published

12 years ago

September 6, 2012

Brian Bromberg is one extraordinarily versatile bassist who can pretty well play anything he pleases and do an amazing job! This one sentence sums up my review of Brian’s recent “Salvo” of CD’s. I kind of hate to blend a review that merges three CD’s but I can’t help but compare them as I got them all at once. Here is the line up:

“Bromberg Plays Hendrix”

“In the Spirit of Jobim”

“Compared to That”

First, who in their right mind takes on an iconic, legendary rock guitarist as a musical theme? Why Brian, of course! “Bromberg Plays Hendrix” brings us the essence of Hendrix’s body of work in a less raw, more polished presentation without using a single guitar and with the sole support of drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. High precision and flawless execution are the benchmark here and will appeal to those who are not already Hendrix fans.

“In the Spirit of Jobim” transports us all to sunny, sultry, sexy Brazil. If you have read any of my reviews that had to do with Brazilian music, you know I am a huge fan of this genre so, I absolutely dig this CD.

We are treated to a wide variety of classic Brazilian tempos and styles as only Antonio Carlos Jobim could compose and a very inspired Bromberg emulated with some of his own composition. The arrangements are beautiful and listening to them made me just feel happy. Brian finds an excellent balance of laying down a sweet Brazilian groove and cutting loose on his solos. As this kind of music needs a village to produce, The Rising Sun Orchestra provides a wealth of Brazilian musicians to solidify the music’s authenticity.

“Compared to That” is Brian’s true Jazz comfort zone. The focus here is a live Jazz recording with the benefits of state-of-the-art studio recording, but I will say there is a lot of variety in the music here.

One detail that makes this recording a masterpiece is the long list of “heavy hitter” musicians that collaborated on this project. Let’s mention a few… Alex Acuna, Gannin Arnold, Charlie Bisharat, Randy Brecker, Vinnie Colaiuta, George Duke, Bela Flek, Mitch Forman, Larry Goldings, Jeff Lorber, Gary Meek and Tom Zink. The end result of having such consummate musicians working with Brian is that the finished product is a precise, tight and excellent execution of the eight songs that Brian wrote and the two that he didn’t. Brian’s walking bass lines and solos once more remind us that he is a bass super-power!