Flutist, composer, arranger, producer, educator, and business owner, Andrea Brachfeld, is a graduate of The High School of Music and Art and the Manhattan School of Music. Study with Hubert Laws, Jimmy Heath, George Coleman, and Mike Longo helped her develop her own improvisational style. Since she began her professional career as a musician at age 16, she has recorded and played many different genres of music including Jazz, Latin Jazz, Salsa, Charanga, funk, Country Western, and devotional music. Some of the many artists she has associated with include Tito Puente, Hubert Laws, Paquito D'Rivera, Slide Hampton, Wallace Roney, Wycliffe Gordon, Ray Barretto, Dave Valent'n, Ray Barretto, Wayne Wallace, Bobby Carcassés, Oscar Hernandez, Alfredo de la Fé, Ralph Irrizarry, Joe Newman, Nestor Torres, Kenwood Dennard, Hilton Ruiz, Steve Turre, and Bill O' Connell among many others. Her breakthrough performance as the flutist for the popular Latin band Charanga '76, catapulted her into Salsa history and fame as the first female flutist to play this music in the United States. As a high school student, she received the "Louis Armstrong Award for Outstanding Student" from Jazz Interactions, an organization created by Joe and Rigmor Newman. Downbeat magazine referred to Andrea as "one of the finest jazz flutists around." She has twice been the recipient of the Latin New York Music Award. She received the Chico O'Farrill Lifetime Achievement Award from Latin Jazz USA in Oct. 2006 and the "Pionero Award" in 2010 for her contribution to Latin music. She was also awarded the, "Tribute to the Charanga Flutes," given by Charanga Legends USA, in August of 2012. While in Venezuela, having been contracted by music impressario, Renato Capriles, she had the honor of opening for Chick Corea and Paco de Lucia with her first Latin Jazz band in 1982. Her first Latin Jazz CD, "Remembered Dreams" combines original music with jazz harmony and Latin rhythms. Her second CD, "Back With Sweet Passion", is a dynamic Charanga Jazz recording featuring Grammy-award winner Oscar Hernandez on piano and Alfredo De La Fé on violin. Her third CD "Beyond Standards", is a collaborative effort with Chembo Corniel, features jazz greats Hilton Ruiz on piano, Steve Turre on trombone, and Pedrito Martinez on vocals. Her most recent Latin Jazz CD, "Into the World: A Musical Offering" features guest artists Mike Longo, Paul West, and Brian Lynch. Her first jazz CD named, "Lady of the Island," was released in October of 2012 by ZOHO music featuring Wallace Roney, Wycliffe Gordon, and Bill O' Connell, longtime musical director for Dave Valent'n. Bill produced the record as well as wrote the arrangements. She has appeared with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra as a soloist performing her own compositions as well as those of Mike Longo, longtime musical director for Dizzy Gillespie. Andrea has traveled to Cuba a number of times to perform at the International Havana Jazz Festival and has traveled to Peru to play at the International Flute Festival. She is also an integral part of the Wallace Roney,"Universe" Orchestra playing Wayne Shorter's long lost music originally written for Miles Davis. In September of 2015 she was awarded the title of "Best Jazz Flutist" by Hot House Magazine and her CD "Lotus Blossom" came out on Jazzheads Records in October of 2015. The featured performers on the CD include Bill O' Connell, Rufus Reid, Winard Harper , Chembo Corniel, and special guest appearances by Wycliffe Gordon and Nancy Harms. Andrea currently tours with her own group, Andrea Brachfeld and Insight, featuring Bill O' Connell, Harvie S and Jason Tiemann, and The Bill O' Connell ACE project; Afro Caribbean Ensemble featuring Andrea Brachfeld. Andrea and the Dave Valentin Tribute band recently came back from a tour in Japan playing at the Cotton Club. In June 2017, Andrea was awarded a grant from the prestigious organization, Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, to compose a new jazz work. Her CD, "If Not Now, When? " was released on the Jazzheads label in May of 2018, and reflects this new music. Andrea's 2020 project "Brazilian Whispers" is a Brazilian Jazz recording which features her band, Insight (Bill O' Connell, Harvie S, and Jason Tiemann), as well as guest artists Portinho on drums, Lincoln Goines on the bass, Roni Ben-Hur on guitar and Chembo Corniel on the congas and percussion. Her newest project, “Evolution” will come out on May 20, 2022 on Origin Records and also features Insight.

Bill O’Connell is a native New Yorker who studied classical music at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Early in his career, he played in various salsa and jazz settings which set the tone for his musical stylings of today.
In 1977, he joined salsa great Mongo Santamaria, writing and performing with him for over two years. Following that he worked with Chet Baker and jazz legend Sonny Rollins with whom he toured the United States and Europe. In 1982, he joined Latin jazz flutist Dave Valentin, and they have been touring the world together ever since, performing before enthusiastic audiences everywhere.
Bill, an internationally recognized composer, has his original compositions on CDs by Mongo Santamaria, Emily Remler, Charles Fambrough, and on virtually every recording made by flutist Dave Valentin. One of Valentin’s most requested songs, “Oasis”, which was recorded by the GRP Allstars for the CD, “GRP Live in Session”, is one of Bill’s original compositions.
Over the years, Bill has displayed his versatility with numerous other jazz artists including Gato Barbieri, the Fort Apache Band, and vocalists Jon Lucien, Kenny Rankin, and Astrud Gilberto. His seven solo recordings, “Searching” on the Inner City label, “Love for Sale” on the Pony Canyon Label, “Signature, featuring Bill O’Connell” on the Blue Moon Mesa label, “Lost Voices” on the CTI label, “Black Sand” and “Latin Jazz Fantasy” on the Random Chance label and “Triple Play” on the Savant label have received wide critical acclaim throughout the world. On four separate occasions, Bill was the recipient of the coveted “Jazz Writer of the Year” award from SESAC, the performing rights organization.
Bill’s release entitled “Black Sand” The Bill O’ Connell Latin Jazz Project, was released September of 2001 and featured Dave Valentin, Randy Brecker, Andy Gonzalez and Steve Berrios among others. This CD received critical acclaim and climbed to #5 on the national jazz radio chart. As Mark Holston writes in the liner notes, “Putting the primary accent on the Latin side of the stylistic equation proves the point Bill O’Connell has been making all of his professional life-Black Sand sizzles.” Bill ‘s CD “Latin Jazz Fantasy” features Bill in duo, trio, quartet, quintet, and orchestral settings. George Carroll writes, “It seems O’Connell possesses that unique gift to write into an idiom (in this case Latin), with a sense of transcendence. This is a jazz pianist with immense ‘player power’ as it were. The range of his artistic spectrum seems limitless, and I suggest that my readers will be moved by this colossus of musical dignity and improvisational authority”.
Bill has also released the CD “Triple Play” with the unique instrumentation of piano, flute and congas/perc. From Jazziz Chris Heim says, “The old adage that good things come in small packages is proven again in Latin-jazz pianist Bill O’ Connell’s latest and seventh disc as a leader.” This trio has performed in New York City and around the world. (for instance at the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia.)