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LOS ANGELES, CA-
“….Before Terrace took the stage, harpist Brandee Younger offered another example of just how expansive contemporary jazz can be. Her music draws connections between spiritual jazz, classical music, R&B and hip-hop, with Alice Coltrane serving as one of the transformative influences on her musical development. Younger has since become a formidable bandleader in her own right, earning a Grammy nomination for “Beautiful Is Black” and winning the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album for Brand New Life.
Listening to Younger pluck the strings of her harp in the cool summer evening as the sun slowly disappeared behind the hills was a true joy. There was something almost idyllic about the combination of instrument, setting and circumstance. I’ve certainly heard the harp countless times before, but watching Younger work the instrument from only a short distance away gave me a renewed appreciation for just how expressive it can be. In her hands, the harp wasn’t merely delicate or ethereal. She could make it rhythmic and percussive, warm and soulful, or allow individual notes to shimmer and seemingly hang in the evening air.
That versatility also made Younger particularly well suited for an evening devoted to celebrating the continued evolution of jazz. The harp still isn’t an instrument most people immediately associate with the genre, which made watching her command it all the more fascinating. Yet Younger never made its presence feel novel or unusual. Instead, she demonstrated just how naturally the instrument can occupy this musical space, building upon a jazz-harp tradition associated with artists such as Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane while continuing to push its possibilities into her own generation. Younger has specifically cited both Ashby and Coltrane as foundational influences on her development as a jazz harpist.
Her set moved through “BBL,” “UNREST I,” “UNREST II,” “TURIYA & RAMAKRISHNA,” “UNSWEPT CORNERS” and “GADABOUT SEASON,” giving the audience a beautiful introduction to an instrument and an artist capable of sounding both rooted in jazz tradition and entirely contemporary.
And as daylight slowly gave way to the evening, it was difficult to imagine a more fitting prelude to what Terrace Martin was about to do with the music of Miles Davis…”
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