VIA PRESS RELEASE | David Bromberg is a cultured guitar player, much in-demand session musician, singer-songwriter, and recording artist. His solo recordings—for the Columbia / CBS label, and after that, the Fantasy imprint, until a self-imposed hiatus where he retired to become a violin manufacturer, are musically varied and impeccably played. This set—The Player—is a reissue of a compilation of songs taken from his Columbia Records tenure, 1971-74, and features highlights from his four albums recorded for the label, plus some previously unreleased material. Included on The Player is the track “The Hold-up,” which was co-written, and features former Beatle, George Harrison playing an inimitable slide guitar part.
Also featured is a wonderful, affectionate live version of “Mr. Bojangles,” the Jerry Jeff Walker opus—Walker featured Bromberg in his touring band for several years. Elsewhere, “Sammy’s Song,” a deeply affecting, very sad, and lyrically very frank ballad shows what a masterful composer Bromberg can be in his own right—he even roped in his ol’ mucker Bob Dylan to add plaintive, melancholy harmonica for added texture. The “Yankee’s Revenge” medley of instrumental folk tunes is a superb vehicle for Bromberg’s nimble acoustic guitar work—breathless stuff indeed. His country waltz version of Dylan’s “Wallflower” is another pure delight. Bromberg may not be the world’s greatest singer, but he can inhabit a song along with the best of ‘em, and not being a Pavarotti never did the song’s composer much damage, did it?
Bromberg is a musician whose services as a session player saw him gainful employ from the likes of Dion, Doug Sahm, Bob Dylan, John Hiatt, Richie Havens, Tom Rush, Joan Baez, Link Wray, The Beastie Boys, Pearls Before Swine, Al Kooper, Tom Paxton, Rick Derringer, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, The Band, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bonnie Raitt, Phoebe Snow, Gordon Lightfoot, Carly Simon, and scores of others.
David Bromberg has returned to recording and live work in recent years; The Player: A Retrospective offers a marvellous insight into his early recording career, and provides much evidence of why he is held in such high regard.
