VIDEO AVAILABLE NOW: Brian Bromberg | "Baton Rouge" | Artistry Music

Brian Bromberg Releases New Video

Featuring the Late Nick Colionne

"Baton Rouge (Live from Berks Jazz Fest)"

A Little Driving Music Available Now via

Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group

"Baton Rouge (Live from Berks Jazz Fest)"

"When I was writing the music for my album A Little Driving Music, this song just showed up and essentially just kinda wrote itself. Same with the name, Baton Rouge. It just came to me. I was thinking of Baton Rouge in the summer, hot, humid, sticky, and bluesy. A great vibe! The first musician I thought of to play on the song was guitarist Nick Colionne. We have been friends for years and played together a number of times, but never recorded together. I thought this song would be perfect for him and for the two of us to do together.

This video is from the 2021 Berks Jazz Festival where Nick sat in with my band and we got to perform it live together for the first time. Sadly, I had no idea that it would be the last and only time we would play it together. I am heartbroken that we lost Nico way too soon, but I am so happy that we have this performance of us playing Baton Rouge together. I will cherish this performance and the wonderful smiles we both have playing together."

— Brian Bromberg

After nearly a year of being cooped up within the same four walls, it’s only natural that one’s thoughts might turn to the freedom of the open road. That’s certainly true of virtuoso jazz bassist and world-renowned producer Brian Bromberg, whose third pandemic-era release shrugs off the prevailing mood of COVID-era claustrophobia and political strife for A Little Driving Music, a fun, funky paean to cruising with the top down and leaving your troubles behind.

While countless musicians have spent the quarantine months in a state of limbo, the always-prolific Bromberg quickly figured out a way to continue making music while remaining socially distanced. Out now on Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group, A Little Driving Music follows the bassist’s wide-ranging holiday album, Celebrate Me Home, and the remixed and remastered digital release of his stunning tribute album Bromberg Plays Hendrix. 

“In one aspect it's been a weird, heartbreaking time to be a musician who just wants to play music with human beings, for human beings,” Bromberg laments. “On the flip side, I've been really fortunate. It's been a really positive, productive period because I've had nothing but time to sit in front of a computer or pluck my strings.”

A Little Driving Music features a dozen brand-new Bromberg compositions as well as a surprising 80s cover song, the joyful Katrina and the Waves hit “Walking on Sunshine.” Despite recording each musician in isolation and at a distance, the bassist managed to (virtually) assemble an elite roster of longtime collaborators and all-star special guests including saxophonists Dave Koz, Everette Harp, Gary Meek, Elan Trotman, Darren Rahn and Marion Meadows; keyboardist Tom Zink; guitarists Jerry Cortez, Nick Colionne and Ray Fuller; drummers Joel Taylor and Tony Moore; vibraphonist Craig Fundiga; and percussionist Lenny Castro. There’s even a string orchestra featuring members of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, conducted by arranger/producer Corey Allen (again, with COVID safety protocols in place).

“This is the hand you're dealt, so you make the most of it,” Bromberg says of the unusual circumstances under which the album was recorded. “Everything about how we do things has changed, but when you come to terms with that and accept it for what is, you can enjoy the process. Especially when you're dealing with a lot of talented people and state-of-the-art technology – it's amazing what you can do despite not being in a prime situation.”

No trace of that adverse situation can be heard as the album kicks off with “Froggy’s,” a carefree, high-spirited funk tune highlighted by a lively horn section emulating the chorus of frogs that often greets the composer at his Southern California home. Bromberg takes a blistering solo on piccolo bass, which could easily be mistaken for a shredding electric guitar. The baton is then picked up by Everette Harp’s vibrant turn on sax. 

A diary entry for these strange times, “Quarantine” was the first track penned by Bromberg after lockdown commenced. The rest of the album was also composed in quarantine, with the sole exception of the title track – fittingly enough, as the freewheeling “A Little Driving Music” fills the listener with a sense of movement and freedom much missed over these solitary months. “That Cool Groovy Beatnik Jazz” is another self-explanatory title, conjuring the laid-back, finger-snapping groove of a classic BYOB hipster café (meaning Bring Your Own Bongos).

Both “Bado Boy!” and “Lullaby for Bado” are dedicated to a cat that Bromberg and his fiancée rescued from Barbados, a complicated tale that eventually involved the island’s Minister of Agriculture. (“It would be as if you wanted to rescue a cat and had to talk to the Vice President of the United States to do it,” Bromberg says incredulously.) The former tune, which features Barbados-born saxophonist Elan Trotman, reflects the feline’s playful spirit; the latter, pairing Bromberg’s emotional acoustic bass with the Dominican Republic strings, is an elegy for the lost cat.

“We knew he was sick, but we hoped he'd live a long time,” Bromberg recalls. “Unfortunately, he only lived a year, but he had a hell of a year living with us instead of being alone as a stray cat sick in the Caribbean.”

With an assist from Dave Koz, “Walking on Sunshine” reimagines the 80s classic in a jazz context, slower and funkier than the incessantly upbeat original. “After the year we've had – and, sadly, the year we're likely going to have – a little positive energy goes a long way,” Bromberg explains. “So, I wanted to record something with positive energy and uplift that also had that twist, that most recording artists might not have thought of doing.”

