A conversation with Jersey City flute player Andrea Brachfeld about her music can quickly head down some unexpected and revelatory paths, filled with expressions such as “vibrational universe,” “chakras,” and “evolution of the soul.”
But don’t let the New Age-y vernacular cloud your senses.
Brachfeld is at the top of her game. She’s an in-demand jazz musician who tore up the Charanga music scene for years. She’s played with and has been mentored by jazz legends, including Jimmy Heath, Hubert Laws, Paquito D’Rivera, Tito Puente, Yusef Lateef and Barry Harris.
A Jersey City Heights resident for the past couple of years, Brachfeld this month released her sixth CD, “Lotus Blossom,” an improvisational jazz tour de force. And capping off a year that’s included performances at the International Havana Jazz Festival, the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair, and the popular Sounds of Summer Concert Series in Jersey City, Brachfeld was recently named “Jazz Flutist of the Year” by readers of Hot House Jazz Magazine.
“That was a total surprise to me,” Brachfeld, 61, said recently about the honor. “I never imagined I would win, especially with the other three flute players I was up against. I am very grateful the fans chose me. I didn’t even know I was on their radar.”
The runners-up were Don Braden, Lew Tabackin, and Jamie Baum. Great players.
When she spoke to The Jersey Journal, Brachfeld was gearing up for her “Lotus Blossom” CD release party on Oct. 28 at Zeb’s Place in Manhattan.
To Brachfeld’s delight, the elements of the universe had aligned and the musicians who recorded the CD were all available to play at the party: Bill O’ Connell on piano, Rufus Reid on bass, Jersey City’s own Winard Harper on drums, Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, Nancy Harms singing, and Brachfeld’s longtime collaborator, Chembo Corniel, on percussion.
“I am just around these very kind, supportive geniuses,” Brachfeld said about the group. “And they are just really present for me when we are playing, which is the only thing I am looking for — to be present and to be listening.”
A native of Spring Valley, NY, Brachfeld studied piano for seven years beginning at age 6. “At age 10 I found out that you could take the flute in school and get out of class; so the flute it was!” she writes in her web page bio.
At 16, she played her first gig, leading a quartet at New York’s famous home for jazz, St. Peter’s Church. Still in her teens, she studied on weekends at two of New York’s storied musician incubators – Jazzmobile and Jazz Interactions, meeting up with the likes of Heath, Lateef, and Laws.
She attended Manhattan’s famed High School of Music and Arts and then continued her studies at Manhattan College of Music.
After she graduated, the great Panamanian flute player Mauricio Smith asked her if she wanted to play Charanga, a style of Spanish music that features violins and the flute. Brachfeld’s fearless willingness to stretch her musical sights eventually led to a 2 1/2-year stint living in Venezuela playing Charanga and then leading her own jazz group six nights a week at a hotel.
When she returned to the US in the early ’80s, her focus turned to family; and teaching ESL and bilingual education at the Princeton Middle School, a gig that lasted 25 years.
At some point, she developed focal dystonia, a neurological condition that can affect a musician’s hands and embouchure, which refers to the use of facial muscles to shape the lips to the mouthpiece of woodwind instruments.
The illness propelled Brachfeld to delve deeper into the meditative side of her music and to record what was her fifth CD, “Songs from the Divine,” a solo CD with synthesizers.
“It is an emotional energy blockage,” Brachfeld said about the condition. “People can retrain their brains. When I help people who have that I am always able to pinpoint an event that affected (them).”
For now, nothing seems to be blocking Brachfeld’s path to success. After a lifetime of study, practice, and self-discovery, she is playing the music she wants to play with the musicians she wants to play with.
“It’s a search for universal sound, a vibration that everybody will feel,” Brachfeld said of her goal as a musician. “Ultimately, it’s more about being much more introspective and getting as deep as possible to the truth in yourself.”
Ken Thorbourne
The Jersey Journal
“Lotus Blossom” is on the Jazzheads label and can be ordered through Amazon, Jazzheads or iTunes. Zeb’s Place is at 223 West 28th Street in New York. Reservations for CD Release Party are suggested and tickets are only $10.00; call (212) 695-8081. For more information, visit www.andreabrachfeld.com.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/10/jersey_citys_andrea_brachfeld_the_universal_sound.html