Brian Bromberg Reissues 5 Albums From Japanese King Records Label

Bassist-Leader Brian Bromberg Reissuing Five Albums He Recorded for Japanese King Records Label Between 2003 and 2011

Available Today on Digital Platforms via Bromberg’s Be Squared Productions

Respected bassist-leader Brian Bromberg has been a busy sideman and producer for many years, working with such renowned artists as Stan Getz, Diana Krall, Freddie Hubbard, Jeff Lorber and many in the smooth jazz/contemporary jazz space. Along the way, Bromberg has built up a sizable solo discography, up through his 2021 pandemic-period album A Little Driving Music.

His discography expands retroactively with the forthcoming digital reissue of five albums, recorded between 2003 and 2011 for the Japanese King Records label and made widely available only this year. As a whole, the handful of archival projects — including his ambitious solo bass album Hands, the jazz-revised classical collection A Bass Odyssey and three group sessions under the title The JB Project: Brombo — fills a gap in Bromberg’s recorded legacy and broadens the overall profile of his creative energies and talents.

Bromberg, who has also worked on the business side of recording industry in the past, is taking charge of the reissue project, with freshly remastered tracks which mostly showcase his acoustic bass playing. In part, the effort rises out of a desire to have valuable past work unearthed and made available on the market.

“When you do something that you’re proud of and it sits on a shelf and doesn’t get released, it’s very frustrating,” Bromberg says. “So it’s doubly exciting that I can now get this out to the world and people can actually hear it now. Whether they like it or not is entirely up to them, but at least I feel good about the fact that at least it’s out there.”

Bromberg’s strong ally at King Records was Susumu Morikawa, head of the jazz division, who often suggested varied, inventive themes for Bromberg’s albums. The “JB Project” started as a collaboration with famed Japanese drummer/composer Akira Jimbo — the “J” of the acronym — whose resume includes work with the noted fusion band Cassiopeia. On the three volumes of music, under the heading of “Brombo,” the central players were joined by keyboardist Otmaro Ruiz on each session, with celebrated Bromberg keyboardist comrades Patrice Rushen and Jeff Lorber appearing on the third release.

Material-wise, tunes range from originals to covers from jazz and pop sources, including “Giant Steps” and Seals and Croft’s “Summer Breeze” on the first album, “Nardis” and Sting’s “Fields of Gold” on the second and Herbie Hancock’s intricate “Actual Proof” and the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why” on the third. Bromberg recalls that the “JB” recordings were “really fun, because they were just things that I never would’ve thought of or never would’ve done, with some different types of arrangements. The records did really well in Japan. We talked about it and picked some tunes in advance, but it’s not like we rehearsed. Akira came in from Japan, we recorded it live.”

Brian Bromberg · The JB Project: Brombo I, II & III, Hands and A Bass Odyssey
Release Date: July 8, 2022

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