Brand New Life Brandee Younger

• 1 You're A Girl For One Man Only 03:59
• 2 Brand New Life 04:32
• 3 Come Live With Me (Interlude) 02:23
• 4 Livin' And Lovin' In My Own Way 04:58
• 5 Running Game (Intro) 01:07
• 6 Running Game 04:39
• 7 Moving Target 04:21
• 8 Dust 04:36
• 9 The Windmills Of Your Mind 02:56
• 10 If It's Magic 03:30
• Total Runtime 37:01

Info for Brand New Life

GRAMMY®-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger releases her new album, "Brand New Life".

Produced by multi-hyphenate drummer and composer Makaya Mccraven, on Brand New Life, Younger celebrates one of her greatest inspirations, iconic jazz harpist and composer Dorothy Ashby. Ashby is widely credited with having asserted the harp’s place in contemporary music, showcasing the traditionally-classical instrument on groundbreaking albums such as Afro-Harping and Dorothy’s Harp. Her unparalleled body of work has continued to be influential for decades and has been heavily sampled and transposed across jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, by artists including Jay-Z, J. Dilla, Pete Rock and Flying Lotus.

Brand New Life is a stunning amalgamation of past and present, combining original works from Younger, select reinterpretations of Ashby’s work, and previously-unrecorded compositions by Ashby. Younger was initially introduced to Ashby’s work through the many hip-hop artists who sampled her music, and now collaborates with some of those very artists on Brand New Life, including the legendary Pete Rock and 9th Wonder. Brand New Life also includes features by Meshell N’degeocello, Mumu Fresh, and production by drummer and composer Makaya McCraven.

Younger says of the album, “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, “You’re A Girl For One Man Only,” is a composition by Ashby that had never before been recorded, the charts of which were only unearthed through Brandee’s lifelong commitment to Ashby’s history. 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 Makaya’s trademark cultural synthesizer. The single is accompanied by a visualizer that further immerses listeners in the ethereal world of Brand New Life.

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.

Brandee Younger, harp, vocals on track 5
Rashaan Carter, bass
Makaya McCraven, drums
Joel Ross, vibraphone
DeSean Jones, flute
Yuri Popowycz, strings
Mumu Fresh, vocals (track 2)
Pete Rock, drum Programming (track 2)
Linda McNease-Younger, vocals (track 5)
Sharon McNease-Griggs, vocals (track 5)
Meshell Ndegeocello, vocals (track 8)
Junius Paul, bass (track 9)
9th Wonder, drum programming, additional production

Brandee Younger
A leading voice of the harp today, performer, composer, educator and concert curator Brandee Younger defies genres and labels. Recently awarded Rising Star Harpist in Downbeat Magazine’s 2020 Critics Poll, she has performed and recorded with artists including Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Jack Dejohnette, Charlie Haden, Common, John Legend, The Roots, Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill. In 2020, she released her fifth album Force Majeure and her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the Netflix Concert-Documentary, Beyoncé: Homecoming. In 2019, Ms. Younger was selected to perform her original music as a featured performer for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueens’ “Soundtrack of America”. Ms. Younger’s ability to seamlessly inject the harp into arrangements and venues where it has historically been overlooked is a testament to her deep love for and exemplary command of the instrument. In addition to performing, Ms Younger is on the teaching artist faculty at New York University and The New School College of Performing Arts in New York City.

Ms. Younger earned her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance at the Hartt School of Music and her Master of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University.

Past residencies and masterclasses include The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), University of Birmingham (UK), Howard University, Drexel University, Princeton University, Tulane University, Trinity College, The Hartt School, University of Michigan, DePaul University and Berklee College of Music.

She holds leadership positions on the advisory board of New Music USA, through the Apollo (theater) Young Patrons Steering Committee and the American Harp Society, Inc. where she is Director at Large. As a concert curator, Ms Younger organized “Divine Ella,” part of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival. She also served as curator of the 2016 Harp On Park concert series, “highlighting the diversity of the harp and the contemporary importance of an ancient instrument,” and most recently coordinated “Her Song,” featuring the works of women composers, both for Arts Brookfield.

“No harpist thus far has been more capable of combining all of the modern harp traditions — from Salzedo, through Dorothy Ashby, through Alice Coltrane — with such strength, grace and commitment.” - The New York Times

“Younger has almost single-handedly made a persuasive argument for the harp’s role in contemporary jazz…” - The New York Times

This album contains no booklet.