Bruno Råberg Solo Bass Look Inside Orbis records
Bruno Råberg is an eminent bassist and, I suspect, a sought-after educator. The Swedish-born musician left his performing career in Europe and came to the United States in 1981 where he attended the New England Conservatory of Music. There he studied with such luminaries as Mirolsav Vitous, Bob Moses, Mick Goodrick, and George Russell. Since 1986, he has been an educator at Berklee where he is presently a professor at the Global Jazz Institute. Over the years this artist has made over thirteen recordings as a leader and been an important collaborator on over thirty other recordings. He has worked with some of modern jazz's most contemporary artists including Tony Malaby, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Mintzer, Bobo Stenson, Billy Hart, Ben Monder, and many others.
He released a new album Look Inside on Orbis Records in March of 2023 and it is his first solo bass offering. It's quite a challenge for a bassist to commit to creating such a recording. The artist must be able to communicate musically to the listener without it becoming a pedagogical lesson. He is alone, utilizing his choice of music, his facility and creativity on his instrument, and his imagination to establish that link between the listener and maintaining it into a worthwhile entertaining experience. If this was Råberg's quest then the maestro has certainly succeded.
Råberg's album offers eleven varied compositions ranging from less than two minutes in duration to the longest extending to just over five minutes. The album opens with "Island Pathways" which has the bassist exploring motifs and linking them kinetically through improvisation.
Much of the music gets its impetus from a myriad of inspirations. Two songs, Miles Davis' "Nardis" and Geroge Gershwin's "My Man's Gone." draw life from Råberg's exposure to Bill Evans' Sunday at the Village Vanguard as a youth.
On his dual-themed "Kansala-Nardis," Råberg combines the sounds inspired by the kalimba, a West African instrument, that he mimics on his bass. His affinity for these sounds a genesis from a visit to West Africa in his youth and his experience of having an African percussionist as a roommate for two years while in Stockholm. The artist deftly blends his own lucid interpretation of the Miles Davis classic "Nardis" with these African elements and in the process opens the listener's ears to different musical possibilities.
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| Bruno Råberg (photo by Francesco Gargiulli) |
Råberg's diverse interests led him to study South Indian Classical Music and you can hear this influence in his brilliant “Chennai Reminiscence” a five-minute piece that has the virtuoso creating moving, violin-like lines with his bow, an almost tabla-like sound slapping his strings, and a drone-like rhythm that mesmerizes.
The album includes "A Minor Excursion" and "June Poem" two short compositions in the classical style with superb intonation, precise pizzicato technique, and resonance.
"A Space Between" is an emotive arco improvisation based on a film made by the artist's daughter.
Ellington and Strayhorn's "Prelude to a Kiss" loses me a little as the melody seems to be somewhat obscured amongst Råberg's facile presentation.
"Gyrating Spheres" is perhaps the most abstract free improvisation in the set. Råberg utilizes several techniques including bass body percussion, fretboard slapping, rapid pizzicato, and intervallic jumping.
"Ode to Spring" is an aural reflection. It has beauty and contemplation of the thought of nature, the season of Spring. A promise of rebirth.
"Stillness-Epilogue" is another meditation on a state of mind. A rumination of what it is to be still, motionless, and yet still aware and present.
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