Harpist Brandee Younger Releases New Album “Brand New Life”

GRAMMY-NOMINATED COMPOSER & HARPIST
BRANDEE YOUNGER
NEW ALBUM BRAND NEW LIFE

OUT TODAY VIA IMPULSE!

PRODUCED BY MAKAYA McCRAVEN
FEAT. PETE ROCK, MESHELL N’DEGEOCELLO,
9TH WONDER, & MORE

April 7, 2023 (New York, NY) — Today, GRAMMY®-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger releases her new album Brand New Life via Impulse! Records. At once a stunning testament to Younger’s power as a composer and a remarkable tribute to trailblazing harpist Dorothy Ashby, the album features Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, Mumu Fresh, and more.

On her second album for Impulse!, Younger pays tribute to the enduring legacy of Dorothy Ashby, whose groundbreaking work brought the harp to the forefront of popular genres and has influenced generations of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B musicians. Brand New Life sees Younger lend her inimitable talent to original compositions (including the album’s title track, an evocative collaboration with singer-activist Mumu Fresh), reworks of iconic pieces from Ashby’s catalog, and never-before-recorded works by Ashby.

Younger says of her experience making Brand New Life, “Creating this album has been a longtime dream of mine. I really had a lot of living to do before being able to execute it, genuinely. The finished product is truly representative of where I am now and it is an honor to convey that through the compositions of one of my heroes.”

The first single from the album is the previously unrecorded and evocative Ashby composition, “You’re A Girl For One Man Only.” What may have become a jazz standard of 1960s – had it been recorded at the time of it’s conception – now emerges as timeless as ever and is colored with the vibrance of the 21st Century via drummer and producer Makaya McCraven’s trademark cultural synthesizer.

Younger is also joined on Brand New Life by icons of hip-hop and R&B, many of whom have been inspired by Ashby themselves. DJ and rapper Pete Rock joins Younger for a powerful rework of Ashby’s “Livin’ and Lovin’ in My Own Way.” Meanwhile, 9th Wonder adds infectious production to a new interpretation of “The Windmills of Your Mind,” and Meshell N’degeocello contributes dreamy vocals to Younger’s imaginative take on Ashby’s 1969 track “Dust.”

Celebrated as the premier harpist of her generation, Brandee Younger has broken new ground for harpists over the entirety of her career. Younger made history as the first Black female solo artist to be GRAMMY®-nominated for Best Instrumental Composition, for “Beautiful is Black” from her genre-busting 2021 major-label debut album, Somewhere Different. That same year the album also garnered an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Jazz Album – Instrumental. Along with the release of Brand New Life, Younger will be embarking on a series of headlining shows across the U.S. this spring, and will follow her whirlwind 2023 with a residency as SFJazz’s Resident Artistic Director in early 2024.

BRAND NEW LIFE TRACKLIST:

You’re A Girl For One Man Only
Brand New Life (feat. Mumu Fresh)
Come Live With Me (Interlude)
Livin’ and Lovin’ in My Own Way (feat. Pete Rock)
Running Game Intro
Running Game
Moving Target
Dust (feat. Meshell N’degeocello)
The Windmills of Your Mind (feat. 9th Wonder)
If It’s Magic

LIVE DATES:

April 7: Public Records – Brooklyn, NY
April 24 The Cat in The Cream, Oberlin, OH
May 23: The Dakota, Minneapolis,MN
May 24: Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild – Pittsburgh, PA
May 25: Caffe Vivaci – Cincinnati, OH
May 26: The CUBE – Detroit, MI
May 27: Blue LLama – Ann Arbor, MI
June 4 Dazzles, Denver, CO
June 6-7: Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley – Seattle, WA
June 8: The Old Church – Portland, OR
June 22: Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD
June 23: Arts Nova, Philadelphia, PA
June 28: Victoria Jazz Festival – Victoria, BC
June 29: Vancouver Jazz Festival – Vancouver, BC
July 2: Montreal Jazz Festival – Montreal, QC
July 6: Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Copenhagen, DK
July 7: Festival du Jazz, St Moritz, Switzerland
July 8: North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam, NL
July 10: Perugia Jazz Festival, Perugia, Italy
Oct 22: Fasching, Stockholm Jazz Festival, Sweden
Oct 24: Essen Philharmonie (RWE Pavillon), Essen, Denmark
Oct 25: Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Denmark
Oct 28: LantarenVenster, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Oct 29 AB: Theater, Brussels, Belgium

March 7-10, 2024: SFJazz Resident Artistic Director

Connect with Brandee on socials:

WEBSITE | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE

DKCulture