One of the finest jazz flutists around today is Andrea Brachfeld. She studied with Hubert Laws, Jimmy Heath and George Coleman, among others, and has released 10 CDs as a leader. Andrea's latest, with her trio, Insight, is Evolution (Origin). And what a trio: pianist Bill O'Connell, bassist Harvie S and drummer Jason Tiemann.
After hearing Andrea on Evolution and becoming smitten by her playing, I reached out for an email interview. To fully understand Andrea's grace, spiritual energy and beautiful technique, it's important to know what she went through and the stakes she faced as she pushed to become the fluid and soulful player she is today.
JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Andre Brachfeld: My first recollection of my surroundings was in Williamstown, Mass. We had a dog named Laddie that jumped rope with me, and my older sister taught me how to read when I was 4. Then we moved to Spring Valley, N.Y. I also have a younger sister and two younger brothers. I am in the middle.
JW: Were your parents musical?
AB: No, they weren’t, though my father listened to classical music all the time. I was told to practice the piano. I had no idea why.
JW: What did you parents do for a living?
AB: My dad was a linguistics professor at NYU and my mom was a homemaker. Growing up, I felt very disconnected to both parents. They provided food, shelter and did what good parents were supposed to do in those days. But as a very sensitive and intuitive child, I felt they had no idea who I was inside. The few times I shared who I was with them, I was immediately discouraged and told I didn't know what I was talking about. In retrospect, I’d say they were both equally strict.
JW: What about your grandmother?
AB: She understood me. I could be myself and relax around her and be creative. I could speak about my feelings and I felt loved by her unconditionally. She lived in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. We often went out there on weekends.
JW: When did you start on piano?
AB: I started playing piano when I was six. The teacher told my mom that I had a terrific sense of rhythm and that I’d be able to play jazz. I don’t remember any reaction on the part of my parents.
JW: Did you enjoy piano lessons?
AB: No, I didn’t like playing or practicing. At that point in my life, all I wanted to do was ride my bicycle and play sports. I was introduced to the flute in grade school when I was 10. The enticement for me was that I'd get out of class for the lessons at school. School was boring, so flute lessons sounded wonderful!
JW: When did you start listening to jazz and why? ABA: When I was 15, a friend turned me on to Eric Dolphy. But as I think about it, my first exposure to jazz was watching all those Merrie Melodies cartoons with brassy, syncopated music. I loved my alone time early in the morning when no one was awake and could watch those wonderful cartoons and hear the music.
JW: How did you wind up at the High School of Music and Art?
AB: As I neared the end of 8th grade in junior high school, my dad took me to audition at Music and Art. I wasn’t part of that conversation or decision. I brought my flute. When we arrived, I played piano. The panel liked what they heard but said there were too many pianists attending. They asked me to play the flute, which I did. I was accepted. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the school’s huge reputation, so I wasn’t nervous or anything.
JW: What was it about the flute that connected with your soul?
AB: Initially, I connected with the flute because I had chosen it, so there was no pressure to practice. As my sound became better and more pure in high school, I was able to play how I was feeling. That was probably the first experience of being connected to my soul. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]
JW: Did you fit in at Music and Art?
AB: That is a great question. No one has ever asked me that before. When I entered Music and Art in the ninth grade, I had just come back from living a year in Paris. My dad had been brought up in Paris and took a sabbatical from NYU so we could experience France for a year. The entire family went—the five of us. I wasn’t happy to go, since by then I was 13 and just wanted to be with my friends.
JW: Nothing in Paris left an impression?
AB: I don’t think I really appreciated all that I saw until later in my life. I was too young to be aware of discovering new sides of myself. It was all very new and at times very challenging, since I didn’t speak French when we arrived there.
JW: How was school there?
AB: At first it was tough, but I adjusted. In a couple of months, I began to understand and speak some French. We had a lot of family there so it was fun to spend time with them. How I became such a snob in such a short period of time, is beyond me.
JW: How so?
AB: Back in New York at Music and Art, I was appalled at first by the crazy and loose behavior of the students. Remember, this was 1969 and the youth culture was in flux with the Vietnam war, drugs and the sexual revolution. It certainly took a couple of months to get in the groove. I made some friends and settled in. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]
JW: How many hours did you practice flute?
AB: When I was 16, I knew I was destined to be a musician and to play the flute. My life was in shambles then, and the flute gave me an opportunity to create a world that was full of harmony and peace.
