Brian Bromberg

Brian Bromberg (born December 5, 1960) is an American jazz bassist and record producer who performs on both electric and acoustic instruments.

Bromberg was born on December 5, 1960, in Tucson, Arizona.

His father and brotherboth played drums, which influenced him to take up the instrument himself.

At the age of 13, he began seriously pursuing a career as a drummer.

However, at around the same time, the leader of his school orchestra steered him towards the upright bass.

From then on, he committed to stick 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 integral to gain experience playing in live situations, so he accepted virtually every gig he could get.

It was common for Bromberg to play "five to seven nights a week with several different bands."

In 1979, Marc Johnson, the bassist working with jazz pianist Bill Evans, heard Bromberg's playing.

Johnson later recommended Bromberg to saxophonist Stan Getz, who was in search of a new bass player.

Getz took the suggestion seriously, and auditioned Bromberg soon thereafter.

With only six years of experience on the bass, Bromberg found himself, at the age of 19, touring internationally with Getz.

Bromberg would go on to work with many big names in the music business and eventually become a producer for various artists in his genre.

He began with two records that caught smooth jazz radio's attention: A New Day in 1986 and Basses Loaded in 1988.

His third album, Magic Rain (1989) "became the most played album on smooth jazz radio during the first week of its release".

Bromberg's fourth record, BASSically Speaking, which consisted of his oldest material re-mastered with some new additions, reached top 5 on the radio charts and No. 7 on the Billboard sales charts.

With a solid following among smooth jazz fans, he put out a straightforward jazz album, It's About Time, The Acoustic Project.

This album reached number four on the mainstream jazz charts in 1991.

Bromberg recorded in a trio with Freddie Hubbard and Ernie Watts.

After It's About Time, The Acoustic Project he returned to smooth jazz.

The label that released Brian Bromberg (1993) went out of business the week of its release.

In 1996, after a short break from recording to design basses for Peavey and tour as a clinician, Bromberg signed with Zebra Records.

In February 1998, he released You Know That Feeling, which was recorded with Rick Braun, Joe Sample, Jeff Lorber, and Everette Harp.

The album became Bromberg's most successful yet, and his first smooth jazz number one record of his career.

You Know That Feeling had three singles in a row that each went to number three on the charts.

It spent seventeen consecutive months on the charts, eight months in the top ten, and nearly six months in the top five.

Bromberg's album was the fifth most-played smooth jazz album of the year.

Songs from You Know That Feeling are still regularly played on smooth jazz stations across America.

After You Know That Feeling, Bromberg's albums deviated from his smooth jazz roots.

Wood (2002), produced by a Japanese label, was recorded with pianist Randy Waldman and brother David Bromberg on drums.

In addition to the solo pieces, Wood and Wood 2 (with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta replacing David Bromberg) contain interpretations of music by Wayne Shorter and Woody Herman.

In 2003, Bromberg made a record simply titled Jaco in which he performs many of Jaco Pastorius's notable songs.

In 2005, in an even sharper turn from his smooth jazz past, Bromberg released Metal with drummer Joel Taylor.

Besides playing different kinds of regular basses Bromberg makes also frequent usage of the piccolo bass on his recordings for melodical lines, replacing what would normally be guitars on many of his recorded tracks.

This unusual instrumentation with the piccolo bass, which is tuned one octave higher than a usual bass, is usually emphasized and explained by a statement in the liner notes such as ''' 'There are no guitar melodies or solos on this recording.

All guitar-sounding parts are played ... on piccolo bass.

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 was previously manufactured by Peavey and Dean.

In 2014, Carvin rebranded to Kiesel for most new instruments, and the Brian Bromberg model followed suit in 2015.

Bromberg's first several albums were in the smooth jazz genre.