by Scott Baker
(Written prior to the release of the new CD "The Journey")

Being a man of many colors, Bryan Rombalski is on the verge of a creative breakthrough.

The Midland-based family man is a guru of instrumentation, tone, soul and balance. Having honed his spirit around his guitar for more than four decades now, Rombalski is currently leading his quartet, Three Worlds, into the studio to follow the heels of his most personal CD to date, The Awakened Heart.

"There's quite a bit of African influence," said the artist during a recent interview. "I'm really deeply influenced by music from Mali, and I've been pretty much submerging myself in that. A lot of the bebop stuff too-trying to also blend some of the rock element. I think there is a cohesive root sound you can go with."

A music spiritualist at heart, Rombalski has taken the time to educate himself in world music settings, as well as academically on the guitar. "I'm not affraid now to add some of my past, the heaviness, the rock element plus the jazz and the ethnic music. I'm practicing like the dickens. I just have this urgency, this feeling inside that I just want to let it all out. The primary thing is how I work on the songwriting. The song is everything to me."

With Three Worlds, the group feeds off Rombalski's ideals and is made up of Ed Carney on saxaphone, Mitchell Atkinson on bass and Mike McHenry on drums. They have been recording at Big Bear Studios in Midland.

"Earl (Tiffin III) played (percussion) on the DVD that is coming out. Eddy (Garcia, percussion) is in the studio working on the CD. Picture a combination of Santana, Habib Koite, Miles Davis, that kind of thing. It's very percussive, and I think it's probably the most accessible thing I've done so far in some ways. I think it will be commercial in a sense that if people are into very rhythmic-oriented music, a lot of different colors, hopefully that will be right up their alley."

Coloring styles per his own astute taste has kept the songwriter busy since his debut release, Nozomi, in 1987. Thirteen years later, his follow-up, Devotion, covered another decade of musical philosophies. The 2004 Awakened Heart served up yet another treasure chest of possibilities. "I'm really working towards getting it (the CD) out," he said. "It should only be a month, maybe September. We did a lot of live playing and just going for it. There's an abb and flow."

The musician is looking forward to a busy schedule once the new album is released. (We're at) Espresso Milano (Midland, first Wednesday each month), and "some private occasions, and as soon as this CD is done, then I'm gonna be slammin', but I had to focus and get this finished. Then we'll really pursue more."

Rombalski's goal is to live his life at his art. "You can transfer this wonderful connection that you achieve through music, and then I can learn how to achieve that in other areas of my life. Whether or not it's just conversations with people, with students, with friends, out in the world, whatever—that challenge is there. What a wonderful thing to experience, that contact that then you can transfer to other areas. Isn't it beautiful to have music to paint that poetry for us?"