JW: Shambles?
AB: My parents had just divorced. Although I grew up in a very dysfunctional family, it was the family I was used to. When my parents divorced, it upset the then fragile familial system we had. There had been many arguments, which fueled my passion to create a musical world, so I’m grateful for that.
JW: When did you start taking workshops at New York’s Jazzmobile, which put on free concerts at the city’s parks and held jaz workshops in Harlem?
AB: At 17. Saxophonist and flutist Jimmy Heath was such a nice person and a great musician. He was welcoming in his class and aware of how much I wanted to play jazz. He always treated me with kindness and respect.
JW: What were those classes like?
AB: We’d play tunes, and he shared his knowledge. Most of it was totally over my head at the time, but I retained everything and knew one day I’d understand what he was talking about. I still have the mimeographed papers and now I finally understand. He was very encouraging, as were Billy Taylor and Paul West.
JW: What was Jazz Interactions and where was it located?
AB: Jazz Interactions was located on 77th street and held in a local public school. Joe and Rigmor Newman created the program and had jazz greats Barry Harris and Yusef Lateef there. There were other artists as well. Jazzmobile felt more personalized, but maybe that was Jimmy’s vibe.
JW: With your parents divorced, did you face financial hardship?
AB: Definitely. I was left with no support whatsoever to go to the college of my choice. I could have gone to NYU where my father taught, but there was no real music program there at the time. My mother wanted me to go to Brooklyn College, but again there wasn’t much of a music program there either. When I told them I was going to the Manhattan School of Music, they said I was on my own. I quickly became a very serious student.
JW: How so?
AB: I had the sense at that point that it would require hours of practice to truly learn to play the flute, So I practiced about 4 or 5 hours a day.
JW: Were you parents worried about your interest in jazz?
AB: I have no recollection of them being worried as they weren't really involved in my life. My parents were very preoccupied with themselves and didn’t have many tools as parents. Their problems as a couple overshadowed the family unit. My two younger siblings were from my dad's second marriage.
JW: How was the Manhattan School of Music?
AB: By the time I went to college, I was on my own and had very little guidance as to what I should do in life. Pretty much the only thing I was sure about was that I was supposed to play the flute. By then, I had received my first award from Jazz Interactions—the Louis Armstrong Scholarship Award—which was accompanied by a scholarship to go to Boston's Berklee School of Music. I inquired at Berklee to see if they had a flute teacher. The did not, so I decided to go to Manhattan, which decreased my scholarship by half.
JW: What was your thinking at the time?
AB: That I needed to learn how to play the flute before I could play any kind of music. I took one semester of repertoire orchestra, which I didn’t like, and then just participated in the school’s jazz ensemble. I was blessed to study with Harold Bennett, who was open to me playing jazz but nevertheless required that I learn the classical repertoire.
JW: You studied with Hubert Laws?
AB: Hubert was known at the time as the finest jazz flutist so it was fantastic to study with him. I didn't take too many lessons, but I still maintain a collegial friendship with him to this day. I also still have everything he gave me. I also took a couple of lessons with saxophonist George Coleman. Even though he didn't play the flute, he did show me a lot about playing jazz. Both artists had something unique to offer me as a student and I appreciated and respected them both immensely.
JW: How did you wind up playing in a charanga band?
AB: I was at Manhattan’s Tin Palace, on the Bowery and Second Street, where my friend Lloyd McNeil was playing. He asked me to sit in, which I did, and Mauricio Smith was in the audience. Mauricio came up to me after and asked if I was working. I responded that I was, but not enough. He told me he could turn me on to a charanga band. I had no idea what that was, but I said sure.
JW: What happened next?
AB: At the end of the first charanga gig, I told the musicians that they were playing all weird. They laughed and told me I was the one playing weird. I pretty much just jumped in, used my ear, showed up on time and ended up playing charanga music. At the time, I was very open to playing different types and all types of music. It wasn’t a difficult transition. The essence of music is really all the same. The Latino culture was very welcoming and generous, so I was lucky to be surrounded by all that amazing music and great players.
JW: Which albums helped you figure out the rhythm and groove?
AB: At the time, I was listening to a lot of Orquesta Aragon and Richard Egües. I think I basically figured it out on the gig.
JW: When did you move to Venezuela and why?
