Brian Bromberg – Bass

Bromberg was born on December 5, 1960, in Tucson, Arizona. His father and brother both played drums, which influenced him to take up the instrument, and at the age of 13 he began seriously pursuing a career as a drummer. Around this time, the leader of his school orchestra steered him towards the upright bass. From then on, he committed himself to a strict practice regimen and even “tested out of high school early” because of the rigorous schedule he set for himself.

Bromberg felt it was essential to gain experience playing live and he accepted virtually every gig he could get. He often played “five to seven nights a week with several different bands.” In 1979, Marc Johnson, the bassist then working with jazz pianist Bill Evans, heard Bromberg’s playing and recommended him to saxophonist Stan Getz, who needed a new bass player. Getz auditioned Bromberg and hired him, and at the age of 19, with only six years of experience on the bass, he found himself touring internationally. Bromberg later worked with other big names in the music business, and become a producer for artists in his genre.

In March 2011, Bromberg partnered with Carvin Guitars to produce a signature model electric bass. The B24 and B25 were based on his own design, which had previously been manufactured by Peavey and Dean. In 2014, Carvin rebranded to Kiesel for most new instruments, and the Brian Bromberg model followed suit in 2015.

This is a complete performance of the bass part to ‘East St. Louis Toodle-Oo’ from the 1993 Dave Grusin album, ‘Homage To Duke’. Actually, according to Wikipedia, both Brian Bromberg AND John Patitucci are on this track, Bromberg’s is the walking parts whilst Patitucci plays the arco but, for the purposes of this reading exercise, it is Bromberg that we need to focus on. The chart is easy to ready – the track has a slow swing feel so the 8th notes are played as 8th note triplets. A great brooding quality to this performance.