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The Feature CD of the Week is from jazz flautist Andrea Brachfeld and it is titled If Not Now, When? This is an album that Andrea put a lot of thought into according to her liner notes. She mentions that she discovered that the jazz audience is interested in what inspired a musician to write […]
Instrumental Jazz CD of the Month Andrea Brachfeld: “If Not Now, When?” (Jazzheads JHI229) 2018 Rating: ***** (musical performance & sonic quality) Produced by Andrea Brachfeld & Bill O’Connell Recorded @ Mozart Studio and Trading8’s Studio Mixed by David Kowalski & Harvie S Mastered by Dave Darlington Photo & Graphic Design: Christopher Drukker Featuring: Andrea […]
Strong and confident post bop is delivered by multi-flutiest Andrea Brachfeld and her team of Harvie S/b, Bill O’Connell/; and Jason Tieman/dr through a mix of mostly originals. The sole cover is an elegiac to modal read of “Amazing Grace” that covers a wide range of moods and textures. Brachfeld’s tone is warm and virile, […]
On Sunday, March 18th, I headed north to The Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, New York, to check out jazz flutist Andrea Brachfeld. She was performing one of a series of concerts of the repertoire from her latest album, If Not Now, When? supported by a grant from Chamber Music America (CMA) and the Doris Duke […]
Andrea Brachfeld, a veteran jazz flutist with impeccable technique, chooses a more fulfilling path than mere virtuosity on her new disc. If Not Now,When? focuses just as much on her generosity as a bandleader and compositional skills. As Brachfeld mentions in the liner notes, she’s known pianist Bill O’Connell since they began playing in New […]
Brachfeld delivers a set of music that’s pure heart and fire. She reminds us of the flute’s might and majesty in a straight-ahead realms. This band finds a way to leverage different strengths on each track, but it also taps into a universal mentality across the entire date. There’s an incredibly pliant simpatico driving this […]
For a great part of jazz history, flute was often a second or third instrument primarily played by saxophonists. But since the beginning of the 21st century, a number of exclusive flutists have come to prominence, though they still have to deal with critics who routinely focus on seasoned reed players for whom flute is […]
Of all of the necessary tools associated with the creative process, the most overlooked may simply be space to think and grow. While the mile-a-minute, multi-tasking mentality that dominates in modern society makes it difficult to find said breathing room, musicians occasionally need to take a step back to fuel their artistic impulses. Flutist Andrea […]
This album reflects flutist Andrea Brachfeld’s particular fondnesss for bebop, but she is better known as a Latin Jazz artist, even having led her own group in Venezuela for over two years. Besides training at the Manhattan School of Music, she had private instruction with Hubert Laws, Eddie Daniels, and George Coleman. Her initial Latin […]
On her third straight-ahead jazz album in the last six years, and second for Jazzheads, flutist Andrea Brachfeld is backed by her exceptional and simpatico working band Insight, with bassist Harvie S, drummer Jason Tiemann, and pianist Bill O’Connell, an invaluable longtime collaborator who along with Brachfeld, produced and arranged the CD. It features primarily […]