Patricia Brennan Septet
Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic Records)

2025 DownBeat Critics Poll Album of the Year & Vibraphonist of the Year!

The New York Times Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2024
NPR 50 Best Albums of 2024 (across all genres)
Best Jazz Albums of 2024: PopMatters, Bandcamp, Stereogum, Slate & More
19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll: 2024 Album of the Year

2025 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Award, Mallet Instrument Player of the Year
2022 & 2024, DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Vibraphonist

”Vital music … This thrilling album gallops towards eloquence.”
— Jim Macnie, DownBeat ★★★★★ Review

“Scintillating … Brennan takes stunning solos that add intensity to the faster tracks and delicacy to the slower ones … [she] illustrates the [vibraphone’s] capacities in exciting new ways.” 
— Martin Johnson, The Wall Street Journal

“The jazz world can get stuck in a battle between the head and the heart, but rarely do you find an improviser like Patricia Brennan [whose] music seems to exist in a realm outside the body, but stays loaded with feeling.”
— Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times

“Brennan supplements her dazzling technique with two-handed independence and unexpected tonal shifts courtesy of judicious use of electronics.”
— John Sharpe, The New York City Jazz Record

“The third album by the vibes and marimba master Patricia Brennan overflows with the rattling, life-affirming polyrhythms of dance and joy … Breaking Stretch contains nine dazzling Brennan tunes that allow her seven-piece band to play all sorts of ways using voicings full of beauty and tension…”
— Will Layman, PopMatters

“[Brennan’s] a wonder who soars into improvisational flight teeming with odd meters and mallet-driven electronic strikes conjoining consonance. This album is a perfect listening experience.”
— Dan Ouellette

Mexican-born bandleader, vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser, composer, and educator Patricia Brennan “has been widely feted as one of the instrument’s newer leaders,” observed The New York City Jazz Record. In the 2025 DownBeat Critics Poll, Brennan’s Septet album, Breaking Stretch, was named Album of the Year, and she was named Vibraphonist of the Year. Brennan also earned the Jazz Journalists Association 2025 JJA Jazz Award as Mallet Instrument Player of the Year. In addition, she was a nominee for the Jazz Journalists Association 2025 JJA Up & Coming Musician of the Year award. Brennan has won the rising star vibraphonist award from DownBeat’s 70th (2022) and 72nd (2024) Critics Polls and was listed #4 vibraphonist of the year on the 71st (2023) & 72nd (2024) Critics Polls.

Brennan inherited a deep love and appreciation for musical tradition from both of her parents, and she was exposed to the musical richness of her native Port of Veracruz in Mexico. She started studying music at four years old, playing Latin percussion along with salsa records with her father and listening to Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin records with her mother. Also, around the same age, she started playing piano, influenced by her grandmother who was a concert pianist.

At the age of 17, Brennan was selected from musicians all over the Americas to be part of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. During this time, she toured every country in the Americas and performed with renowned musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and Paquito D’Rivera. Before moving to the U.S., Brennan was already performing with the top symphony orchestras in Mexico, such as Xalapa Symphony Orchestra and Minería Symphony Orchestra. Also, she had already won several awards in marimba competitions and young artist competitions in Mexico and abroad and was featured in the Líderes Mexicanos magazine in 2003. In 2004, she was accepted at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was able to perform alongside high caliber musicians from all over the world and conductors such as Simon Rattle and Charles Dutoit. She also performed with the esteemed Philadelphia Orchestra and other acclaimed new music groups such as members from Eighth Blackbird.

Brennan’s search for freedom in her musical expression led her to find her voice through the vibraphone and mallet percussion in improvisational music and composition.

Her extensive sidewoman work includes the GRAMMY-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus, Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis, and the GRAMMY-winning Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, among other groups and collectives. She has also collaborated with pianist Vijay Iyer as a member of Blind Spot with writer Teju Cole, Iyer’s large ensemble project Open City, and several small ensemble performances along with renowned musicians including bassist Reggie Workman and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.

Brennan’s own projects include the solo project Maquishti; Moch — a collaborative duo with percussionist, drummer, and turntablist Noel Brennan (DJ Arktureye); More Touch — a quartet with Mauricio Herrera on percussion, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Kim Cass on bass; the Patricia Brennan Septet, which features the rhythm section from More Touch and adds Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on alto and sopranino saxophones, and Mark Shim on tenor saxophone; Talamanti, a piano and mallet percussion duo with extraordinary pianist Sylvie Courvoisier; and Of the Near and Far, a tentet comprised of a string quartet, a jazz quintet, and an electronic musician.

Brennan has performed at venues such as Newport Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ, and Carnegie Hall, as well as international venues such as Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. She has also appeared on National Television, Public Radio, and the BBC radio show “Freeness” hosted by Corey Mwamba.

Brennan has appeared on numerous recordings from classical to improvised music, including an ECM recording with Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus called The Distance and a world premiere recording with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach on Ondine Records.

Brennan’s acclaimed debut solo album Maquishti, released on Valley of Search, was listed #4 on The New York Times 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2021. Her sophomore album, More Touch, released in November 2022 on Pyroclastic Records, received multiple accolades from critics. More Touch was included in several Best Jazz Albums of 2022 lists such as NPR Best Music of 2022, Bandcamp Best Jazz Albums of 2022, and PopMatters Best Jazz Albums of 2022. The opening track, “Unquiet Respect,” from More Touch, was listed as one of NPR’s 100 Best Songs of 2022, a list featuring music from all genres and only including a handful of jazz artists.

Brennan released her third album as a leader, Breaking Stretch, featuring the Patricia Brennan Septet, on September 6, 2024 on Pyroclastic Records. This record features master improvisers Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on alto and sopranino saxophones, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Kim Cass on bass, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Mauricio Herrera on percussion. Breaking Stretch was named Album of the Year in DownBeat’s 2025 Critics Poll, and received wide acclaim earning spots across multiple Best Jazz Albums of 2024 lists including The New York Times Top 10 and NPR 50 Best Albums of 2024 (across all genres of music).

Brennan will be releasing her fourth record featuring her latest tentet project, Of the Near and Far, on October 24, 2025 on Pyroclastic Records. Also, she recently recorded her duo project Talamanti with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, which is expected to be released in 2026.

Brennan is a Valley of Search artist, Pyroclastic Records artist, BlueHaus Mallets artist, and Audeze artist. She is currently faculty at the Jazz Arts program at Manhattan School of Music, the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the Jazz Studies program at NYU Steinhardt.