Grammy nominated harpist Brandee Younger has introduced a brand new album, Gadabout Season. Produced by bassist Rashaan Carter, the 10-track file options particular company Shabaka, Courtney Bryan, Niia, and Josh Johnson. The title monitor, which options vibraphonist Joel Ross, Makaya McCraven on percussion, and Shabaka on clarinet, is out now. Gadabout Season is Younger’s third album for the legendary Impulse! label and is out in June.
Gababout is a phrase for a carefree pleasure-seeker at all times in movement, pursuing radiance within the midst of battle. “When it came time to write a piece to represent happiness, ‘Gadabout Season’ felt like the perfect title,” says Younger.
“The album reflects the journey—the search for meaning and beauty amid life’s most complex moments, ultimately emerging with a deeper sense of self,” says Younger, who wrote or co-wrote almost each composition. “Musically Gadabout Season is more creative and slightly more cerebral than my other works.”
Here, the self-taught Younger steps into her personal compositional voice, crafting music that blends jazz, classical, R&B, hip-hop, and digital textures. “This writing process forced me to be completely honest,” she says. “I’m not hiding behind someone else’s work.”
Most of the album was written at Younger’s cousin’s peaceable cabin in upstate New York. She later workshopped the songs with Carter and drummer Allan Mednard. Gadabout Season was tracked over a number of months within the second half of 2024 with Carter producing and engineering the album from Younger’s Harlem condo. “I’m used to doing one and done in the studio,” Younger says. “This recording process was slow and intentional, allowing the sound of the album to reveal itself over time and mirroring a journey of discovery.” At the tip of every session, the trio devoted time to sketch out concepts and improvise, which led to the tracks “Reckoning,” “Discernment,” and “End Means.”
Younger’s efficiency on Gadabout Season is knowledgeable by a “life-changing” instrument that entered her life, a harp belonging to the late Alice Coltrane. She turned its custodian in late 2024 after the harp was restored in honor of “The Year of Alice,” a sequence of high-profile releases, occasions, and reveals co-sponsored by Impulse!. “It had to become my own,” she says of changing into snug with the majestic instrument. “This was not my first time playing the harp, but as this new music was unique to me, I had to become one with it at home.”
The pianist-composer, MacArthur Fellow, and frequent Younger collaborator Courtney Bryan seems on “Surrender.” Inspired by Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, “Surrender” summons up that second of “going to the altar and giving all,” says Younger. “To me, this is the most revealing piece on the album. It’s about seeking solace in quiet surrender.” Younger describes one other music, “BBL,” as a “musical confrontation.” “If it had lyrics, it would have an advisory warning,” she says. “I left no room for a civil conversation.”
Younger’s first LP for Impulse! was 2021’s Somewhere Different. A monitor from that album, “Beautiful Is Black,” earned Younger a Grammy nomination within the Best Instrumental Composition class, making her the primary Black feminine solo artist to realize this. 2023’s Brand New Life pays tribute to the Black feminine harpist Dorothy Ashby and received the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. This 12 months, Younger will embark on a sequence of performances later this 12 months, together with stops at Ghent Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, and at New York’s Carnegie Hall alongside Ravi Coltrane.
Order Brandee Younger’s Gadabout Season now.