[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart, the celebrated jazz harp player Brandee Younger is out with a new album tomorrow. Here's the title track, Brand New Life.

[Brand New Life music]

On her new album, she pays tribute to another Black female harpist and history maker Dorothy Ashby. Ashby landed in the Detroit music scene in the 1950s and is credited with introducing the world of jazz to the harp as more than just a background instrument. She also played in a lot of non-jazz records from Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, to albums from Minnie Riperton, Bill Withers, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Rick James.

Younger's new album features the work of Ashby, as well as original songs and help from some musical colleagues like Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, Meshell Ndegeocello, and productions by Makaya McCraven. Brandee Younger is back with us this time. She has her harp, which is gorgeous. Brandee, welcome back to the show.

Brandee Younger: Thank you so much for having me again. I'm so excited to be here.

Alison Stewart: Tell us about this harp. It's black. It's gold. It's got some beautiful, almost like inlay on it.

Brandee Younger: Harpists end up with a little addiction problem. This is not my harp. This is a loner. This is an Italian brand called Salvi, but they have a base here in the States, in Chicago. Also, Lyon & Healy Harps. I've got two harps, maybe three harps at home, of different brands, and I don't own this brand, so when I have the opportunity to borrow it, I jumped on it, and it's really beautiful. It's called the Salvi Diva.

Alison Stewart: Ooh, Salvi Diva. Love it. How does it feel different than what you usually play?

Brandee Younger: Well, for one, every tree is different, which sounds silly, but you're going to get a different sound and a different feel. This is newer, so the strings are tight. I have to use my muscles in a different way, but every harp is different. The spacing is different. The tension is different.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about the album. Where did the idea to make an album celebrating Dorothy Ashby come about?

Brandee Younger: I've spent years and years really just trying to amplify the names of both Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. A lot of people do know Alice Coltrane's name. Whether it's because of John Coltrane or whatever the case may be. A lot of people don't know Dorothy Ashby's name. When I had the opportunity to-- I play their music literally, every set. If you come to my concert, you're not going to really leave without hearing something. Whether it's arranged by them or composed by them. This I had in mind for actually a number of years, but how to actually make it happen was a big question mark.

Alison Stewart: What was the first step to making it actually happen?

Brandee Younger: I had the goods, but I didn't know conceptually how are we going to pull this off. I talked to Makaya McCraven about the project. I told him I wanted to do it. He goes, "Oh, I want to be a part of it." Little did he know he would end up producing the whole thing [laughs]. "You're a part of it. All right?".

We ended up recording it in his house in Chicago. Harp, bass, and drums, right there in his home studio. For me, that's very comfortable. I like to be at home. I like to record at home. You don't feel the coldness of the studio, and the rush, "Hurry up, we're on the clock." Doing it in that comfortable setting with friends really made all the difference.

Alison Stewart: What is unique about Dorothy Ashby's work, about her talent?

Brandee Younger: She was definitely ahead of her time. Her very first recording was a straight-ahead jazz record. The great Frank West helped her get that record deal for that, and her first few records were straight ahead. Then as you started to venture into the mid-to-late-'60s, you'll hear her sound really changing and evolving into what was present at the time. That really attracted me as a kid.

I always wanted to play what was on the radio, and that's what she was doing. If a movie came out, she was playing the soundtrack, the Windmills of Your Mind from The Thomas Crown Affair, Little Sunflower by Freddie Hubbard. If it was current, she was playing it. To me, that's what I wanted to do. Of course, my timing was different. I'm listening to Toni Braxton, to Maxwell. I want to play what I'm hearing on BLS when that was a thing. Yes, she was doing it.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Brandee Younger. The new album is called Brand New Life. The opening song, You're A Girl For One Man Only is an Ashby original that was never recorded, and you put your own spin on it, your own take on it. How did you build on it?

Brandee Younger: This piece of music read as a very traditional standard. In the studio, as we're working through it, Makaya said, "You know what, let's just loop the beginning." I laughed because looping the beginning of it was like we're playing live, what he would've created in post-production. We got through the whole tune, but it sounds like it was made later.

Alison Stewart: Let's take a listen.

[You're A Girl For One Man Only music]

That is from the album Brand New Life. My guest is Brandee Younger. When you were thinking about the mix of songs that you wanted on this album, whether it be original compositions by Ashby or songs that she was well known for, how did you think about the mix?

Brandee Younger: I really wanted the big picture to honor her, but also have my voice in it, because it's like 2023 or 2022 at the time. I was trying to be careful about not recreating what she would've created then. That was my main goal.

Alison Stewart: What do you see as the connection between harp and hip-hop? Because Pete Rock's on the record, Pete Rock is sampled, Dorothy Ashby.

Brandee Younger: Yes. In '92, Pete Rock is the first producer I know of to sample Dorothy Ashby. If you look at between Pete Rock, J Dilla, Flying Lotus, DJ Premier, Kanye West. You hear her samples on so many classic hip-hop records, and it's the beat from those. These are most of the songs that were sampled were her records that were on the Cadet label recorded in Chicago, super funky, really thick bass and drums.

Alison Stewart: Brandee, can we have you perform another song?

Brandee Younger: Oh, yes. This is Unrest. This was an original composition that I wrote during the height of the pandemic as protests were coming down the street.

Alison Stewart: Let's hear Brandee Younger.

[Unrest music] That was Brandee Younger. Your new album comes out tomorrow. You're going to be performing at Public Records. You're having a record release party. I did want to play a little bit of Dorothy Ashby since we've been talking about her so much. I'm going to play a little snippet of Windmills on your Mind. We can't play your version yet because that doesn't come up till tomorrow, but what would you like people to listen for in this clip?

Brandee Younger: Oh, well, I like the way she plays-- I like the beat. I like the beat.

Alison Stewart: The beat. Let's listen.

[Windmills on your Mind music]

Brandee is right. It's the beat. It's all about the beat. Can you tell us a little bit about the record release party tomorrow?

Brandee Younger: Tomorrow will be at Public Records. Makaya is going to play drums. Rashaan Carter is going to play bass. This is the band who recorded the album.

Alison Stewart: Oh, nice.

Brandee Younger: Yes, I wanted to keep it nice and intimate. We do have one special guest, Tatiana Mayfield, who will be performing the songs on vocals, because there are two songs on the record. Mumu Fresh sing on the record and Meshell Ndegeocello. I'm looking forward to it. It's one of my favorite spaces to play because the sound is so great in that space, and it's not easy to get good sound with harp and drums.

Alison Stewart: After people get your record, and they learn all about Dorothy Ashby, and they hear your interpretations, what's another Dorothy Ashby track, that's not on your record, that you love people to check out?

Brandee Younger: I love the Essence Of Sapphire, and I love Games. Games is on the album Afro Harping.

Alison Stewart: Okay. Would you just play us out? We have only a couple minutes left and just would love for our audience to hear a little more of you.

Brandee Younger: Oh, my gosh, yes. Oh, my gosh.

Alison Stewart: Oh, do you have something or no, or can we just have a snippet--

Brandee Younger: I do. You want a whole song or a snippet?

Alison Stewart: Snippet. Okay. [laughs]

Brandee Younger: This is a snippet of You're A Girl, so you'll hear what I did in the studio without the bass and drums.

[You're A Girl For One Man Only music]

Alison Stewart: Brandee Younger's new album, Brand New Life, is out tomorrow. Brandee, thank you for coming in.

 

Copyright © 2023 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.