Home » Jazz Articles » Brandee Younger
Jazz Articles about Brandee Younger
Gil Scott-Heron / Makaya McCraven: We're New Again
by Karl Ackermann
"All the dreams you show up in are not your own." With those words to an interviewer at The New Yorker, Gil Scott-Heron tried to explain a degree of detachment from I'm New Here (XL Recordings, 2011), his “comeback" and the final studio album before his death that year. The project was initiated by the head of XL and was the first album Scott-Heron released in the sixteen years he struggled with addiction and two drug-related terms in prison. The ...
Continue ReadingBrandee Younger: Soul Awakening
by Serena Antinucci
Sembrerebbe quasi che Brandee Younger abbia preferito ripetitive udienze private con la luna, prima di decidere se liberare il suo ultimo lavoro discografico. Forse, in questi dialoghi confidenziali, la luna le avrà svelato i misteri antichi del mondo, della musica, donandole immagini uniche piene di incanto. A queste è rimasta aggrappata per lunghi sette anni, prima di decidere, anche grazie al produttore e contrabbassista Dezron Douglas, nel 2019, di portare alla luce il suo quarto album Soul Awakening. Dalla luna, ...
Continue ReadingBrandee Younger: Soul Awakening
by Mike Jurkovic
Sure the recording for Soul Awakening was completed in 2013, but we are more than fortunate that harpist Brandee Younger and producer/bassist Dezron Douglas have chosen now to free this music from the vaults. For Soul Awakening brings a defining clarity to what we've experienced on previous releases, such as the raw, groove/fusion of 2014's The Brandee Younger 4tet: Live at the Breeding Ground (Brandee Younger), and 2016's Wax & Wane (Brandee Younger). Accompanied by her stalwart 4tet: ...
Continue ReadingA Soul Awakening with Harpist Brandee Younger
by UDEiGWE
Harpist Brandee Younger's latest release, Soul Awakening, is a collection of 8 well executed compositions, complete with easily felt energy and introspection. Soul Awakening features bassist Dezron Douglas , drummer E.J. Strickland, saxophonists Stacy Dillard, Chelsea Baratz, Antoine Roney and Ravi Coltrane, drummer Chris Beck, trumpeters Freddie Hendrix, Sean Jones, vocalist Niia, trombonist Corey Wilcox, and flutist Nicole Camacho. Join Brandee and Lorens as they talk about Beyonce, harp pedals, and other things. Playlist Brandee Younger “Games" from ...
Continue ReadingHarp Happenings: Brandee Younger And Pacific Harp Project
by Dan Bilawsky
Harp happenings are relatively rare in jazz, but they are there. And when two highly agreeable and strikingly different harp-centric affairs appear on your doorstep around the same time, it really makes you stop and take notice of the instrument, its potential, and the players who are moving it forward and outward in various directions. Both of the releases under discussion here take cues and inspiration from specific styles and/or role models, but neither one is easily categorized. Each of ...
Continue ReadingBrandee Younger 4tet: Live At The Breeding Ground
by Dan Bilawsky
While a list of currently operating notables on nearly any given instrument could fill anywhere from a chapter to a book or two, a rundown of head-turning active jazz harpists might only fill out a very small portion of a leaflet. The most important among them--Latin jazz trailblazer Edmar Castaneda, refined role model Carol Robbins, and wide-ranging experimentalist Zeena Parkins, to name just a few--all manage to say something unique with the instrument, pushing it into places where it wasn't ...
Continue Reading
