Brandee Younger - Brand New Life

2023 release

Brand New Life is produced by multi-hyphenate drummer and composer Makaya Mccraven, and is Younger’s celebration of Dorothy Ashby, who is widely credited with establishing the harp’s place in contemporary music. In an all-too-brief life, she featured the traditionally classical instrument on groundbreaking albums such as Afro-Harping and Dorothy’s Harp, released in 1968 and 1969 respectively.

Ashby’s body of work has continued to be influential in the decades since her death at the age of 53, in 1986. It’s been extensively sampled and transposed across jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, by such artists as Jay-Z, J. Dilla, Pete Rock, and Flying Lotus.

Brand New Life brings together the past and the present, combining Younger’s original music with select reinterpretations of Ashby’s work, and the latter’s previously-unrecorded compositions. Younger was first introduced to Ashby via the many hip-hop artists who sampled her music, and she now collaborates with some of those very artists on the new album, including Pete Rock and 9th Wonder. The album also has notable contributions by Meshell N’degeocello, Mumu Fresh, and production by drummer and composer Makaya McCraven.

“Creating this album has been a longtime dream of mine,” says Younger. “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.”