Boston-area bass player and composer Bruce Gertz has released over 20 albums as a leader as well as various collaboration albums. His 2025 album Octopus Dreams, released as The Bruce Gertz Quintet, features seven tracks. With Bruce serving as composer and bassist, Octopus Dreams features worthy support by Phil Grenadier (trumpet, flugelhorn), Rick DiMuzio (tenor saxophone), Gilson Schachnik (piano) and Gary Fieldman (drums).

A few good spins verifies the album makes an exceptional offering for fans of contemporary and straight-ahead jazz. Not a flashy player but solidly down-to-earth and a proficient bandleader, Gertz is mostly celebrated for his technique and expertise of the upright bass.

Starting at age 14 on the electric bass, Gertz evolved into a professor of the bass at the famed Berklee school of music in Boston. A look at his impressive resume shows Gertz has worked with some of the best names in jazz including Count Basie, Billy Ekstine, Gary Burton, Eddie Harris, Dave Brubeck, Cab Calloway, and Larry Coryell to name several artists.

With top-notch musicianship by Gertz and his quintet members, the broad scope of Octopus Dreams is quite entertaining. Jazz fans will perceive that the album sound is one of retro-jazz, harking back to the early 1960s, one that takes you out of the present and relocates the sound in a musical time machine.

This revival of the classic vintage jazz sound renews the sound of great band leaders, from Art Blakey and Miles to the tidal wave of current fascination with present day fusion revivalists, proving that the vintage jazz sound never died or went away.

With Gertz on standup bass, interacting perfectly with the trumpet / flugelhorn sound of Phil Grenadier and the acoustic piano of Gilson Schachnik, the title track “Octopus Dreams” is a good example of the live, yet ageless sound of the album. Moving craftily from track to track, the mood is akin to a darkened jazz nightclub with listeners lured in and tuned into every note. With its 7 tracks clocking in at 43 minutes, Octopus Dreams is truly ageless acoustic instrumental jazz at its finest. OpenMindJazz.com / BruceGertz.com

 

RMR presents an interview with Bruce Gertz

RMR: How many solo albums have you released over the years both as a solo artist, bandleader and session player and where does Octopus Dreams find your sound and vision in 2025? Also, can you say something about the title? Describe the Octopus as a good analogy in jazz.

Bruce Gertz: I’m not sure of the total albums that I’ve been on as a sideman, but it’s been a growing number since the 1970’s and is ongoing. It could be well over 100. Under my name as leader, I’ve done 25. Three of them are solo bass. Seventeen are on my own Open Mind Jazz label. The others are spread over different labels.

The title came from the book by the name of The Soul Of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery and a documentary film called My Octopus Teacher. Jazz is about very high-level communication involving all functions of the brain, soul expression. The Octopus demonstrates high level communication. As for the rhythm and mood of the piece it felt dreamy and watery with its easy tempo and groove. I could easily imagine an Octopus cruising through the ocean to this piece.

 

RMR: Describe the chemistry of the Octopus Dreams band and can you compare it to other lineups you’ve recorded with in the past? You recorded with guitar legend John Abercrombie; what was that like and how different is it having a guitarist in your band? I see there is no guitarist on your new album. Would you consider recording with a guitarist in your lineup again?

Bruce Gertz: The great chemistry of this lineup on Octopus Dreams became evident to me over many live performances. My first encounter recording with this front line of Grenadier and DiMuzio was on my 2010 release, Thank You Charlie, dedicated to the late jazz guru Charlie Banacos. That was easy to revisit since they blended so well.

As a bandleader I have been fortunate to employ some top-level players over many years. Working in the late 1970’s and through the 80’s with Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Mike Stern, Mick Goodrick and John Abercrombie in Boston and other cities lead to me starting my own band in 1990.

That was the Bruce Gertz Quintet with Abercrombie, Jerry Bergonzi, Joey Calderazzo and Adam Nussbaum. Being that all these luminaries are always in demand forced me to use different lineups when I couldn’t congregate them all. Sometimes I replaced the guitar with a trumpet player and the two-part harmony, and counterpoint blended beautifully.

I grew up listening to Miles, Coltrane, Bird and Diz, Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, and many more 2 horn bands. It wasn’t new ground for me.

