Bruno Råberg’s First Solo Bass Album

Bruno Råberg with his instrument (photograph by Janis Wilkins)

This past Friday Orbis Music released a solo album by bass virtuoso Bruno Råberg entitled simply Look Inside. Most of the album is devoted to Råberg’s own compositions and improvisations; but there are three notable exceptions, all of which may be regarded as “jazz classics” from the twentieth century. In “order of appearance,” they are “Nardis” (composed by Miles Davis in 1958), “Prelude to a Kiss” (composed by Duke Ellington in 1938), and “My Man’s Gone Now,” from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, composed in 1935.

At this point I should make a disclaimer that, here in San Francisco, I have had more than generous opportunities to listen to bass work in both the classical and jazz genres. My most frequent source has been Scott Pingel, Principle Bass for the San Francisco Symphony. When he has not been at his “day job,” I have had the good fortune to listen to his solo performances in both of those genres, including an ingenious mash-up bringing together one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo cello preludes with “Stella by Starlight.” Such a rich listening experience will clearly influence my approach to other solo bass performances.

Thus, after several encounters with Look Inside, I have not yet been able to get particularly excited. Nevertheless, I think it would be a mistake to attribute any shortcomings to Råberg. The fact is that giving the low register its due is a tall order for audio technology, whether it involves the ability of the capture gear to accommodate low frequencies or the shortcomings that arise through the content of a CD and the adequacy of the audio gear (particularly the speaker system) realizing that content.

In other words I would not be surprised if there were more subtleties in Råberg’s music-making than could “meet the ear.” He currently teaches at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, one of the divisions of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. It would not be out of the question for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to invite him for one of their one-week residencies, during which he would divide his time between teaching and performing with both students and faculty. That would give those of us on “the other coast” the opportunity to appreciate his efforts without any interference from technological shortcomings.