Jimmy Bruno ranks among Philadelphia’s premier jazz guitarists, an ardent hard bop devotee who drives the music with forceful swing yet shifts into tender ballad interpretation at will. Born Italian-American in South Philadelphia, he embraced jazz during childhood and began playing guitar at seven. His early idols included the bop masters Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel, and Jimmy Raney, while he also revered the earlier styles of Eddie Lang, Charlie Christian, and Django Reinhart. At nineteen he toured as a sideman with The Buddy Rich Big Band, then spent much of his early adulthood on the West Coast, taking non-jazz engagements in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Although those studio and club dates provided steady income, Bruno remained committed to hard bop and aspired to perform jazz full time. When he returned to Philadelphia in 1988 at age thirty-five, he resolved to pursue that goal regardless of temporary financial hardship. A Philadelphia Weekly profile captured his account of the shift from earning several thousand dollars a week out West to minimum-wage work at “a real dive” in the city’s Fairmount section, a period he nevertheless described as deeply satisfying because he could play live jazz five nights a week. Eventually he left part-time bartending behind to devote himself entirely to performing and teaching. In the early 1990s the late Concord Jazz founder and president Carl Jefferson heard him and, impressed by his command of the instrument, offered a recording contract. Bruno’s debut as a leader, Sleight of Hand, was made in 1991, followed by further Concord sessions rooted in bop such as Burnin’ in 1994 and Like That, which featured organist Joey DeFrancesco, in 1995. Throughout the late 1990s he continued to record for the label while maintaining an active schedule of performances and instruction throughout Philadelphia. His initial Live at Birdland album appeared in 1997; two years later came its sequel, a collaboration with tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton. Bruno next emerged in spring 2000 with Polarity.
