BROMBERG PLAYS HENDRIX AVAILABLE DIGITALLY ONLY SEPTEMBER 18, 2020
FIRST SINGLE “THE WIND CRIES MARY” OUT FRIDAY AUGUST 14, 2020
Listen to the new single here
First U.S. Digital Cover Story – August Jazziz
Virtuoso bassist and world-renowned producer Brian Bromberg looks to honorably pay tribute to late icon Jimi Hendrix half a century after his death with a reimagination of his classics through a jazz bassist lens. By remixing and remastering 2012’s Bromberg Plays Hendrix, Bromberg takes on the daunting task with immense talent, evident creativity and white-hot artistry.
The re-release of Bromberg Plays Hendrix commemorates the 50th anniversary of Hendrix’s passing in September 1970. (It also coincides with the release of Bromberg’s new holiday album, Celebrate Me Home: The Holiday Sessions , recorded with an all-star cast completely in quarantine.) Remixed and remastered with brilliant sound quality, Bromberg Plays Hendrix is a blistering homage on which Bromberg’s fretless and piccolo basses stand in for the original’s fleet fretwork. Bromberg summoned a whirlwind of sound from his four- and five-string arsenal to craft a smoldering set of classics in keeping with Hendrix’s exploratory spirit. Bromberg’s secret weapon and only collaborator for the session was the legendary in-demand drummer Vinnie Colaiuta , whose staggering list of collaborators includes Herbie Hancock, Sting, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, James Taylor, Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand and myriad others. “He’s a genius,” Bromberg states definitively. “There’s nothing he can’t do.”
LISTEN TO THE AMBITIOUS RECORD HERE
Nearly a decade after its recording, the album remains dizzying in the virtuosity and visceral power of its musicianship and passion. On September 18, 2020 a newly remixed and remastered edition will be released digitally by Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group , with vibrant sound and an appropriately psychedelic palette that vastly improves the, well, experience. The reissue also includes a new bonus
track, Bromberg’s original song “ Jimi ,” a sonic portrait of the hard-rocking wizard.
The remixing and remastering were accomplished in Bromberg’s state-of-the-art home studio in Southern California, in partnership with his longtime engineer Tom McCauley , with whom he’s worked throughout much of his four-decade career. “There are a lot of great engineers out there, but Tom has got incredible ears and instincts,” Bromberg says. “He’s also a musician, so he doesn’t just hear things technically, he hears things musically. We complement each other, and we’re both control freaks I that good enough is never good enough.”
A noted “Shredder,” Bromberg wields his fluid and supple fretless bass in place of Hendrix’s lead guitars and vocal melodies. “The fretless bass is a lot more emotional, more human,” he says. “It got me one percent closer to the way that Hendrix delivered a melody. When you play fretless you can’t screw up; it’s all you, and you have to be musical about it. It was a monumental challenge to do the record, and it was insanely fun.”
That intrepid and celebratory attitude, paired with the bassist’s scorching musicianship, make Bromberg Plays Hendrix a fitting and invigorating tribute to the legendary guitarist. In this new addition, that spirit becomes all the more vital.
BRIAN BROMBERG
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