Brandee Younger

“is a groundbreaking harpist whose genre-defying sound fuses the soul of spiritual jazz with the rhythms of R&B and the edge of hip-hop. A GRAMMY nominee and NAACP Image Award winner, she brings a radiant, expressive energy to every performance—balancing meditative beauty with bold innovation. Her playing is both reverent and revolutionary, carrying the torch of legends like Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby while unmistakably carving her own path.

Her newest album, Gadabout Season (Impulse!, 2025), is her most personal project to date—a reflective, emotionally rich body of work written in response to joy, challenge, and discovery. Crafted in collaboration with longtime bandmates Rashaan Carter and Allan Mednard, and featuring guests like Shabaka, Courtney Bryan, and Josh Johnson, the album explores extended harp techniques and Afrofuturist textures that push her artistry forward.

Younger’s career bridges worlds. She’s performed with jazz greats like Ravi Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders and recorded with icons such as Beyoncé, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, and The Roots. Her music has earned praise from The New York Times, Essence, Billboard, and The New Yorker, which described her as “as cogent on hip-hop and R&B albums as she is set against classical and jazz backdrops.”

Raised on Long Island and classically trained, Younger’s life changed the day she discovered Alice Coltrane. Inspired by Coltrane’s spiritual intensity and power, she found purpose in lifting the harp’s profile in jazz. Today, she teaches at NYU and The New School, continues to tour globally, and remains one of the most important and inspiring voices in modern music.