AB: In 1980, I received a phone call from Renato Capriles, the owner of Los Melodicos in Venezuela. He asked me to come down and play. At that time, I didn't understand or speak Spanish. The leader of Charanga '76 told me to expect a call from Renato. He became the intermediary as Renato and I discussed the details. What Renato did was create a big band around me and we traveled all over Venezuela.
JW: When did you return to New York?
AB: In 1982. I had met my first husband in Venezuela and was pregnant with our daughter. Soon after I returned, we separated, and I mostly raised my daughter on my own. During that time, I played only local gigs. When she turned 15, I realized she wasn't home a lot and didn't need me as much. So I started to compose. I called Dave Valentin and asked if I could play him my music. Dave and I had attended Music and Art together and played charanga gigs in the 70's.
JW: What did you hope Dave could do for you?
AB: I went to his house and played him the music with the hope he’d record some of my tunes. He said he really wasn't interested, as he had his own music. He suggested I record my own music. So I did and that was the first CD I recorded, Remembered Dreams. Dave was a good friend throughout the years, and we played a lot together and kept in touch.
JW: Were you playing and practicing all those years in between?
AB: While I was bringing up my daughter, I played a lot but didn't practice. When she left for college, I started my routine again, practicing six hours a day. My daughter studied politics and played several instruments, though she isn’t a professional musician today. We are still close. I moved to Baltimore to help with my two grandsons. We have a very healthy and close relationship.
JW: How did you wind up becoming such an exceptional flautist?
AB: I appreciate you saying that but I'm not sure I’d use that adjective to describe me. Playing the flute was a necessity to live and to survive. Once I started to learn how to actually play, I was able to create my world of peace and harmony. I played how I felt, I played my reaction to life, I played my struggles and my joys and I hoped that someone would hear me and like what I played enough to hire me so I could eat and pay my rent.
JW: Didn’t you feel that way before?
AB: When I was 16, I felt I wasn’t playing the flute but that the flute was being played by me or maybe by something else. The drive and ambition I had to practice and sound good was fueled by survival. It’s a gift to be albe to hear what sounds good. Otherwise, one would not be able to improve. Today, I feel there is a very thin veil between the material I play and the spiritual world. In addition to being open to the universal musical energies and the universal musical intelligence, I find that one needs to dig deep into the past to understand where jazz came from. I also found that it was necessary to understand the jazz culture and the people who were playing it.
JW: So interesting, about understanding the artists.
AB: If one wants to play music that’s outside one's culture, there needs to be a profound respect for the people who played it in the past and are playing it now. As a very sensitive, intuitive person, I was blessed with being able to hear the nuances, rhythm, harmonies and inflections of the music at the heart level, not on an intellectual level. That came later. To be able to progress in your craft, you need to spend time observing, feeling and understanding the music, and then be alone to absorb it all.
JW: What about inside?
AB: Of course, there also is the process of accessing the information from deep inside your soul, from other past lives that help you round out your soul's purpose. I also believe that when you’re in touch with your soul, it’s easier to be open to hearing knowledge, which comes in so many forms and from so many people. I have been truly blessed to have been around and continue to be around such amazing musicians and people. I learn from everyone and everything. Then as I process the information, I decide what feels right and perhaps store the information I don't understand until a later time. All of what I've said contributes to being a better musician and a better person every day.
JW: What would you say are the ingredients for anyone who wants to become better than they are on the flute?
AB: I think one needs to be open to knowledge, to the tidbits of information and the signs one receives to progress and become better. If I hadn't received outside validation from playing the flute, I'm not sure I would have continued. It's important to be aware of how people feel and their reactions when you play.
JW: For the music to sound great, it seems it must come from a special place inside. Otherwise, the flute will sound cold and rote, yes?
AB: Oh yes. It’s definitely a journey to the inner core of your being. The mechanics of playing the flute may be easy, but to find your sound you need to dig deep and access that pureness of spirit where you are no longer playing but the music is being played through you.
JW: Easy to do?
AB: You must learn to get out of your own way so it can come out easily. One needs an enormous amount of courage to be that vulnerable to uncover years of senseless chatter that may have impeded you to play yourself. One needs to let go of the ego so the pureness of your soul can connect with the divine breath.
JW: For those who learning about you for the first time and are falling in love with your new album, which five albums of yours would you want them to hear next?
AB: It’d say If Not Now, When?, Brazilian Whispers, Lady of the Island, Lotus Blossom and Songs From the Divine, a meditation CD.
JW: What’s your big musical dream?
