Brandee Younger at Dazzle

Brandee Younger
Dazzle
Denver, CO
October 28, 2025

The jazz harp is an unusual concept. The upside is that it makes the player instantly stand out because of the dearth of jazz harpists. A potential downside is that jazz fans may turn away, thinking a harp cannot possibly fit into jazz. Of course, those with a bit of knowledge of jazz history know that this ground has already been broken by Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby. Coltrane was already established as a significant jazz player through her piano work with her famous husband's band in the years before his death, before she took up the harp and started to incorporate it into her solo work. Ashby, on the other hand, came up as a harpist and paid her proverbial dues for many years before the jazz audience began to take her seriously.

Brandee Younger is now well established on the jazz scene. After releasing five albums on various small and independent labels from 2011 to 2020, she switched to Impulse! in 2021 and recently released her third album on that label, Gadabout Season (Impulse!, 2025). She maintains a busy touring schedule and continues her long teaching career.

Tuesday night at Dazzle Jazz, Younger brought her trio featuring Rashaan Carter on bass and Kweku Sumbry on drums. Carter has been with Younger for several years and served as producer of Gadabout Season. Sumbry is a recent arrival, replacing Allan Mednard, who had toured with Younger for a few years and played drums on Gadabout Season. He fit right in, however, tastefully comping but also providing contrast, sometimes expected, sometimes not. Obviously a stickler for just the right sound, he drew from an arsenal of about 20 different types of drumsticks and often tuned his drumhead with a wrench while simultaneously playing them.

Younger's program Tuesday evening was a mix of originals and covers of tunes written by her foremothers. She started the set with an Alice Coltrane composition, "Rama, Rama." This set the tone for the evening with Younger's dreamy, ethereal harp in counterpoint to the more down-to-earth bass and drums of the driving rhythm section. The second selection was her original, "Unrest, Movements 1 and 2." Designating parts of a jazz tune as "Movements" may seem a little highfalutin, but Younger is classically trained and has spent considerable time playing in symphonies. In any event, "Movement 1" was a harp solo and the rest of the band joined in on "Movement 2."

Younger was an amiable host, chatting with the audience between every song, introducing the songs and sometimes teasing her bandmates, especially Carter, whom she has worked with for many years. She explained her love of the music of Alice Coltrane and Ashby throughout the evening. For the third song of the set, she went back to Coltrane for "Turiya and Ramakrishna," a tune from the album Ptad, the El Daoud (Impulse!, 1970). Coltrane's work emphasized the spiritual nature of music and that shone through Younger's playing. The harp is a natural conduit for spiritual music because of its heavenly tone and association in the popular consciousness of angelic harp choirs.

Ashby's tune, "Games," came next. Younger explained how this song was on Ashby's album Afro Harping (Cadet, 1968), which is one of the most sampled albums for hip hop producers. This one featured a bass line quote by Carter from Stevie Wonder's "Too High."

For the second half of the set, Younger dove into songs from Gadabout Season, beginning with "End Means." Next was another original, "BBL." That is an abbreviation that can mean a couple of different things. One is "Brazilian Butt Lift." The other is "Be Back Later," which is probably what Younger had in mind. She said this song was inspired by annoying people who refuse to let you finish your sentence before interrupting. Here, Younger ran into a limitation of the harp. She explained that it is an angry song, but getting an angry sound out of a harp is like expecting a fistfight between SpongeBob and Olaf: not gonna happen! Younger tried, however, playing short staccato notes, but still, angels on high were nevertheless lurking.

Younger's work has not gone unnoticed. She recently received the prestigious Doris Duke Award in recognition of her work "revolutionizing the harp's role in modern music."

Another Younger/Alice Coltrane connection is that Younger recorded Gadabout Season on Coltrane's harp. It had been sitting in storage for many years, but through Younger's connection with Coltrane's son, Ravi, Younger arranged to play it after it was refurbished. By recording the album of her original compositions, Younger simultaneously paid homage to her personal inspiration while setting her own path in the jazz world.

Tuesday night, on her touring harp, Younger covered Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic." Wonder recruited Ashby to play the harp on the original recording on Songs in the Key of Life (Tamla, 1976). Younger related the story of how she recently played that song with Wonder himself. "Unswept Corners" and "Gadabout Season" concluded the set. About the latter, Younger explained that it was meant to be a happy song and a little bit quirky, two attributes that also apply to Younger. And happiness seems to be much more suited to the demeanor of the harp.

Set List

Rama Rama; Unrest, Movements 1&2; Turiya and Ramakrishna; Games; Ends Means; BBL; If It's Magic; Unswept Corners; Gadabout Season.

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