Kyle Bronsdon: The word on the street in the jazz and blues community

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biography

Kyle Bronsdon is not the world's greatest drummer.

He's not the best singer to come out of the Swing Renaissance, either. He isn't exactly a chick magnet, and he will probably never light his drums on fire or climb up the side of the stage into the balcony. He has been compared to Mose Allison, Dave Frishberg and "Randy Newman meets the Velvet Fog."

"I realized halfway through writing [solo debut Kitchen Swing, 2003 Vitalegacy]," he says, "that although I love novelty tunes and swing dancers, I wasn't expressing the pithier and more personal things I wanted to say. You don't hear that done in swing, and you don't hear humor and storytelling in mainstream jazz."

The musician is currently taking his explorations further still, with his 2006 release, A Model Psychosis, based on the life and work of Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann. "A headphone album," he calls it, "completely different from the piano trio stuff I usually do, although I've been even truer to my roots in many ways." He was selected runner-up Songwriter of the Year at the 2006 DIY Music Festival for his work on the CD.

Bronsdon made his solo debut on Hollywood's Sunset Strip, at the Argyle Hotel's third anniversary celebration of retro culture's Atomic Magazine, within a month of relocating to Los Angeles from Tucson. His swing trio, Kearney, Grams and Bronsdon (a/k/a "The KGB Trio") had just been awarded the 2002 TAMMIE (Tucson Area Music Award) for Best Traditional Jazz artist.

The drummer formed KGB after the three left Arizona's premier swing band the Kings of Pleasure, which Bronsdon joined in 1998, at the peak of the Swing Renaissance. He toured regionally with KOP (who won the TAMMIE for Best Swing Band during his tenure), often performing at LA's legendary Derby. KGB became instantly popular with Lindy Hoppers and went on to perform at dozens of regional events for the swing scene that had by then gone back underground from whence it came. The trio was a regular favorite at Phoenix's annual New Year Swing Jam with Lindy pioneer Frankie Manning. Bronsdon recorded two albums with KGB, Nine Waters, No Tip (1999) and To Go (2002 Vitalegacy).

A veteran of the Chicago music scene, Kyle has dedicated over half his life to the drum kit. He studied composition with Stan Kenton arranger Bill Russo and Moog pioneer Hans Wurman, and perfected his shuffle sitting in with myriad Windy City blues artists, including James Cotton, at the historic Checkerboard Lounge, where only the most dedicated white musicians dare to play. He remembers, "I was afraid Killer Ray Allison was gonna crack my crash cymbal," and that his time on 43rd and Martin Luther King taught him the value of guts, honesty, and the backbeat, which he has carried with him to the present.

Today he pulls all his resources together, performing, promoting A Model Psychosis, and even scoring for documentaries (Horses of Gettysburg) and industrial films like This is ICT for USC's Institute for Creative Technologies with director Randal Kleiser (Grease). He has little, if any doubt of the value of the music he plays. "It's jazz, there's humor and soul in the material, it's accessible and it's danceable. And that's what I want to do, take jazz back to the street -- and keep it there. With all these born-again patriots lately," he muses, "you'd think that America's original music, and greatest cultural contribution to the world, that everybody would be listening to new retro-style stuff and doing Lindy Hop. Fortunately," he adds with a smile, "there will always be a niche of people with good taste."

He describes his playing style as "like breaking out of jail."

press releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 10th, 2006

Father of LSD Turns 100

Swiss Chemist Still Lauds Acid's Potential as January Marks 20 Years of "Just Say No"

Doctors, artists and iconoclasts alike are preparing to celebrate tomorrow's 100th birthday of Dr. Albert Hofmann, best known for his discovery of D-lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD.

Hofmann is pleased by current trends towards allowing scientists to continue the promising results of early LSD research, which came to an abrupt halt due to political pressures in 1970. The Nobel Prize Committee Member laments the irresponsible social use of his discovery that brought about the restrictions facing the medical profession for the last 30 years.

Coincidentally, this week will also see the 20th anniversary of President and Mrs. Reagan's "Just Say No" national address of September 14th, 1986.

Hofmann personally encouraged jazz songwriter Kyle Bronsdon to deal with the stigma and "prevailing misunderstanding in the general public regarding these kinds of 'drugs.'" Bronsdon honors the chemist's life and work and explores the dark history of the drug war in his new CD, "A Model Psychosis," released today on his Vitalegacy label.

The musician will be donating proceeds of the album to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a non-profit organization that helps researchers obtain funding and approval for legitimate studies of LSD, marijuana and other psychedelics. The proceeds will be used to re-print Hofmann's book, "LSD: My Problem Child," which has been out of print in English for years.

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reviews

"His sound springs directly from lounge acts of the post-war 1940s and goes straight for your head...he creates original songs that feel timeless." -- Tucson Citizen
"...one with la vie de cocktail." -- Kat Griffin, "Jazz in Song" KKJZ 88.1 FM Los Angeles, CA; "Madly Cocktail" KCSN 88.5 FM Northridge, CA
"...a concept so single-mindedly his own...he sings beyond his years." -- Tucson Blues Society
"...one of the best jazz artists on CD Baby!" -- Derek Sivers, President, CD Baby (largest seller of independent CDs on the web)
"...reminiscent of that blues-jazz legend Mose Allison. And happily, Bronsdon's trademark clever, humorous lyrics remain intact." -- Tucson Weekly
"...really intriguing...right up there with Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg!" -- Dennis Woo, Music Director KTEP 88.5 FM El Paso, TX
"...embodies everything rock 'n' roll rebelled against in 1954: swing, sophistication..." -- Tucson Blues Society
"More cabaret cool than earlier pace-setting groups such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Brian Setzer orchestra." -- Tucson Citizen
Songwriter of the Year, runner-up -- 2006 DIY Music Festival

airplay

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