Andrea Brachfeld & Insight with Bill O'Connell, Harvie S, and Jason Tiemann release 'Evolution' on May 20

A central figure of New York City’s jazz & Afro-Cuban scenes over the last five decades, flutist Andrea Brachfeld, like most artists over the last two years, found a great amount of time to reflect on their art, community and humanity. For Evolution, Brachfeld’s writing was affected by her dive into children’s issues and the ongoing need of basic necessities even in the best of times. The added pandemic led her to a wide-range of musical sources, each reflecting some universal message of the human condition. “Qingauiit” from the Inuit duo Tudjaat, “The Hut Song” from the Central African Baka people, & Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s “Ko Ribon,” inject voices of discovery, trauma and celebration. With her longtime compatriots fully onboard, the music is allowed to respond to the myriad influences, deftly blending into a distinctive voice.

Andrea Brachfeld
Evolution

Bill O'Connell: piano
Harvie S: bass
Jason Tiemann: drums

Evolution

When I began this project my intention was to create a social justice record. As I searched inside of myself for a theme that resonated with who I was, helping children came through. Then I composed the poem “Children of the Earth.” This was written about six weeks before the pandemic happened and seemed to have elements of premonition in it. I also asked the poet laureate of jersey city to recite the poem but he overslept and didn’t make the rehearsal so I reluctantly recited the spoken word. So interesting how events can perpetuate a significant change in our lives!! Then I did some research to see which children’s populations were in the most dire need so the Native Americans, the children of the Middle East, Africans, and Guatemalans were targeted in different songs. When the pandemic hit, the recording ceased but the ideas did not. By February 2021, the project took a new turn and the new original compositions took on a different flavor reflecting the chaos we were in externally and internally. I tried to incorporate different cultural elements into that music to keep my theme of children in need intact. When I decided to put the record out I was in a mini dilemma as to what to call the project to reflect these two themes. Evolution came to mind citing the evolution of the music as well as the evolution of our world. Lastly my intention is to donate a portion of the proceeds to an organization who supports the well being of our children on the planet.

Each song on the recording is like part of a journey in my life. The project came together in a very organic way even though it took a couple of years to really crystallize.

—Andrea Brachfeld

Liner Notes

A stark contrast to Andrea Brachfeld's last Brazilian Whispers CD that held steady at #14 on the Jazz Week charts, Evolution takes us on a musical journey inward. Recorded during three separate sessions that began in February of 2020, right before the pandemic, it wasn't completed until later in 2021, after the global transformation.

Brachfeld found focus and creativity in how children from different populations express themselves through melody and song. Recognizing the curative effects of music, her role as an artist, and how children worldwide were suffering, the renowned flutist sought solace in Indigenous and African ritual tunes such as Qingauiit and the Hut Song.

Inspiration flowed, creating “What's Up" and “Transformation." With added tunes came added instruments: a Colombian clay flute, an alto flute, a green bamboo flute, kalimba, and shells accompanied her standard fare. The original recording evolved.

The music mixes spiritual ancestral sound waves with the cohesive sonic jazz vibe of her skilled band Insight —a rhythmic holdover from 2018's If Not Now When? and reliable beat buddies over several recordings now. Insight's Bill O'Connell on piano, veteran bassist Harvie S, and drummer Jason Tiemann connect interchangeably within a vortex of musical commonality and perception. Except for Qingauiit, the Hut Song, and Ko Ribon, Evolution features original numbers showcasing the nexus between co-conspirator O'Connell who conjures up the harmonies to Andrea's melodies before releasing the fused magic. In this, her tenth recording as a leader and her second for the Origin label, Andrea lays bare her artistic soul.

Evolution's quizzical open begs the question What's Up? displaying Insight's fluidity and almost telepathic timing. Andrea's bawdy solid timbre leads playing around Harvie's precise walking bass lines, skillfully flowing up and down melodic paths that stream seamlessly into Bill's tasty piano work.

Bold piano comps distinguish Decimation of Transformation building a bridge as if brick by brick under Andrea's pulsing yet lyrically graceful modulations before softening into piano/walking/talking bass interludes that climb and arpeggiate up and down scales. Andrea joins in segueing into the interim refrain flexing her dexterity, precision, and skill. Tiemann's drum solo is savvy in its dynamics and provocative on the steady cymbal brush beats. A smattering of solid yet gentle metered measures end the tune as suddenly as it started.

