Brandee Younger
Among the most celebrated jazz artists to emerge in the 21st century, Brandee Younger is a harpist, composer and bandleader whose music connects spiritual jazz and classical training to the rhythmic soulfulness of R&B and hip-hop. She grew up on Long Island, where she sang gospel, studied the harp classically and became enamored of both hip-hop and the vintage soul that rap producers sampled. When Younger was a teenager, her father introduced her to Alice Coltrane’s music — a transformative moment that all but defined her life’s journey.

In Coltrane and, later, Dorothy Ashby, Younger saw two strong, empowering Black women whose brilliance on the harp inspired Younger to stake her own claim on jazz history. Over the past two decades, Younger has honored these two artistic heroines while carving a singular path. On top of recording their music, she has collaborated with John and Alice Coltrane’s son Ravi, a spellbinding saxophonist, and with iconic figures in the Coltrane legacy, like the late Pharoah Sanders. Along the way, she’s also become a go-to player in popular music, contributing to projects and performances by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, the Roots, Common, John Legend and many others. As the New Yorker wrote, “Her radiant playing is as cogent on hip-hop and R&B albums as it is set against classical and jazz backdrops.”

Her first LP for the storied Impulse! Records label — a.k.a. The House That Trane Built — was 2021’s “Somewhere Different”. A track from that album, “Beautiful Is Black,” earned Younger a Grammy nomination in the Best Instrumental Composition category, making her the first Black female solo artist to achieve this. Two years later, on “Brand New Life”, Younger revitalized newly discovered Ashby compositions, and that LP won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. “Gadabout Season”, released in 2025, is a more reflective and personal work focusing on Younger’s inimitable original music. In addition to her non-stop performance schedule, Younger is a dedicated educator, teaching on the faculties of New York University and the New School.