Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Brian Bromberg - You Know That Feeling (1998)


Bromberg is a bass player who, as a session musician, has played on movie soundtracks, pop, and straight ahead jazz albums, but for his solo work he's a smooth jazz artist. Bromberg does well as a writer/arranger/producer and most of the tracks here are enjoyable. He mixes up styles and sounds enough to make things interesting. Unusual for a bassist, Bromberg takes on most of the melodic lines in the songs by playing a piccolo bass. Bromberg states emphatically in the liner notes that "there is no guitar on this album" which, I suppose, is to be admired except for the fact that his piccolo bass sounds to me just like a guitar. Bromberg has strong technique regardless of instrument and, overall, this release is better than the average smooth jazz album.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: By far, the best cut on this CD is the cover of Earth, Wide & Fire's September. Other top tracks are Hero, My Love, the title track, A Love Affair, and Joe Cool. The only true misstep is the cover of the Human League's Human. It wasn't a good pop song and, as you can probably imagine, is even worse as a smooth jazz cover.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: In 2003, after hearing September on Houston's defunct smooth jazz station, KHJZ 95.7 The Wave, I bought this CD and was pleasantly surprised that there was more than one good cut on the disc.

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