Name: Rachel Brotman
Locality: raised in the NYC, musically trained in New
Orleans, USA
Color: Flushed Pink:
this rosy-neutral color is for her cool sound and her epic voice control.
The Story: Rachel Brotman was bred in the big Apple, with
immense pride for the city. Her grandfather would tell her stories of how he would
hear the jazz players in Harlem in his heyday, and in the house they played an
array of hits from the genre, and other Big Band artists as well. Rachel bonded
with the sounds of Joni Mitchell, but Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald were
playing out of her grandfather’s record box sets also.
Towards the end of high school, she realized that music was
where her heart lied: “I started to feel like there was really no option for me
to pursue other than music. It was less of a conscious choice than a reality
that slowly unfolded.”
“I have been playing piano and writing music since I was
very young, but I started to really focus on developing my voice in college. It
wasn’t until then that I identified as a singer,” she says. Taking her music up
a notch with some higher learning at Tulane University meant studying with the
talented Leah Chase. Post college she assembled a band with a bass player from
school. The band grew when each member suggested another member.
Rachel composes and arranges her own music, with talents on
the flugelhorn, bass, drums, keyboard and piano, praising her band members for
the “inspiration and knowledge to draw from.” Her passion lies in what she
calls her greatest joy, “being a part of a community of musicians I can create
with, improvise with, experiment with, learn from and grow with.”
From the NPR Mountain Stage to the New Orleans Jazz and
Heritage Festival, Rachel Brotman has seen only the beginning of where her
talent will take her.
Coloring Outside The Lines Because: Rachel makes it look
easy—her vocal dimensions, her lower decibel whispers and soft belts, and the amount of control that takes, shows her training
did her well; also you can't beat complex arrangements and a great band to back it all up.
Think: big city, dinner date, peacock feathers (beautiful and
intricate), street festival, soul food, spring, gala, breeze.
