BRANDEE YOUNGER

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PDX Jazz presents
BRANDEE YOUNGER
The Old Church Concert Hall

Doors 7:00 pm | Show  8:00 pm | ALL AGES

Brandee Younger harp
Rashaan Carter bass
Allan Mednard drums

Members Discount
of $5 per ticket available on Advance Purchase Tickets Only.
Discount not valid on the Day of Show.

“No harpist thus far has been more capable of combining all of the modern harp traditions — from Salzedo, through Dorothy Ashby, through Alice Coltrane — with such strength, grace and commitment.”  The New York Times

A leading voice of the harp, Brandee Younger recently made history at the 2022 Grammy Awards as the first Black female solo artist nominated in the Best Instrumental Composition category for her song “Beautiful Is Black” featuring legendary bassist Ron Carter. The mesmerizing track is from her 2021 critically acclaimed major label debut album, Somewhere Different, that also received a 2022 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Jazz Album – Instrumental.

Over her career Ms. Younger has performed and recorded across countless genres with artists including John Legend, The Roots, Lauryn Hill, Common, Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Ron Carter, and Charlie Haden. Additionally her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the Netflix Concert-Documentary, Beyoncé: Homecoming and in 2019 the tireless musician was selected to perform her original music as a featured performer for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueen’s “Soundtrack of America.”

Ms. Younger’s ability to seamlessly inject the harp into arrangements and venues where it has historically been overlooked is a testament to her deep love for and exemplary command of the instrument. In addition to performing, she is on the teaching artist faculty at New York University and The New School College of Performing Arts in New York City.

Ms. Younger together with bassist Dezron Douglas debuted their Force Majeure duo album (International Anthem) to a Sold Out audience at the 2022 Biamp PDX jazz Festival, and previously as a highlight of the Alice Coltrane tribute at the 2016 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival together with Ravi Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille and Geri Allen. We look forward to welcoming her back to PDX Jazz in celebration of her Brand New Life release (April 7th on Impulse Recordings).

Produced by multi-hyphenate drummer and composer Makaya Mccraven, on Brand New Life, Younger celebrates one of her greatest inspirations, iconic jazz harpist and composer Dorothy Ashby. Ashby is widely credited with having asserted the harp’s place, showcasing the traditionally-classical instrument on her groundbreaking albums Afro-Harping and Dorothy’s Harp. Her unparalleled body of work has continued to be influential for decades and been heavily sampled, transposed across jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, by artists including Jay-Z, J. Dilla, Pete Rock and Flying Lotus.

Brand New Life is a stunning amalgamation of past and present, combining original works from Younger, select reinterpretations of Ashby’s work, and previously-unrecorded Ashby compositions and also includes Meshell N’degeocello, and Mumu Fresh.

The first single, You’re A Girl For One Man Only, is an Ashby composition never before been recorded, the charts of which were only unearthed through Brandee’s lifelong commitment to Ashby’s history. What may have become a jazz standard of 1960s – had it been recorded at the time of it’s conception – now emerges as timeless as ever and is colored with the vibrance of the 21st Century via Makaya McCraven’s trademark cultural synthesizer.