AB: I think I've already realized my big musical dream by playing with my current group. We’re looking forward to booking tours.
JazzWax clips: Here's What's Up...
And here's Andrea and Insight in action during the pandemic...
After hearing Andrea on Evolution and becoming smitten by her playing, I reached out for an email interview. To fully understand Andrea's grace, spiritual energy and beautiful technique, it's important to know what she went through and the stakes she faced as she pushed to become the fluid and soulful player she is today.
JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Andre Brachfeld: My first recollection of my surroundings was in Williamstown, Mass. We had a dog named Laddie that jumped rope with me, and my older sister taught me how to read when I was 4. Then we moved to Spring Valley, N.Y. I also have a younger sister and two younger brothers. I am in the middle.
JW: Were your parents musical?
AB: No, they weren’t, though my father listened to classical music all the time. I was told to practice the piano. I had no idea why.
JW: What did you parents do for a living?
AB: My dad was a linguistics professor at NYU and my mom was a homemaker. Growing up, I felt very disconnected to both parents. They provided food, shelter and did what good parents were supposed to do in those days. But as a very sensitive and intuitive child, I felt they had no idea who I was inside. The few times I shared who I was with them, I was immediately discouraged and told I didn't know what I was talking about. In retrospect, I’d say they were both equally strict.
JW: What about your grandmother?
AB: She understood me. I could be myself and relax around her and be creative. I could speak about my feelings and I felt loved by her unconditionally. She lived in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. We often went out there on weekends.
JW: When did you start on piano?
AB: I started playing piano when I was six. The teacher told my mom that I had a terrific sense of rhythm and that I’d be able to play jazz. I don’t remember any reaction on the part of my parents.
JW: Did you enjoy piano lessons?
AB: No, I didn’t like playing or practicing. At that point in my life, all I wanted to do was ride my bicycle and play sports. I was introduced to the flute in grade school when I was 10. The enticement for me was that I'd get out of class for the lessons at school. School was boring, so flute lessons sounded wonderful!
JW: When did you start listening to jazz and why? ABA: When I was 15, a friend turned me on to Eric Dolphy. But as I think about it, my first exposure to jazz was watching all those Merrie Melodies cartoons with brassy, syncopated music. I loved my alone time early in the morning when no one was awake and could watch those wonderful cartoons and hear the music.
JW: How did you wind up at the High School of Music and Art?
AB: As I neared the end of 8th grade in junior high school, my dad took me to audition at Music and Art. I wasn’t part of that conversation or decision. I brought my flute. When we arrived, I played piano. The panel liked what they heard but said there were too many pianists attending. They asked me to play the flute, which I did. I was accepted. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the school’s huge reputation, so I wasn’t nervous or anything.
JW: What was it about the flute that connected with your soul?
AB: Initially, I connected with the flute because I had chosen it, so there was no pressure to practice. As my sound became better and more pure in high school, I was able to play how I was feeling. That was probably the first experience of being connected to my soul. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]
JW: Did you fit in at Music and Art?
AB: That is a great question. No one has ever asked me that before. When I entered Music and Art in the ninth grade, I had just come back from living a year in Paris. My dad had been brought up in Paris and took a sabbatical from NYU so we could experience France for a year. The entire family went—the five of us. I wasn’t happy to go, since by then I was 13 and just wanted to be with my friends.
JW: Nothing in Paris left an impression?
AB: I don’t think I really appreciated all that I saw until later in my life. I was too young to be aware of discovering new sides of myself. It was all very new and at times very challenging, since I didn’t speak French when we arrived there.
JW: How was school there?
AB: At first it was tough, but I adjusted. In a couple of months, I began to understand and speak some French. We had a lot of family there so it was fun to spend time with them. How I became such a snob in such a short period of time, is beyond me.
JW: How so?
AB: Back in New York at Music and Art, I was appalled at first by the crazy and loose behavior of the students. Remember, this was 1969 and the youth culture was in flux with the Vietnam war, drugs and the sexual revolution. It certainly took a couple of months to get in the groove. I made some friends and settled in. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]
JW: How many hours did you practice flute?
AB: When I was 16, I knew I was destined to be a musician and to play the flute. My life was in shambles then, and the flute gave me an opportunity to create a world that was full of harmony and peace.
JW: Shambles?
AB: My parents had just divorced. Although I grew up in a very dysfunctional family, it was the family I was used to. When my parents divorced, it upset the then fragile familial system we had. There had been many arguments, which fueled my passion to create a musical world, so I’m grateful for that.
