Dale Bruning

Born on 8 November 1934 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, Dale Bruning first touched the piano as a young child before shifting to guitar during his high-school years. He developed equal command of tuba, double bass, vibraphone and drums, yet chose guitar when he began touring with small ensembles. Four years of service in United States Navy bands followed, after which he directed the house band for The Del Shields Show on NBC in Philadelphia in 1961, an engagement that drew widespread notice. Among the musicians he worked with from the 1950s onward were his principal mentor Dennis Sandole along with Jim Hall, Red Norvo, Dave McKenna, Dizzy Gillespie, Erroll Garner, Marian McPartland, Michael Moore, Gus Johnson, Bill Frisell and Chet Baker. Recording sessions from the late 1950s through the early 1960s paired him with Ted Alexander, for whom he played bass, as well as with Nicky DeMatteo and Tony Luis; he later recorded with Rich Chiaraluce in the early 1970s. In 1964 he relocated to Denver, Colorado, where domestic circumstances kept him for the remainder of his career.

Bruning began teaching in 1960 and maintained that vocation throughout subsequent decades. His performances are marked by inventive conception and fluid execution. Although wider travel might have elevated his standing in the jazz community, that recognition remained largely regional until the closing years of the twentieth century, when the imbalance began to be addressed. Local respect had already brought him numerous awards, yet national and international attention arrived only in the late 1990s, spurred in part by the 1997 publication of The Dale Bruning Jazz Guitar Instruction Book Series, Vol. I: Phrasing & Articulation and by a sequence of well-received albums. Additional visibility came through a series of themed concerts developed with writer-producer Jude Hibler that honored the music of Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Johnny Mandel, Michel Legrand, Cole Porter and Kurt Weill, among others. Early in his development Bruning absorbed a broad spectrum of jazz influences while also studying the classical works of Bach, Debussy, Ravel and Bartok. He has composed several original songs and is widely regarded as a skilled arranger.