Brandi Disterheft
Brandi Disterheft, a Vancouver native now living and working in New York City, lists an impressive array of bass playing mentors and collaborators, including Ron Carter, Rufus Reid, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and Don Thompson. Her first album (2007) won a Juno Award; she’s released two more albums since then. Oscar Peterson compares her playing to Ray Brown’s, “She is what we call serious.”
Her playing demonstrates a diverse compositional palette. Her song writing and vocal style is reminiscent of Billie Holiday, with the lyrical elegance of Leonard Cohen. Others claim that her style and performances invoke the soul of Charles Mingus. Few musicians this young demonstrate such maturity in their approach to the double bass; nor such a deep appreciation for its traditions and compositional possibilities.
In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Brandi explains, “… my mother is a B3 organist and jazz pianist originally from Chicago; jazz records, including Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans, were always being played at the house. My father suggested I study the double bass at age 13. I suppose he thought it would be comical to see a little girl playing this huge instrument. I immediately fell in love with the beauty of its low frequency, and the ‘hidden’ notes, for there are no obvious notes like on a piano; it appeared as a puzzle I could slowly solve every time I practiced. … I have a love for lyric writing and wanted to express more by telling stories to the audience while the music was playing. So, singing while playing the bass just naturally came about. Playing bass underneath a ‘cooking’ band feels like flying…”