JW: When did you start taking workshops at New York’s Jazzmobile, which put on free concerts at the city’s parks and held jaz workshops in Harlem?
AB: At 17. Saxophonist and flutist Jimmy Heath was such a nice person and a great musician. He was welcoming in his class and aware of how much I wanted to play jazz. He always treated me with kindness and respect.
JW: What were those classes like?
AB: We’d play tunes, and he shared his knowledge. Most of it was totally over my head at the time, but I retained everything and knew one day I’d understand what he was talking about. I still have the mimeographed papers and now I finally understand. He was very encouraging, as were Billy Taylor and Paul West.
JW: What was Jazz Interactions and where was it located?
AB: Jazz Interactions was located on 77th street and held in a local public school. Joe and Rigmor Newman created the program and had jazz greats Barry Harris and Yusef Lateef there. There were other artists as well. Jazzmobile felt more personalized, but maybe that was Jimmy’s vibe.
JW: With your parents divorced, did you face financial hardship?
AB: Definitely. I was left with no support whatsoever to go to the college of my choice. I could have gone to NYU where my father taught, but there was no real music program there at the time. My mother wanted me to go to Brooklyn College, but again there wasn’t much of a music program there either. When I told them I was going to the Manhattan School of Music, they said I was on my own. I quickly became a very serious student.
JW: How so?
AB: I had the sense at that point that it would require hours of practice to truly learn to play the flute, So I practiced about 4 or 5 hours a day.
JW: Were you parents worried about your interest in jazz?
AB: I have no recollection of them being worried as they weren't really involved in my life. My parents were very preoccupied with themselves and didn’t have many tools as parents. Their problems as a couple overshadowed the family unit. My two younger siblings were from my dad's second marriage.
JW: How was the Manhattan School of Music?
AB: By the time I went to college, I was on my own and had very little guidance as to what I should do in life. Pretty much the only thing I was sure about was that I was supposed to play the flute. By then, I had received my first award from Jazz Interactions—the Louis Armstrong Scholarship Award—which was accompanied by a scholarship to go to Boston's Berklee School of Music. I inquired at Berklee to see if they had a flute teacher. The did not, so I decided to go to Manhattan, which decreased my scholarship by half.
JW: What was your thinking at the time?
AB: That I needed to learn how to play the flute before I could play any kind of music. I took one semester of repertoire orchestra, which I didn’t like, and then just participated in the school’s jazz ensemble. I was blessed to study with Harold Bennett, who was open to me playing jazz but nevertheless required that I learn the classical repertoire.
JW: You studied with Hubert Laws?
AB: Hubert was known at the time as the finest jazz flutist so it was fantastic to study with him. I didn't take too many lessons, but I still maintain a collegial friendship with him to this day. I also still have everything he gave me. I also took a couple of lessons with saxophonist George Coleman. Even though he didn't play the flute, he did show me a lot about playing jazz. Both artists had something unique to offer me as a student and I appreciated and respected them both immensely.
JW: How did you wind up playing in a charanga band?
AB: I was at Manhattan’s Tin Palace, on the Bowery and Second Street, where my friend Lloyd McNeil was playing. He asked me to sit in, which I did, and Mauricio Smith was in the audience. Mauricio came up to me after and asked if I was working. I responded that I was, but not enough. He told me he could turn me on to a charanga band. I had no idea what that was, but I said sure.
JW: What happened next?
AB: At the end of the first charanga gig, I told the musicians that they were playing all weird. They laughed and told me I was the one playing weird. I pretty much just jumped in, used my ear, showed up on time and ended up playing charanga music. At the time, I was very open to playing different types and all types of music. It wasn’t a difficult transition. The essence of music is really all the same. The Latino culture was very welcoming and generous, so I was lucky to be surrounded by all that amazing music and great players.
JW: Which albums helped you figure out the rhythm and groove?
AB: At the time, I was listening to a lot of Orquesta Aragon and Richard Egües. I think I basically figured it out on the gig.
JW: When did you move to Venezuela and why?
AB: In 1980, I received a phone call from Renato Capriles, the owner of Los Melodicos in Venezuela. He asked me to come down and play. At that time, I didn't understand or speak Spanish. The leader of Charanga '76 told me to expect a call from Renato. He became the intermediary as Renato and I discussed the details. What Renato did was create a big band around me and we traveled all over Venezuela.