Short for Sagittarius, “Sag 5” is named for the December 5 birthday that Bromberg shares with saxophonist Darren Rahn, who guests on the track, melding sounds so harmoniously with the bassist that it lends a bit of credence to astrological synergy. Adding Andrew Neu on clarinet and Mitch Forman on accordion, “A Rainy Day in Paris” transports the listener to a café in the City of Lights as the weather turns gray outside. “If that song doesn't make you want to have a glass of wine and some cheese, I don't know what will,” insists Bromberg. “The only thing missing is a red and white checkered tablecloth.”

With Marion Meadows extolling the hopeful melody on soprano sax, “Peace” is Bromberg’s offering to the search for sanity in a contentious world. As he describes it, the tune is “the equivalent of a musical time out, suggesting that everybody just take a deep breath while the world and this country, in particular, is pretty upside down.” 

The country-accented “Jedediah’s Gold” paints a sepia-tinged portrait of a Gold Rush miner and his stake in the Old West, while “The Sitting Room” luxuriates in the feeling of relaxing in a favorite, comfy spot at home. The greasy, slinky “Baton Rouge” detours down south for a bit of hot, sweaty, fun-in-the-sun funk with Nick Colionne laying down some down-home guitar licks.

“There's some heavier music on A Little Driving Music,” Bromberg concludes, “but for the most part it's a fun, positive energy record. There's nothing better than that Zen moment of listening to great tunes on the road, looking out the window at life. That's the vibe of it to me: I hope people just want to put it on in the car and crank it up.” 

Artistry Music

Brian Bromberg • A Little Driving Music

Artistry Music • Release Date: May 21, 2021

For more information on Brian Bromberg, please visit: BrianBromberg.net

Dave Koz and Friends - Summer Horns II from A to Z (CONCORD MUSIC 2018)

Five years ago, after Dave Koz and Friends released Summer Horns—the GRAMMY-nominated album that paid tribute to classic songs featuring killer horn sections—all that the musicians could think about was how much fun they’d just had. They toured behind the album during the summer of 2013, then vowed to spend the following summer doing it all over again.

"The second tour was even better than the first,” says Koz, the world-class saxophonist who piloted the release, which rocketed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Current Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. "We had a total blast and the fans really gravitated toward it.”

There was no question in Koz’s mind that a sequel was in the stars, but getting everyone’s schedules to align was never going to be easy, each participant being a headliner with bookings well into the future. It took a few years but finally, says Koz, through "divine intervention,” a window of time opened up so that everyone could be in the same place at the same time.

Summer Horns II From A To Z, scheduled for release on June 22, 2018 via Concord Records, is the result, a stunning set of 11 more timeless tunes reimagined by Koz (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes), joined by alto saxophonist Gerald Albright and tenor saxophonist Richard Elliot—both returnees from the earlier session—with new additions Rick Braun (trumpet) and Aubrey Logan (trombone and vocals). A crew of ace rhythm players collaborates with the Summer Horns lineup along with a who’s who of arrangers: Tom Scott (who’s worked with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Aretha Franklin to Steely Dan), Greg Adams (best known for Tower of Power, but also Santana and Elton John) and GRAMMY-winning arranger Gordon Goodwin. Braun, himself a legend of contemporary jazz, produced the album, with co-production by Koz.

With the creative team in place, the biggest dilemma facing Koz, Braun and the others was which songs to choose—or, rather, how to narrow down an enormous list of contenders. "My original list was in the hundreds,” Koz says. "We’d have good-natured arguments during weekly conference calls. We each pitched songs and then tried to get other people on our team.”

The final track list, 11 in all, is impeccable, to say the least. Opening Summer Horns II From A To Z is a medley of Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1976 smash "Getaway” and the KC and the Sunshine Band dance staple "That’s the Way I Like It.” Next up is "More Today Than Yesterday,” the only Top 20 hit from the Spiral Starecase, from the spring of 1969. "Most people, when they hear that song, think it was by Chicago,” says Koz. "It sounded so much like them.” The Crusaders’ "Keep That Same Old Feeling,” written by that group’s late trombonist Wayne Henderson, is next, with a horn arrangement by Adams (best known for his work with Tower of Power) and Braun.

The fourth track in the sequence gives the album its subtitle, "From A to Z.” It’s another medley, and on paper it seems an improbably marriage: Here, with a horn arrangement by Gordon Goodwin and rhythm arrangement by Goodwin and Braun, are the 1939 Billy Strayhorn standard "Take the ‘A’ Train,” made famous by Duke Ellington, seamlessly intertwining with hip-hop icon Jay-Z’s "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is).” Hence the A to Z.

