There are a number of instruments that do not quite feel comfortable in jazz or is it jazz which is not comfortable with it?  One of them is the flute. So even when an interpreter of the music who plays this instrument publishes an album of jazz, Brazilian music or a mixture of both, it is well received. And if the interpreter plays great, so much the better.

Andrea Brachfeld graduated from the High School of Music and Art and the Manhattan School of Music. She has recorded more than twenty albums as a sidewoman and nine as a leader. She is considered the first woman flutist in the United States to play Salsa and Latin music.  Downbeat magazine says she is one of the best jazz flutists. She has worked with artists  Slide Hampton, Bill O’Connell, Paquito D’Rivera, Ray Barretto, Rufus Reid, Steve Turre, Tito Puente, Wallace Roney, Winard Harper, among others. Andrea has received awards on numerous occasions. Since she began her career as a musician at age 16, she has recorded and performed many different musical genres including Jazz, Latin Jazz, Salsa, Charanga, funk, Country Western among others.

Her innovative performance as flutist of the popular Latin band Charanga ’76, catapulted into history and fame of salsa as the first female flutist playing this music in the United States.

It has been many years since Stan Getz published his album with Joao Gilberto in March 1964, entitled “Getz / Gilberto” and in some way marked the worldwide bossa nova and fusion with jazz movement.  Andrea Brachfeld on this album incorporates some of the successes of Antonio Carlos Jobim bringing his personal vision with them.

The interplay between the accompanying musicians is total, with Bill O’Connell, Harvie S and Jason Tiemann who have been playing more than three years of together.

In addition to the aforementioned, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, Lincoln Goines bassist, percussionist and drummer Chembo Corniel T. Portinho, arguably the most important drummer contemporary Brazilian music, also recorded on the CD. 

Before recording the album, Brachfeld heard many songs of Jobim and those most liked are the ones included on the disc.

Three of the songs are co-written with Bill O’Connell, which includes Espaço Aberto, Sonhos e Cores and Triste e Solitaria, as well as a nice tribute to Roy Hargrove with Never Let Me Go, ” I heard a recording of him playing it and thought it was so beautiful, I just loved it.”

The album oozes optimism, is alive, danceable and listenable. And it’s not just about Brazilian music, even though that is enough, there are also moments of top quality jazz.

An excellent recording providing rich and deep sounds. A top performance from all the participants on the disc.

~La Habitación del Jazz, January 2020

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