Brachfeld lays down a rich, deep longing as she calls upon the more prominent alto flute for Qingauiit sprinkled beautifully with O'Connell's delicate voicings at its head. Throughout the lilting tune, Andrea artfully moves the native love song in a nod to the Inuit people. Her sonorous dexterity shines as she scurries up the higher register into a stratosphere of trills before turning it over to the pianist, whose bright passages continue the song's pace and energy. The deft bass fingers over a crisp, penetrating solo complimented by Tiemann's tasteful drumming rounds out the tune into a final groove ending in a climax.

In the bars between the Hut Song's ethereal open to the thumping 6/8 rhythms of Africa, Andrea's multi-melodic flute verses howl in solidarity to young girls and women bonding monthly in separate chambers as they celebrate a joyous sisterhood in this piece from Cameroon.

Hut Song's open evokes a persistent wind whipping through clay and shells and magic spells bubbling over a piano harp sundered by a gentle cymbal splash that intros the lively 6/8 pumping heart. Piano keys cautiously tease the beat, joined by lyrically thumping bass pluckings that open a lush path for Andrea's flutes playing multi-melodically. Interspersing the kalimba thumb piano she plays throughout, three flutes are overdubbed: —the alto voice on the bottom, the bamboo at top as her flowing tones soar in arpeggios that purge through the solid foundation of her familiar trio. Her fluid style resounds through its finale; Andrea's breath picks up where she left off at the very top. An ethereal Colombian flute calling closes, stirring the magic, saluting the ancestors at its edge.

A celestial shower of rhythmic cymbal brushes, opens Child of the Earth alongside a swaying bass under a trickling piano scale. Andrea opts for a spoken word plea to a higher power for unity in this incarnation. She rises to the challenge before picking up her flute to soar with Bill's spirited solo at her heels. The Unraveling of It All unknots its first eight four-note reps under a 6/8 cymbal feel for an all-out musical feast of piano, bass, and drum syncopations as Brachfeld glides gracefully overhead. Each solo is audibly exquisite in execution and dynamics. Tiemann, in particular, exemplifies the delicate balance between drum set and rhythm ensemble. Few are the drummers with the dynamics to seamlessly blend without being overwhelming. The exchange between musicians as they solo is uncanny in the precision of their timing as they go from one phrase to another. Only to reknot it again at the end, repeating those first eight sets of four-note refrains after it was all unraveled.

At her nephew's home for Shabbat, Brachfeld quickly appreciated the ritual song, taking the looping Ko Ribon's melody from her head and into the repertoire. At its top, the even tempoed Ko Ribon seems to be shaken into being by the sheer alchemy of the cymbal's brush anchored through the melodic piano notes melded with the bassist's sway. Brachfeld's mellow minor notes play the spiritual refrain throughout, leaving space for her flight into improvisation. O'Connell's solo picks up where she left off, transitioning into jazzy introspection before handing it off to Brachfeld for the finish.

Luscious liquid sounds of gently cresting water lifted by the lilt of a flute, Being With What Is brings nature's shells and beads into a symmetrical formation with sound. Brachfeld comes in carefully, slowly, vibing in sync with the bass strings. The piano's chords create background voices to ground the hovering song above until the space and time opens for O'Connell's melodic modulations. The Colombian flute hovers. The shells chime. The band circles around Brachfeld's peaceful call to healing, to the ancestors, and to this benevolent leader who has evolved into a facilitator of energy.

An ode to flowers that peek through concrete, Evolution is a work of art and love. It's a chapter in the transformation of a recording. It's a road in the progression of an artist. I remember Andrea Brachfeld when she graced the cover of Charanga '76 as part of the Afro-Cuban band. Her prior jazz workshops with Jimmy Heath honed her improvisational skills needed for the robust New York Latin scene of the '70s. She sat in with the musical masters, lived and worked in Venezuela, produced her own CDs, and led Cocomama, the all-woman salsa group she founded. She earned her own Master's degree and found time to be a mother, a grandmother, and a spiritually evolved being. Maestro Tito Puente would be proud of that young, hippie Jewish girl he invited to sit in with his band. I'm proud of her too.

Evolution is Andrea's plea to the Universe for healing, transformation, and change.

—Aurora Flores-Hostos