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Jazz Articles about Bill O'Connell
Bill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Richard J Salvucci
A rhythm section which includes Santi Debriano and Billy Hart is nothing if not part of a potential dream band. In Craig Handy, one finds a post-bop saxophonist who played with virtually everyone worth hearing over the last third of the twentieth century. For a variety of reasons pianist Bill O'Connell may be a little less well known outside the jny:New York City metropolitan area, but his signal contributions to Latin jazz with Dave Valentin, Jerry Gonzalez and Mongo Santamaria ...
read moreBill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Jack Bowers
After years of gigging in the New York City area, while honing his credentials as a first-call contemporary jazz pianist, Bill O'Connell and his family moved to Montauk, the easternmost point on Long Island, where he expressed his appreciation of the area's many wonders by recording this impressive album at the celebrated Gosman's Dock, during the annual Hamptons Jazz Festival in August 2021. It is essentially a quartet date with trumpeter Randy Brecker sitting in on two numbers, ...
read moreAndrea Brachfeld & Insight: Evolution
by Jack Bowers
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 ...
read moreAndrea Brachfeld: Evolution
by Jane Kozhevnikova
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 ...
read moreBill O'Connell: A Change Is Gonna Come
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Bill O'Connell, who has been at the top of his game for more than four decades with no signs of slowing down, says each of his albums is a snapshot of how he is feeling at a particular time in his life. A Change Is Gonna Come expresses O'Connell's frame of mind after enduring more than two years of the Coronavirus pandemic. By and large, the mood is optimistic, underscoring his belief that the worst of the pandemic could ...
read moreSanti Debriano: Flash of the Spirit
by Paul Rauch
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 ...
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