A Brief Musical Biography Of Art Bromage

My musical influences began with rock of all types - prog, hard rock, blues rock, metal, pop. It certainly didn't end there, though. My tastes later evolved to encompass fusion, jazz, blues, funk, country, and r&b.

In the past few years, I've gotten back into instrumental guitar music. I loved that stuff back in the 80's but it was driven deep underground by the troglodytic I've really neglected that whole sub-genre for the last several years and I'm finally catching up now. It also seems to me that as a musical genre, it's finally acceptable once again. Back in the 1990's, it was simply not fashionable to excel at playing the guitar. Fortunately, shred is not dead. It's once again back above ground, and I'm loving what I'm hearing. I love Steve Vai, Satch, Eric Johnson, Paul Gilbert etc., but it's great to dig a little deeper and discover emerging players like Guthrie Govan and Andy Timmons. Very inspiring, indeed.

I'm also a sucker for a catchy melody or groove, regardless of what genre label people put on it. I maintain that people just like what they like. Being captivated by a piece of music is not necessarily an intellectual process. It's an intuitive and hopefully emotional one. Duke Ellington said it best, "There are only two kinds of music, good music and the other kind."

I first picked up the guitar at age thirteen, infatuated with the guitar playing of Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. My parents made me buy an acoustic guitar rather than an electric, assuming my fascination to be short lived. It wasn't. Within a year I'd saved up enough money from my paper route to buy my first electric guitar. I soon progressed to learning the tunes of the day, developing quickly and devouring guitar magazines like candy, soaking up whatever knowledge I could. Once into high school, while playing alto and tenor sax in several school bands, I settled into a routine of weekly lessons with a great teacher who helped advance my musicianship by leaps and bounds. Berklee College of Music followed immediately after high school, where I spent a year immersed 24/7 in a terrific atmosphere of musical development.

After returning to L.A., a long string of different projects followed. Several bands and lots of studio work, playing many styles - fusion, prog, funk, metal, blues; even a Rush tribute band. Eventually wearying of being a drop in the ocean of the music scene in L.A., I relocated to Seattle in 1998. Since moving to the northwest, I've been immersed in an even more diverse range of musical styles, both on stage and in the studio. I've been playing a lot of blues, jazz, r&b, Contemporary Christian, funk, and soul.

You'll often see me gigging around the Seattle area as a sideman with many different artists. Aside from working on my first solo CD of "guitar music," you'll frequently find me playing with Nearly Dan, America's preeminent Steely Dan tribute. Nearly Dan is comprised of some of the finest musicians in Seattle. It's an honor for me to be on the same stage. You can also find me rocking out with old friends in Bombasticide, playing jazz with The Erickson Group, backing up Todd Carter Koeppen, filling in with Roger & The Hubcaps or Hettel Street Blues, tracking on various studio projects, and who knows what else. After playing gigs with people like Tom Scott (see below), Commander Cody, and Lee Oskar, you never know where I'll pop up next! (I never know where I'll pop up next.)