Grammy-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger has launched her new album Brand New Life by way of Impulse! Records. At as soon as a shocking testomony to Younger’s energy as a composer and a outstanding tribute to trailblazing harpist Dorothy Ashby, the album options Pete Rock, ninth Wonder, Mumu Fresh, and extra.
On her second album for Impulse!, Younger pays tribute to the enduring legacy of Dorothy Ashby, whose groundbreaking work introduced the harp to the forefront of in style genres and has influenced generations of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B musicians. Brand New Life sees Younger lend her inimitable expertise to authentic compositions (together with the album’s title observe, an evocative collaboration with singer-activist Mumu Fresh), reworks of iconic items from Ashby’s catalog, and never-before-recorded works by Ashby.
Younger says of her expertise 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 beforehand unrecorded and evocative Ashby composition, “You’re A Girl For One Man Only.” What might have turn out to be a jazz customary of Nineteen Sixties—had it been recorded on the time of its conception—now emerges as timeless as ever and is coloured with the vibrance of the twenty first Century by way of drummer and producer Makaya McCraven’s trademark model.
Younger can be joined on Brand New Life by icons of hip-hop and R&B, lots of whom have been impressed by Ashby themselves. DJ and rapper Pete Rock joins Younger for a robust rework of Ashby’s “Livin’ and Lovin’ in My Own Way,” and likewise accompanied Younger in a dialogue of Ashby’s wealthy musical legacy on Good Morning America. Meanwhile, ninth Wonder provides infectious manufacturing to a brand new interpretation of “The Windmills of Your Mind,” and Meshell N’degeocello contributes dreamy vocals to Younger’s imaginative tackle Ashby’s 1969 observe “Dust.”