Brian Bromberg Talks Piccolo Bass, Groove, and Starting Over on “Awakening”

Sometimes, brilliant music comes from the darkest parts of our lives. That’s a lesson Brian Bromberg learned on his new album, Awakening. The record came together in the wake of four devastating days in December 2023.

“I went through a very big traumatic life change. Split up with my fiancée, had to move to a different place, had to move my life, and I was separated from my animals and my studio. Everything changed. I broke my back. I had eye surgery. All this happened literally in like four days,” he explains. “My whole life just kind of fell apart. In this period of time, I just wrote all this different music, and then this album kind of appeared.”

Awakening is different from the rest of his catalog, but that’s the point for Bromberg. We caught up with him by phone to talk about the album, his approach, and his style. The album is out now on CD and as a digital download (Apple Music, and Amazon Music).

Brian Bromberg’s Musical Identity: “My Voice Is My Diversity”

Reflecting on his sound, Bromberg says he chases the style of each project rather than always sounding the same, which makes sense given the breadth of his prolific career. He’s worked with everyone from jazz saxophonist Stan Getz to Sting to Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Remarkably, Awakening is his 30th solo album, adding to a catalog that includes a Jimi Hendrix tribute, an Antônio Carlos Jobim tribute, and solo acoustic bass efforts like 2009’s Hands.

“When I look at all of my stuff, my voice is my diversity,” he said. “I’ve done solo acoustic bass. I’ve done traditional jazz. I’ve done fusion. I’ve done smooth jazz. I’ve done so many different types of things that I could play you four records that I’ve done, and you’d have no clue it’s the same guy, because stylistically and the instruments that I use are completely different.”

The variety can make it hard to build a singular identity, but Bromberg takes pride in committing fully to each musical direction.

“If I can’t do the music justice, I’ve got no business recording it,” Bromberg told us. “So if I’m going to do something that’s a tribute or do something that’s a specific direction, like acoustic jazz, upright bass, or contemporary jazz or smooth jazz or fusion, whatever, I don’t care what the style is. Whatever style I’m going to dive into, I’m going to do it with as much musical integrity as possible. The last thing in the world I want somebody doing is going, ‘Yeah, well, he sounds good for a bass player.'”

Piccolo Bass and the Melodies of Awakening

To that end, the bassist explains that Awakening is a contemporary jazz record. While he is a virtuoso on both the double bass and bass guitar, this project is really all about melodies. In fact, he originally wanted the full title to be Awakening: The Melodies of Life.

Nearly everything that sounds like a guitar on the album is actually Bromberg’s piccolo bass. He told us that fans of the low end “might be disappointed because they don’t hear a lot of bass,” but the sounds and ideas all come from writing on the bass and in his head, making it the glue for the album.

“It’s not a bass record, it’s not a ‘bass player record.’ It is a record of music,” he said. “I happen to play the bass, and I also happen to use the basses in a different way, with the different strings and the different tunings. So all the guitar solos, everything on that record, except for one duet that I do with Paul Brown on the song called ‘Ojai,’ every other guitar melody and solo is me on piccolo bass. So I’m using the bass as a tool to create music. I’m not being a bass player making a record, right? I just happen to play the bass. The music comes first.”

“If you think about the evolution of the electric bass, from the fifties until now, piccolo bass has been around. I’ve been doing this for thirty years,” he adds. “But if you look at all the different ways you can play the bass: four-string, five-string, six-string, seven-string, eight-string, all this crap. Fretted, fretless, piccolo, tenor, all these different variations of one instrument. How many instruments have that many variations? I think the bass is a remarkable instrument, and I honestly feel that if I played something else, that would be different. I think the bass has allowed me to be the songwriter I am, has allowed me to be the soloist I am.”

Finding the Groove and Making Every Note Count

Playing all the different types of bass instruments also frames how he creates his bass lines. When he lays down the low end, his priority becomes supporting the song and locking in with the drummer. On Awakening, that drummer is the great Vinnie Colaiuta.

“Most of the bass parts on all my records are pretty simple and not complicated because it’s my job to groove with the drummer. It’s like I’m playing the bass, I’m supporting everybody above me,” he said. “I put that bass down, and then I assume a completely different role. I pick up a different bass, my fingers go to the same place. I play it with my fingers, I don’t use a pick, but the instrument has a different sound because it’s in a different register.”

The most bass-forward moment on the album comes during “Apparently Not” with a fun, creative slap solo. It’s an explosive moment that emerged spontaneously. Bromberg explains that his solos aren’t worked out ahead of time. Instead, he creates full passes in the moment, sometimes stopping to punch in. It goes back to his improvisational roots.

“I don’t want to play the same solo over and over and over again. I’m always trying to create. I don’t want to replicate, I want to create,” Bromberg states, adding that technical ability is key to making every note count. “You’ve got to play the right notes, you’ve got to play them with feeling. You’ve got to phrase, you’ve got to sing, you’ve got to tell a story. You can’t let your lack of technique affect the story you want to tell. Even the fast stuff that I do, it’s really important that you hear every note, and that the space in between the notes is just as important as the notes.”

Looking Ahead and Listening With Open Ears

There’s more of Bromberg’s funky side waiting in the wings. He already has material for a more bass-heavy funk project, including a song that Tower of Power has agreed to play on.

“I still want to go nuts a little bit on the bass,” he admits.

For now, Bromberg is eager to hear how listeners respond to Awakening, which he describes as an album that sustains a mood from beginning to end.

“I’ve made the mistake of trying to do too much on one project. You can’t do that. You don’t want people to lose the mood. You want to set the mood,” he explains. “For me, this is by far the most cohesive mood record I’ve ever made.”

For bassists approaching the album, he adds, “I just hope that bass players listen to it with an open heart and open ears and understand that all that stuff that doesn’t sound like bass is still bass played with fingers.”