Benjamín Brea

Born as Benjamín Arsenio Brea Constenla in Galicia, Spain, he moved with his parents to Venezuela in the early 1960s. He received formal music training in Caracas and graduated under Vicente Emilio Sojo in the José Ángel Lamas school of music. Brea started his professional career in 1962, becoming an outstanding musician on a great variety of instruments, being able to play all saxophone and flute families, as well as oboe, clarinet and bass clarinet.[2]

After playing with several local dance bands, he remained busy and performed on countless soundtracks and jingles recording sessions. In addition, he became a member of the Radio Caracas Television orchestra and the now defunct Philharmonic Orchestra of Caracas conducted by Aldemaro Romero. Besides, he backed up significant performers as Jeff Berlin, Paquito D'Rivera, Julio Iglesias, Armando Manzanero, Danilo Pérez, Arturo Sandoval, The Jackson Five and The Supremes, while playing in jazz big band formats led by Porfi Jiménez, Alberto Naranjo and Gerry Weil, among others. In between, he performed alongside such local artists as Soledad Bravo, Vytas Brenner, Maria Teresa Chacin, Ilan Chester, Franco de Vita, Simón Díaz, Gualberto Ibarreto, Los Cañoneros, Ricardo Montaner, Alí Primera, María Rivas, Serenata Guayanesa and Cecilia Todd, in recordings or in concert performances.[3]

Despite working intensively as a sideman in recording sessions, Brea released only three records in his long-lived career. His first solo album Another Point Of View was released in 1995 and consists of his takes on jazz standards of people like Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller, arranged with more contemporanean brushes. It includes tunes like Moonlight Serenade and Summertime, as well as a jazzy version of the andean classic El Cóndor Pasa.[3]

His second album Un Viejo Amor is a more romantic offering and less jazzy, while Christmas Saxes was a production made by him in solitary; recording the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes tracks himself in counterpoint, with the diligent aid of sound engineer Javier Alquati in his own home studio. This last album is a compilation of traditional Christmas songs from Venezuela and beyond.[3]

Apart from his own studio projects, he also organised a jazz band to play at gigs and was a staff member at the El Hatillo Jazz Festival, which is an annual event celebrated in the small town of El Hatillo Town, Venezuela.[4]

In January 2014, Brea fainted while attending a rehearsal and was moved to a hospital in Caracas, where he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He died on 23 April 2014, aged 67.[5]

• 1995 Another Point of View (Jazz)
• 1997 Un Viejo Amor (World Music)
• 1999 Christmas' Saxes (Easy listening)[3]

• List of Jazz Arrangers

• Reflexiones del Jazz en Venezuela por Benjamin Brea (Spanish)
• Rock hecho en Venezuela : El Medio Evo (Spanish)
• Rock hecho en Venezuela : Frank Quintero (Spanish)
• Anapapaya : El Pavo Frank article (Spanish)