Artist: Brian Bromberg
Album: Thicker Than Water
Label: Artistry Music
Release Date: 7.13.18
It’s all about the bass for Brian Bromberg. In the making of his latest album Thicker Than Water, Bromberg—ever the innovator, who once served in jazz great Stan Getz’s backing band as a teenager—unlocks the instrument’s unlimited potential to shape a vast array of sounds not normally attributed to it. Bromberg’s sleight of hand is remarkable.
Usually, Bromberg’s weapon of choice is upright bass, but there are 11 different kinds of bass, including electric and fretless specimens, employed on Thicker Than Water, a sophisticated mix of instrumentals trafficking in horn-filled smooth jazz and hot funk that sizzles in the exuberant “Minneapolis, 1987.” Whereas that homage to Prince, Morris Day, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis confidently steps forward with tight, infectious grooves, the similarly cast “Uh-Huh” – featuring the sharp trumpet forays of Randy Brecker and the keyboard magic of the late George Duke in one of his last performances – is silkier and sleek in the style of George Benson.
Cool and fluid, “Changes” moves to the graceful whims of Bromberg’s steel string piccolo bass, one of five versions of the instrument he plays on the song. Elegant and nocturnal, “Thicker Than Water” and the tender mélange of piano and strings that is “Your Eyes” are just as free-flowing, changing moods and tones with ease, while “Land of the Rising Sun” utilizes bamboo flutes and the koto strings of Hiroshima’s June Kuramoto to paint a misty, beautiful Japanese soundscape. Bromberg lets his imagination go wild on Thicker Than Water.
Detailed sonic artistry and superior technical chops are the order of the day, as brief eruptions of spastic, fiery solos by Bromberg shoot off like big bursts of fireworks. He often goes off on quicksilver runs that boggle the mind, although “Trials and Tribulations” is deliciously slow and heavy, creating heightened drama. Maybe it all seems a little self-indulgent, but there is enough interesting ensemble work here to almost completely erase such thoughts.
—Peter Lindblad
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