Santi Debriano

On the stand-up acoustic bass, jazz maestro Santi Debriano plays with the physicality of a linebacker and the grace of a ballerina. As a composer, Debriano is a shape shifter, a conjurer of melodies and chord changes that encompass past, present and future. If any of this sounds like hyperbole, I dare you, listen to this record and tell me otherwise.

The bass is perhaps the most sensual of instruments. It is the instrument most shaped like the female form, and this, for men, women, children and old people, is a good thing. The female form has inspired great art since the dawn of the human species (have you seen those erotic cave drawings?) The acoustic bass is not easy to ignore, with soothing tonal possibilities that feel as if someone is massaging your back and neck, or whispering sweet nothings in your ear, or beckoning you to let go of the side of the pool and venture into the deep end. The bass can be naughty or nice, and if you listen carefully, you are likely to feel it’s reverberations in the nether regions of your consciousness. It is there when you don’t even know it, carrying the weight of the melody on its back, serving as the through line for a journey upriver into the deep green forest of your imagination.

Santi Debriano has been playing the instrument since he was a teenager. Born in Panama, he has lived in New York City for many years, serving as the leader of his own groups and as a sideman for others. In the city’s community of jazz musicians, he is like an oak tree, with roots that stretch into many different idioms and styles practiced by some of the most accomplishedmusicians in the indisputable jazz capital of the universe.