As it turns out, I released Running In The Background in 2020 with Vic Juris, Walter Smith III, Marvin Smitty Smith, Lawrence Fields and recently I was in the studio with Sheryl Bailey, Jerry Bergonzi, Alan Chase, Luther Gray and Plamen Karadonev, for a sextet lineup.

 

RMR: I’m a couple years younger than you, 71 and like me were you into the Beatles in the 1960s or was it jazz from day one? What music inspired you early on to listen more and learn and then veer into jazz? Do you find it interesting how many jazz artists have covered the Beatles’ repertoire over the past 60 years.

Bruce Gertz: I started guitar lessons after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I was probably around age eleven. At some point my interests moved to Jimi Hendix, Cream, along with other rock, blues, soul and R&B styles. My parents had a good radio with plenty of bass.

After a while my teacher brought to my attention that I always gravitated to the lower notes on the bottom four strings and suggested that I might prefer bass guitar. He sold me my first Fender Precision Bass and that lead to me starting a blues-rock type band. The pianist was into Oscar Peterson, the alto sax player was into Bird and Trane and someone gifted me Charles Mingus, Blues and Roots. The rest is history. As a sideman I have played many Beatles covers with jazz groups.

 

RMR: You studied electric bass early on and moved to Upright Bass when? How and why did you make the transition and what bass players do you cite as having influenced your own bass playing and tell us about your different bass guitars and uprights? Seems like you got to be tall to play the upright so how tall are you? Do you use a bow with the Upright sometimes?

Bruce Gertz: I studied bass guitar for about a year before getting interested in the upright but didn’t acquire my first upright until the Spring of 1973 while studying with Boston jazz legend, John Neves. Until then I was playing jazz on my Fender with the influence of Mingus, Ray Brown, Oscar Peteford, Percy Heath, Ron Carter, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Garrison, Wilbur Ware, Eddie Gomez, and many of the greats.

It was the sound that caused me to take up the upright bass. I could play the notes on the electric and try to emulate the quality of sound and feel but it wasn’t quite it. Once I got hold of my own upright it became the focus of my life. I practiced, rehearsed, did sessions and gigs. It was never saying no to a playing opportunity.

I’m 5’8” and there are many players shorter than me playing amazing music. Some of my heroes were short. They are living proof that you don’t need to be tall to play the upright bass. I use my bow often for solos, intros and endings. Practicing with a bow is an important part of playing string bass. Bach cello suites are perfect to practice.

 

RMR: What are some of your own personal favorite albums in your own catalog and when did you release your first album and what was the title? Also, what is the name of your current record company and how long have you had your record label?

Bruce Gertz: This question comes up a lot and it’s not an easy one to answer briefly. In my catalog on my label are albums that I feel are all worthy of many listening sessions. I’m happy hearing the melodies, grooves and harmony that happened. Each one has special moments that are unique. For me it’s always the most current project that I’m focused on and wanting that to be the top one. The most recent releases are hopefully the best because they reflect my growth as an artist/composer, player.

My first album as a leader is Blueprint. It was originally released on the French indie label, Freelance Jazz in 1992 as a licensed piece and later re-released on Evidence in 1997. My current label, Open Mind Jazz released it’s first album, It Wasn’t Me in 2007. That means I’ve had my label for eighteen years.

 

RMR: Give me 5 of your favorites albums by artists you like, any genre, that you currently listen to recommend to your fans.

Bruce Gertz: Crescent by John Coltrane, ESP by Miles Davis, Sunday At The Vanguard by Bill Evans Trio, Speak No Evil by Wayne Shorter, Octopus Dreams by Bruce Gertz

 

RMR: I know Octopus Dreams just came out but what kind of album would you like to record and release next? Are you always writing new music and thinking of new recordings and what are you looking forward to for the rest of 2025 into 2026?

Bruce Gertz: As Octopus Dreams was being released, I went back into the studio and recorded around fourteen new tunes. Currently I’m mixing those tracks and looking ahead to the next release. Every day I go to the piano and the bass to write more music and it’s been extremely productive. The only drawback is the shortage of opportunities to perform the new works as there is a growing quantity of quality material. Eventually I’ll need to have other people record my music and hopefully it’ll all get released some day for people to enjoy.