Only a few harpists have been able to fit the classically-associated harp into the jazz round hole. Dorothy Ashby started the ball rolling back in the 50s with some hip albums with Frank Wess on flute, and Carol Robbins does some nice chamber work these days. Judging Brandee Younger by the sounds of this gig from June of 2014, you could make a good bet that she’s trying to take the harp to the next level of existence.
On this inspiring and sophisticated delivery of post bop material, Younger teams up with Dezron Douglas/b, EJ Strickland/dr, Chelsea Baratz/ts and Stacy Dillard/ss for material that includes her own originals with tunes associated with the heavenly strings. Alice Coltrane’s “Blue Nile” is filled with silt as Younger mixes guitar and piano thought processes on her chords and solos. Her reading of Dorothy Ashby material, both “Wax and Wane” and “Games” have a fiery intensity as well as glorious majesty, while Baratz and Dillard supply some competitive muscle with their respective saxes. Younger’s own “Respected Destroyer” combines lyricism with fervency as she plucks, bends and strums the strings to the lithe yet assertive support by the pianoless support team. This is exciting music that looks forward without being discordant, a tough combo these days.