[music]

Alison Stewart: You are listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Thanks for spending part of your day with us. Whether you're listening on the radio, live streaming, or on demand, I'm really grateful you're here. On the show today, encore presentations of some of our favorite in-studio performances. We'll hear from popular singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, as well as the co-founders of the bands The Heavy Heavy and The Revivalists. That's in our future, but let's get this started with an hour dedicated to two musical Brandys: singer-songwriter Brandy Clark and harpist Brandee Younger.

[music]

Alison Stewart: Jazz harpist Brandee Younger's album Brand New Life is heavily inspired by one of the great harpists of the 20th century, Dorothy Ashby. Ashby's 1968 album Afro-Harping is a cult classic, and she also contributed to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. Brandee Younger's album includes a Dorothy Ashby cover, as well as original songs with collaborators like Pete Rock and 9th Wonder, combining jazz, classical harp, and more. Around the album's release in April, Brandee Younger joined me in-studio for a special live performance. I started by asking her about the harp she had right in front of her.

Brandee Younger: Harpists end up kind of with a little problem, a little addiction problem. This is not my harp; this is a loaner. This is an Italian brand called Salvi, but they have a base here in Chicago - well, here in the states of Chicago - and also Lyon & Healy harps. I've got two harps, maybe three harps, at home of different brands, and I don't own this brand. When I had the opportunity to borrow it, I jumped on it, and it's really beautiful. It's called the Salvi Diva.

Alison Stewart: Salvi Diva, love it. How does it feel different than what you usually play?

Brandee Younger: Well, for one, every tree is different. Which sounds silly, but you're going to get a different sound and a different feel. This is newer, so the strings are tight. I have to use my muscles in a different way, but every harp is different. The spacing is different, the tension is different.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about the album. Where did the idea to make an album celebrating Dorothy Ashby come about?

Brandee Younger: I've spent years and years really just trying to amplify the names of both Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. A lot of people do know Alice Coltrane's name, whether it's because of John Coltrane or whatever the case may be. A lot of people don't know Dorothy Ashby's name. When I had the opportunity to-- I play their music literally, every set. If you come to my concert, you're not going to really leave without hearing something, whether it's arranged by them or composed by them. This I had in mind for actually a number of years, but how to actually make it happen was a big question mark.

Alison Stewart: What was the first step to making it actually happen?

Brandee Younger: I had the goods, but I didn't know conceptually how were we going to pull this off? I talked to Makaya McCraven about the project. I told him I wanted to do it. He goes, "Oh, I want to be a part of it." Little did he know he would end up producing the whole thing. [laughter] You're a part of it all right. We ended up recording it in his house in Chicago, the bass being a harp, bass, and drums right there in his home studio. For me, that's very comfortable. I like to be at home. I like to record at home. You don't feel the coldness of the studio and the rushed, "Hurry up. We're on the clock." Just doing it in that comfortable setting with friends really made all the difference.

Alison Stewart: What is unique about Dorothy Ashby's work? About her talent?

Brandee Younger: She was definitely ahead of her time. Her very first recording was a straight-ahead jazz record. The great Frank Wess helped her get that record deal for that. Her first few records were straight-ahead. Then as you started to venture into the mid to late '60s, you'll hear her sound really changing and evolving into what was present at the time. That really attracted me as a kid. I always wanted to play what was on the radio, and that's what she was doing. If a movie came out, she was playing the soundtrack. The Windmills of Your Mind, The Thomas Crown Affair. Little Sunflower by Freddie Hubbard. If it was current, she was playing it.

To me, that's what I wanted to do. Of course, my timing was different. [chuckles] I'm listening to Toni Braxton, to Maxwell. I want to play what I'm hearing on BLS when that was a thing. Yes, she was doing it.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Brandee Younger. The new album is called Brand New Life. The opening song, You're A Girl For One Man Only, is an Ashby original that was never recorded, and you put your own spin on it, your own take on it. How did you build on it?

Brandee Younger: This piece of music read as a very traditional standard. In the studio, as we're working through it, Makaya said, "You know what? Let's just loop the beginning." I laughed because looping the beginning of it, it was sort of like we're playing live what he would have created in post-production.

Alison Stewart: Cool.

Brandee Younger: We got through the whole tune, ha, but it sounds like it was made later.

Alison Stewart: Let's take a listen.

[MUSIC - Brandee Younger: You're A Girl For One Man Only]

Alison Stewart: That is from the album Brand New Life. My guest is Brandee Younger. When you were thinking about the mix of songs that you wanted on this album, whether it be original compositions by Ashby or songs that she was well known for, how did you think about the mix?

Brandee Younger: I really wanted the big picture to honor her, but also have my voice in it because it's 2023, or 2022 at the time. I really was trying to be careful about not recreating what she would have created then. That was really my main goal.

Alison Stewart: What do you see is the connection between harp and Hip Hop? Because Pete Rock's on the record, Pete Rock is sampled, Dorothy Ashby?

Brandee Younger: Yes. In '92, Pete Rock was the first producer I know of to sample Dorothy Ashby. Between Pete Rock, J Dilla, Flying Lotus, DJ Premier, Kanye West, you hear her samples on so many classic Hip Hop records, and it's the beat. [chuckles] It's the beat from those-- Most of the songs that were sampled were her records that were on the Cadet label, recorded in Chicago, super funky, really big bass and drums.

Alison Stewart: Brandee, can we have you perform another song?

Brandee Younger: Oh, yes. This is Unrest. This was an original composition that I wrote during the height of the pandemic as protests were coming down the street.

Alison Stewart: Let's hear Brandee Younger.

[MUSIC - Brandee Younger: Unrest]

Alison Stewart: That was Brandee Younger. After people get your record and they learn all about Dorothy Ashby and they hear your interpretations, what's another Dorothy Ashby track that's not on your record that you love people to check out?

Brandee Younger: I love the Essence of Sapphire and I love Games. Games is on the album Afro-Harping.

Alison Stewart: Okay. Would you just play us out? We have only a couple of minutes left and just would love for our audience to hear a little more of you.

Brandee Younger: Oh my gosh, yes. You want a whole song or a snippet?

Alison Stewart: Snippet.

Brandee Younger: Okay. [laughter] This is a snippet of You're A Girl, so you'll hear what I did in the studio without the bass and drums.

[MUSIC - Brandee Younger: You're A Girl For One Man Only]

Alison Stewart: That was harpist Brandee Younger performing music from her album Brand New Life.

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