Versatile Bassist to Ply Many Splendored Strings

Bassist Brian Bromberg is among a crop of young bass players expanding the role of their instrument in both acoustic and electric settings. Bromberg and his peers, including Nathan East, Stanley Clarke and John Patitucci, are capable of serving as traditional rhythmic work horses, but they also produce nimble improvisations as soloists, elevating the bass to equal footing with other more commonplace lead instruments.

Bromberg will perform his fret-ful acrobatics alongside keyboard player and early 1970s fusioneer Jeff Lorber on Monday at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach.

Along with exploring the outer limits of bassdom, Bromberg’s generation is promoting a healthy cross-pollination among musical styles. East plays rock with Eric Clapton and pop-jazz with Fourplay. Clarke moves easily from electric funk-fusion to acoustic, straight-ahead jazz. So does Patitucci.

And so, too, does Bromberg, whose most recent releases include last year’s “It’s About Time,” an all-acoustic recording made with help from Freddie Hubbard, Mike Garson and others, and the 1990 “BASSically speaking,” an upbeat electric collection featuring several of Bromberg’s catchy original compositions.

Bromberg, a whiz on acoustic and electric basses and bass synthesizer, broke into the pro ranks at 19 as a member of the late Stan Getz’s band. If he has a flaw, it’s that he is too brainy for his own good. Sometimes, his awesome technical skills and fascination with complex, difficult passages get in the way of raw emotion. A little more space between musical ideas would allow listeners to savor each one before the next comes along.

As for Lorber, he helped bring about a merger between jazz and electric rock during the 1970s with albums including “Jeff Lorber Fusion” and “Soft Space.” During the late 1980s, he forged a second identity as a Los Angeles producer of Kenny G, Michael Franks and the Karyn White pop/R&B; hit, “Facts of Love.” Lorber has not released a new recording of his own since the early 1980s, but he’s in the process of recording one with a helping hand from Bromberg.

At the Belly Up, the pair will be joined by saxophonist Art Porter and drummer Joel Taylor. Their show starts at 9 p.m. and includes acoustic and electric music by both Bromberg and Lorber.

During the early 1970s, percussionist Gene Perry spent Sunday afternoons jamming in his apartment at 25th and Market Street in Sherman Heights, a few blocks east of downtown San Diego. Eventually, Perry and his percussionist pals overflowed the tiny space, and by the late 1970s, the jams had moved to Balboa Park’s Pepper Grove, where they became a Sunday tradition (they faded out during the 1980s).

Perry’s early jams were among the rare occasions when residents of Sherman Heights, a predominantly Latino community, could hear Latin music on their home turf. Although the music has never enjoyed a greater following than it does now in San Diego clubs, none of the clubs are in Sherman Heights. So Saturday afternoon’s Latin Jazz Con Animo Street Festival there, which features six top San Diego Latin bands, has special meaning for both musicians and residents.

“A lot of the people there know what our music is about,” said Perry, who fronts the nine-piece Afro Rumba, which specializes in salsa and Latin jazz. “They appreciate what we’re doing more than people who don’t know too much about it.”

It’s not surprising that enthusiasm for the festival, in its second year, runs high in Sherman Heights, which is grappling with myriad social problems and delays in city funding for a long-awaited new Sherman Heights Community Center building, designed by top San Diego architect Rob Quigley. The festival sounds a much-needed optimistic note.

Last year, 1,000 people jammed a closed-off section of Island Avenue next to the community center to hear the music. With a larger throng--perhaps twice as large--expected this year, the event has been moved to the nearby playground at Sherman Heights Elementary School on Island.

“The thinking behind the festival was, ‘Let’s take the music to the people, and bring people to the neighborhood to hear our music,’ ” said trumpeter Bill Caballero, who coordinated his year’s music and will appear with his group, eSOeS.

Joining forces to present the festival are the Sherman Heights Community Center, CRASH (an alcohol and drug rehab program), and the Centro Cultural de la Raza, the arts organization based in Balboa Park.

Music begins at noon with Storm and continues with hourly sets by eSOeS, Jaime Valle, Afro Rumba, Sol E Mar and Quarteto Agape. These bands cover a range of Latin sounds, from Brazilian to salsa to straight-ahead Latin jazz and Latinized American standards. There’s no admission charge.

RIFFS: Harry Connick Jr.’s shows Friday-Sunday nights at the Civic Theatre downtown sold out two days after they went on sale March 2. There are still a few standing-room-only slots available for $25, along with tickets from scalper agencies such as Buck’s Tickets and Atlas Ticket Service, starting at $65 to $75. . . .

Following the recording of a live album with Bobby Shew at the Horton Grand Hotel two weeks ago, San Diego flutist Holly Hofmann spent an evening at Studio West in Rancho Bernardo recording a series of duos with Bob Magnusson, Mike Wofford, Ron Satterfield and Mundell Lowe. She hopes to strike a label deal for the recording soon. . . .

Timbales master Tito Puente, who helps spark the new movie “The Mambo Kings,” performs Friday night at 8 and 10 at the U.S. Grant Hotel downtown. . . .

Reedman Arturo Cipriano and vocalist Isabel Tercero collaborate Friday and Saturday nights as Rusefest Spring ’92 continues at Marquis Public Theater in San Diego.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

CINCY PIANIST MIXES IT UP

San Diego flutist Holly Hofmann, who books the Horton Grand Hotel downtown, met pianist Steve Schmidt last year when his trio backed Hofmann’s debut at the Blue Wisp, a jazz club in Cincinnati. As leader of Wisp’s house band, Schmidt regularly backs players such as Eddie Harris and Herb Ellis when they come to town, and a few years back even spelled an ailing Count Basie when his band hit Cincinnati.

Now, Hofmann has invited Schmidt to play San Diego for the first time. He’ll perform Friday and Saturday nights at the Horton Grand, joined by San Francisco guitarist Bruce Forman, who often works the Wisp, plus locals Hofmann and bassist Gunnar Biggs. Schmidt’s home-grown self-produced recordings are not widely available, but you can hear him on CDs featuring the Cincinnati Pops, including last year’s “Movie Love Themes” and the 1989 “Big Band Hit Parade,” with Ray Brown, Eddie Daniels, Gerry Mulligan and others.

Schmidt, who prefers a restrained, lyrical approach along the lines of Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal, said this weekend’s sets will mix standards with several of his original compositions. Music starts at 8:30 both nights.