Jazz Articles about Andrea Brachfeld

About Andrea Brachfeld

Album Review

The urge to take advantage of a successful commercial genre never really dies. Back in the 1960s, a studio orchestra nominally assembled by bandleader Glen Gray released a recording, Sounds of the Great Bands in Latin (Capitol, 1964). It took tunes like “Early Autumn" or “A String of Pearls" and added a “Latin" flavor with jazz enhancements. No doubt, this was an early recognition of the success of Cal Tjader. The vinyl may or may not have done well, but ...

Album Review

Santi Debriano & Arkestra Bembe: Ashanti

by Jack Bowers
January 18, 2023

Panama-born bassist Santi Debriano's Arkestra Bembe is a nonet whose centerpiece is the bembe music of west Africa. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Debriano began hosting weekly bembes (musical celebrations) in the basement of his Staten Island, New York home, gradually assembling a group of musicians who would comprise the Arkestra and perform Debriano's compositions and arrangements. The result is Ashanti, an impressive studio recording whose framework is jazz but whose heart and soul are clearly in bembe. ...

Album Review

Andrea Brachfeld & Insight: Evolution

Read "Evolution" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 30, 2022

Although Andrea Brachfeld's may not be a household name, the versatile flutist and composer has been a well-established and respected presence on New York City's jazz and Afro-Cuban scenes since around 1970. On Evolution, her tenth recording as leader, Brachfeld delves musically into children's issues “and the ongoing need [for] basic necessities even in the best of times," using her time for reflection during the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020-21 to find focus and creativity from the ways in which children ...

Album Review

Andrea Brachfeld: Evolution

Read "Evolution" reviewed by Jane Kozhevnikova

by Jane Kozhevnikova
June 10, 2022

Andrea Brachfeld is a critically acclaimed flutist, composer and educator. She has won multiple awards, including a grant from Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and was once recognized as the best jazz flutist by Hot House magazine. Evolution features Brachfeld's longtime collaborators Bill O'Connell (piano), Harvie S (bass) and Jason Tiemann (drums). While Brachfeld's previous album, Brazilian Whispers (Origin Records, 2020), focused solely on a Brazilian music sound palette, in Evolution she brings listeners ...

Album Review

Santi Debriano: Flash of the Spirit

Read "Flash of the Spirit" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
January 15, 2021

Bassist/composer Santi Debriano has been prominently on the scene since the late seventies, when he worked for several years with saxophonist Archie Shepp. Born in Panama, and raised in Brooklyn from a very young age, his life was integrated with the many crosscurrents of jazz music in the Americas. He worked prominently with Sam Rivers in Paris for a few years, before heading back to New York to perform with the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Fortune, Larry Coryell, Freddie ...

Bailey's Bundles

Five Artists: February 2020

by C. Michael Bailey
March 1, 2020

Andrea Brachfeld Brazilian Whispers Origin Records 2020 The flute as the lead instrument in any jazz combo relies on an empathic and sensitive rhythm section that will not overpower the wind instrument's delicate voice (Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson notwithstanding). Flautist Andrea Brachfeld happens upon a dandy rhythm section in pianist Bill O'Connell, bassist Harvie S and drummers Jason Tiemann and T Portinho. That said, Brachfeld is more than able to kick out the jams, ...

Album Review

Andrea Brachfeld: Brazilian Whispers

Read "Brazilian Whispers" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 23, 2020

While Brazilian Whispers marks Andrea Brachfeld's first thorough exploration of the titular stream of sound, you'd never know it from the results. Teaming up with Bill O'Connell, her longtime pianist and sounding board, the veteran flutist, who's typically engaged in Afro-Cuban affairs or straight ahead suggestions, sounds like she's been playing this music all her life. Rather than spread focus across a massive realm of Brazilian territory, Brachfeld homes in on the music of one of the ...