Andrea Brachfeld and Chembo Corniel
My first jazz gig was at age 16 when I got a quartet together, wrote my own music, and played at “All Night Soul” at St. Peter’s Church, thanks to Reverend Gensel. From that point on improvisation became a way of life for me. At that time Jazzmobile had workshops every Saturday morning where jazz greats Jimmy Heath, Billy Taylor, among many others, gave their time to teach young people how to play jazz. I was blessed to have Jimmy Heath as the flute teacher. He was not only a teacher of music but also taught me many things about life. I also went to the Jazz Interactions workshop, an organization run by Joe and Rigmor Newman at the time. There I met Yusef Lateef and Barry Harris. Barry always said that if you can’t carry your instrument you shouldn’t be playing it. Yusef was the flute teacher and he turned us on to many different types of music including Eastern music.
In 1974, I was awarded the Louis Armstrong Award for outstanding Jazz student from Jazz Interactions. It came as a complete surprise! Along with the award came a $500 scholarship to the college of my choice, and $1000 if I attended the Berklee School of Music. I chose to go to the Manhattan School of Music as I wanted to learn how to play the flute well before I learned a specific style of music and at the time there were no flute teachers at Berklee. So, in 1973 I went to the Manhattan School of Music. There I studied with Harold Bennett and Andrew Loyla. I also took lessons from Hubert Laws, Sam Barron, Eddie Daniels, and George Coleman. Manhattan didn’t have an extensive Jazz program at the time, but there were two ensembles. The first was led by Dave Friedman and the second by Valerie and Bobby Capers. Dave’s class was really laid back and I learned a lot. Valerie’s class was great too. She is a phenomenal teacher. Other people who were at Manhattan at the time included Kenny Kirkland, Fred Hersch, Angie Bofill, Noel Pointer, and Rodney Jones among many others.
At some point or another we all played with each other. It was an incredible time to be in New York. During my stay at Manhattan I got involved in playing Charanga music. I was at a club called the Tin Palace down on the Bowery and my friend Lloyd McNeil was playing there with his band. I sat in and Mauricio Smith was in the audience. He came up to me afterwards and asked if I wanted to play in a Charanga band. Work was work so I said sure. That was the beginning of my Afro-Cuban musical influence.
I worked with Tipica New York, The Benito Sextet, Charanga ’76, Tipica Ideal, Charanga America, Joe Quijano, Conjunto Libre, Joe Cuba and many other bands. I also sat in with Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Machito, and others. There was so much music happening in those days. Each club would hire at least three bands a night so we were able to check each other out. It was great!
Andrea-EPK ImageWhile I was playing the Charanga gigs I also pursued my interest in jazz. I have always managed to put together groups for gigs. I have had Frank and Jay Clayton, Charles Eubanks, Adam Nussbaum, Peter Fish, Jeff Andrews, Rob Schneiderman, Kenwood Dennard, Mark Helias, Frank Stagnitto, Tom Whaley, among others, as sidemen in my jazz groups.
In 1978 I recorded my first LP called “Andrea” produced by Vicente Barreira, owner of the Casa Latina record store. I had some amazing musicians on the CD including Louis Bauzo, Barry Rogers, Johnny Almendra, Bobby Rodriguez among others. Jose Madera produced it and I believe it might have been the first Charanga CD to have trap drums played by Paul Kimbarrow. Louis also played batá
After graduating Manhattan I continued playing wherever I could. One day I got a call from this guy who spoke to me in Spanish. At the time I didn’t understand a lot or speak it so I wasn’t sure what he was saying. It ends up that he was offering me a gig to go to Venezuela. I thought that was ok so I said yes. Little did I know a 4 week gig was to turn into a 2 1/2 year one! I signed a contract with him to play in a popular typical Venezuelan band for a year. After that I got a gig in a club called the “Juan Sebastien Bar” in Caracas playing jazz six nights a week. One thing led to another and eventually I was doing jingles. Then I formed my first Latin Jazz band. During this whole time I had been writing music but I didn’t view myself as a composer. The band opened for a number of people including Gary Burton, Paco Lucia and lastly Chick Corea. By the last gig I was married and pregnant and ready to return home; which I did.
When I got back I found that there wasn’t as much work as before and I realized that I wanted to devote more quality time to my family. So for 17 years I had some kind of musical group, but I always stayed local and low key so I could be there for my family. During this time I returned to graduate school where I earned my Masters and am currently certified in six different areas. Upon completion of my educational pursuits I decided to change focus and redirect all my energies toward my music. I produced my own CD in 1998 after contacting many record companies. My energy from that point on has been dedicated to marketing, promotion, composing, and playing my music.
