New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, GRAMMY-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger releases her new album
Brand New Life via Impulse! Records/ Universal Music. 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. Listen to the track HERE.
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," and also accompanied Younger in a discussion of Ashby's rich musical legacy on Good Morning
America (watch the segment HERE). 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