JW: When did you return to New York?
AB: In 1982. I had met my first husband in Venezuela and was pregnant with our daughter. Soon after I returned, we separated, and I mostly raised my daughter on my own. During that time, I played only local gigs. When she turned 15, I realized she wasn't home a lot and didn't need me as much. So I started to compose. I called Dave Valentin and asked if I could play him my music. Dave and I had attended Music and Art together and played charanga gigs in the 70's.
JW: What did you hope Dave could do for you?
AB: I went to his house and played him the music with the hope he’d record some of my tunes. He said he really wasn't interested, as he had his own music. He suggested I record my own music. So I did and that was the first CD I recorded, Remembered Dreams. Dave was a good friend throughout the years, and we played a lot together and kept in touch.
JW: Were you playing and practicing all those years in between?
AB: While I was bringing up my daughter, I played a lot but didn't practice. When she left for college, I started my routine again, practicing six hours a day. My daughter studied politics and played several instruments, though she isn’t a professional musician today. We are still close. I moved to Baltimore to help with my two grandsons. We have a very healthy and close relationship.
JW: How did you wind up becoming such an exceptional flautist?
AB: I appreciate you saying that but I'm not sure I’d use that adjective to describe me. Playing the flute was a necessity to live and to survive. Once I started to learn how to actually play, I was able to create my world of peace and harmony. I played how I felt, I played my reaction to life, I played my struggles and my joys and I hoped that someone would hear me and like what I played enough to hire me so I could eat and pay my rent.
JW: Didn’t you feel that way before?
AB: When I was 16, I felt I wasn’t playing the flute but that the flute was being played by me or maybe by something else. The drive and ambition I had to practice and sound good was fueled by survival. It’s a gift to be albe to hear what sounds good. Otherwise, one would not be able to improve. Today, I feel there is a very thin veil between the material I play and the spiritual world. In addition to being open to the universal musical energies and the universal musical intelligence, I find that one needs to dig deep into the past to understand where jazz came from. I also found that it was necessary to understand the jazz culture and the people who were playing it.
JW: So interesting, about understanding the artists.
AB: If one wants to play music that’s outside one's culture, there needs to be a profound respect for the people who played it in the past and are playing it now. As a very sensitive, intuitive person, I was blessed with being able to hear the nuances, rhythm, harmonies and inflections of the music at the heart level, not on an intellectual level. That came later. To be able to progress in your craft, you need to spend time observing, feeling and understanding the music, and then be alone to absorb it all.
JW: What about inside?
AB: Of course, there also is the process of accessing the information from deep inside your soul, from other past lives that help you round out your soul's purpose. I also believe that when you’re in touch with your soul, it’s easier to be open to hearing knowledge, which comes in so many forms and from so many people. I have been truly blessed to have been around and continue to be around such amazing musicians and people. I learn from everyone and everything. Then as I process the information, I decide what feels right and perhaps store the information I don't understand until a later time. All of what I've said contributes to being a better musician and a better person every day.
JW: What would you say are the ingredients for anyone who wants to become better than they are on the flute?
AB: I think one needs to be open to knowledge, to the tidbits of information and the signs one receives to progress and become better. If I hadn't received outside validation from playing the flute, I'm not sure I would have continued. It's important to be aware of how people feel and their reactions when you play.
JW: For the music to sound great, it seems it must come from a special place inside. Otherwise, the flute will sound cold and rote, yes?
AB: Oh yes. It’s definitely a journey to the inner core of your being. The mechanics of playing the flute may be easy, but to find your sound you need to dig deep and access that pureness of spirit where you are no longer playing but the music is being played through you.
JW: Easy to do?
AB: You must learn to get out of your own way so it can come out easily. One needs an enormous amount of courage to be that vulnerable to uncover years of senseless chatter that may have impeded you to play yourself. One needs to let go of the ego so the pureness of your soul can connect with the divine breath.
JW: For those who learning about you for the first time and are falling in love with your new album, which five albums of yours would you want them to hear next?
AB: It’d say If Not Now, When?, Brazilian Whispers, Lady of the Island, Lotus Blossom and Songs From the Divine, a meditation CD.
JW: What’s your big musical dream?
AB: I think I've already realized my big musical dream by playing with my current group. We’re looking forward to booking tours.
JazzWax clips: Here's What's Up...
And here's Andrea and Insight in action during the pandemic...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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