How in the world did this one come about? Says Koz, "Somebody sent me ‘Roc Boys’ and said, ‘Jay-Z’s got this song that’s got a bunch of horns in it.’ I’m a fan but I don’t know that music well. I heard that track and I said, ‘That horn line is so great! We have to utilize it somewhere.’ Originally, it was going to be its own song. But also on the song list was ‘Take the "A” Train.’ Rick Braun said, said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do something so classic and so old and yet modernize it?’ It was [Concord Records president] John Burk, the executive producer of the album, who said, ‘Maybe the two songs could work together. It would be really funny to go from A to Z.’”

This Will Be (An Everlasting Love),” a Top 10 hit for Natalie Cole in 1975, is dedicated to the late vocalist, who was a friend of Koz’s. It’s sung on Summer Horns II From A To Z as a duet, by R&B star Kenny Lattimore and the young vocalist Sheléa. "We started to develop this track, which is very uptempo and really fun,” says Koz. "Tom Scott wrote a brilliant horn arrangement. And then we were thinking, maybe we should look for a male singer because anything we’d do with a female vocalist would immediately be compared to Natalie’s version. Tom came up with the idea of doing it as a duet. It’s not an easy song to sing and their vocal performance is a complete tour de force.”

"Before I Let Go,” written by Frankie Beverly of the R&B group Maze, features a lead alto sax solo by Gerald Albright, and is followed by Paul Simon’s pulsing "Late in the Evening,” from the singer-songwriter’s 1980 album One-Trick Pony. Koz remembers being in a restaurant with friends when Simon’s recording came on the house music system. He immediately emailed himself so he wouldn’t forget it when he got home. Braun didn’t even need to hear Koz’s reasoning: "It's in,” the producer told him. "I don't care what the others say.”

Playing acoustic guitar on the tune, and singing the lead vocal, is the South African great Jonathan Butler. "He went total South Africa on it,” says Koz. "Now this song has a completely new point of view. It pays homage to the original, but it takes it to a completely new place.”

Summer Horns II From A To Z only grows more intense as it plays on. If you want to make a funky record, you’ve got to have some Stevie Wonder on it, and it doesn’t get much funkier than 1971’s "If You Really Love Me.” Following that track is "Conga,” the 1985 breakthrough hit for Gloria Estefan and her then-band Miami Sound Machine. Aubrey Logan, the 30-year-old singer and trombonist on the album, provides the lead vocal. She received a special surprise while the group was recording the track.

"We got the track together and Aubrey always loved that song and looked up to Gloria as one of her mentors,” Koz says. "It’s got a great arrangement from Tom Scott and a really cool modern rhythm arrangement that Rick did. Gloria is a friend so I said to myself, ‘I have to play this for Gloria.’ I sent it off to her via email and said, ‘I just want you to know we're doing this Summer Horns record and we did your song and I hope you like it.’ I was just looking for a little musical blessing. She didn't send back an email; she sent back a track with her singing harmony to Aubrey's lead vocal! Aubrey’s jaw dropped to the floor.”

Michael Jackson’s Earth Song, with a horn arrangement by Scott and—as is the case with several tracks on the recording, a rhythm arrangement by Chris "Big Dog” Davis—features a lead tenor sax solo by Elliot and lead vocal by Ashling Cole. Summer Horns II From A To Zwraps up with a piece of vintage Americana, "Route 66,” written by Bobby Troup and recorded by everyone from Nat "King” Cole to the Rolling Stones. Logan, who Koz discovered when he saw her performing with the group Postmodern Jukebox, fronts the tune with her trombone and lead vocal. The horn and rhythm arrangement is courtesy of Goodwin, who fronts his own outfit called the Big Phat Band.

Recording Summer Horns II From A To Z, says Koz, was just as much of a treat as the first go-round in 2013. "It reminds me of my youth,” he says of this music. "I grew up playing in jazz bands. That’s how I was educated in music, playing in a saxophone section and playing in a big band, then sometimes doing small group stuff, playing with other horn players. For most horn players, even if you go on to do more solo work, part of your identity is rooted in being in a section and blending with others. How do you do this? How do you play that? All these fine nuances of music are in there somewhere.”

That passion is shared by all of the musicians who took part in the project, and audiences fortunate enough to catch a live Summer Horns show—they’ll be touring this summer—immediately feel the heat too. "With this music, the fans know every song,” says Koz. "And the musicians leave their egos at the door and show up with a commitment to the band. We know that this is not a replacement for our solo careers, that we will resume them eventually, so it’s not like we’re saying bye-bye to that. But people see all the star power on stage—where everybody could do a two-hour show on their own—the five of us with an incredible band, and it’s an event. Then we get addicted to the response from the fans! That’s why we did it again.”

1 Medley: Getaway / That’s the Way (I Like It) 4:28

2 More Today Than Yesterday 5:05

3 Keep That Same Old Feeling 4:50

4 Medley: From A to Z (Take the “A” Train / Make the Road By Walking) 5:28

5 This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) [feat. Kenny Lattimore & Sheléa] 4:10

6 Before I Let Go 4:54

7 Late in the Evening (feat. Jonathan Butler) 5:09

8 If You Really Love Me 4:43

9 Conga (feat. Aubrey Logan & Gloria Estefan) 4:44

10 Earth Song 5:58

11 Route 66 (feat. Aubrey Logan) 5:19