Brandee Younger is revolutionizing the harp’s role in modern music. She has worked relentlessly over the past fifteen years to stretch boundaries and limitations for harpists. In 2022, she made history. Then, she became the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she also earned an NAACP Image Award nomination. Later, she won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album for her latest, Brand New Life. Also ever-expanding as an artist, she has worked with Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Pharoah Sanders and Christian McBride.
Her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the Netflix concert-documentary, Beyoncé: Homecoming. Also, Brandee performed her original music for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueens’ “Soundtrack of America”. Here, Brandee stands on the shoulders of the very women who ushered in the harp as a clear and distinct voice in jazz & popular styles. These include Detroit natives Dorothy Ashby & Alice Coltrane.
Her latest album, Brand New Life, builds on her already rich oeuvre, and cements the harp’s place in popular culture. As the title of the album suggests, Brand New Life is about forging new paths–artistic, personal, political, and spiritual. Younger imbues her music with a sense of purpose and respect of legacy. There, she creates a larger platform for the harp to reach newer and wider audiences than ever before. Additionally, Younger serves on the faculty at New York University, Steinhardt School and The New School College of Performing Arts.
Recommended for fans of Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, Gregoire Maret and Ravi Coltrane.
📸: Erin O’Brien
