Isabelle Bodenseh loves and lives music.
The flutist moves across borders in the genres of jazz, rock, classical and world music. The new album of her formation ISABELLE BODENSEH Quartet is called “Flowing Mind” (GLM) and impressively documents her musical range.
It was clear to the half-Frenchwoman early on that the classical music studies she had begun with the goal of becoming an orchestral musician were not enough for her. She found the freedom she was looking for neither in classical music nor in the role of an orchestral musician. She found it in jazz and improvised music – after putting aside her orchestral music studies and studying school music in Frankfurt in the early 1990s, Isabelle Bodenseh continued on the path of free music, studying with jazz flutist and composer James Newton in Los Angeles.
After half a year of studies in the home country of jazz, the flutist moved on to Cuba. In Havana, thanks to a one-year scholarship from the DAAD, she was able not only to study Latin flute with the most renowned Cuban musicians, but also to study composition with Andrés Alén and go on concert tours with Cuban bands.
Since then, Isabelle Bodenseh has brought her musical expertise from all over the world to many different projects. She has performed in formations such as Chantal, Verquer, Son Aché, La Serena or with the Sisters in Jazz International, as well as being a theater and studio musician in over 30 CD productions, including playalongs for the renowned Schott-Notenverlag.
In 2016, in addition to teaching improvisation at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt am Main since 2000, she founded the “JAZZ À LA FLUTE” platform to bring the flute more intensively into the jazz spotlight. On this basis, not only an academy for improvisation was created, but above all her heart project, a duo with guitarist Lorenzo Petrocca. She expanded the flute family beyond the “normal” flute still with alto and the particularly interesting bass transverse flute. The 2018 ISABELLE BODENSEH Quartet with flute, guitar, Hammond organ and drums is reminiscent of ’60s recordings with guitarist George Benson and flutist Joe Farrell.
Bodenseh’s band with Lorenzo Petrocca on guitar, Thomas Bauser on Hammond organ and Lars Binder on drums forms a swinging rhythm section over which the flute can unfold perfectly and launch soloistic flights of fancy. In addition to radiant melodic passages, the funky and percussive aspect is by no means neglected here. Tours have already taken the lively flutist and her band all over Europe. The new, now fourth album with the lyrical flute voice will also be presented live.
