Brandee Younger - Gadabout Season (2025)

In jazz, few instruments possess as much character, imagination, and untamed spirit as the harp. And it's impossible to talk about jazz harp without honoring the trailblazing Dorothy Ashby (1932–1986), who brought along her 47 strings into the realms of bop and soul, forever changing the instrument's role in the genre. Long inspired to pay tribute to Ashby (and to the other towering figure of the jazz harp, Alice Coltrane), Brandee Younger has been expanding the instrument's rhythmic range and expressive fluidity since the early 2010s. With Gadabout Season, her third album on the Impulse! label, the New York native reaffirms her brilliance as both a colourist and, above all, a visionary composer. "This writing process forced me to be completely honest. I'm not hiding behind someone else's work." With this mindset, Younger has crafted what she considers to be her most personal record to date: "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. Musically, Gadabout Season is more creative and slightly more cerebral than my other works." With the help of her trusted collaborators, bassist Rashaan Carter and drummer Allan Mednard, along with distinguished guests like vibraphonist Joel Ross, drummer Makaya McCraven and multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings, Younger alternates between spirituality and sensuality, even going so far as to venture into Afrofuturism and the avant-garde on the exquisitely hypnotic "Breaking Point." By the time the final notes of the closing piece, "Discernment," fade into silence, Younger’s stature as one of the defining voices in the lineage of jazz harp is once again unmistakably affirmed.

TRACKLIST

1. Brandee Younger - Reckoning
2. Brandee Younger - End Means
3. Brandee Younger - Gadabout Season
4. Brandee Younger - Breaking Point
5. Brandee Younger - Reflection Eternal
6. Brandee Younger - New Pinnacle
7. Brandee Younger - Surrender
8. Brandee Younger - BBL
9. Brandee Younger - Unswept Corners
10. Brandee Younger - Discernment