Among the most celebrated jazz artists to emerge in the 21st century, Brandee Younger is a harpist, composer and bandleader whose music connects spiritual jazz and classical training to the rhythmic soulfulness of R&B and hip-hop. She grew up on Long Island, where she sang gospel, studied the harp classically and became enamored with hip-hop and the vintage soul that rap producers sampled. When Younger was a teenager, her father introduced her to Alice Coltrane’s music — a transformative moment in her life’s journey. In Coltrane and, later, Dorothy Ashby, Younger saw two strong, empowering Black women whose brilliance on the harp inspired Younger to stake her own claim on jazz history. Along the way, she has contributed to projects and performances by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, John Legend and many others. Her first LP for Impulse! Records label — a.k.a. The House That Trane Built — was 2021’s Somewhere Different. A track from that album, “Beautiful Is Black,” earned Younger a Grammy nomination in the Best Instrumental Composition category, making her the first Black female solo artist to achieve this. Two years later, on Brand New Life, Younger revitalized newly discovered Ashby compositions, eventually winning the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. Gadabout Season, released in 2025, is a more reflective work focusing on Younger’s inimitable original music.
