You could almost feel the celestial baton being passed on from Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby being passed on to the lovely and gracious Brandee Younger, as she brought the inspiration from players past to create her own sound and style, as delivered before the packed Sun Rose Wednesday Night.
With simpatico support and teamwork from bassist Rashaan Carter and drummer Allan Mednard, Ms. Younger used her 90 minute show to demonstrate what 47 strings can do in the right hands.
Before focusing mostly on material from her upcoming album, Ms. Younger set the tone of the evening by opening with a fluid “New Pinnacle” that had her stings cantering like a gazelle through the trails blazed by Carter and Mednard. A two part “Unrest” mixed fragrant droplets of notes for the intro before the two stable mates dug into to create a rich gallop that had Carter’s bass dancing around Mednard simmering high hat and ride cymbals.
A tip of the hat was given by Younger to her elders, as Alice Coltrane’s “Turiya and Ramakrishna” mixed mystical meditations and a dash of the blues, and a pastoral rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “If It’s Magic” had her tapping into her inner Ashby.
Hints of songs from the album to come gave tasty morsels to the tastebuds, as “BBL” was a tight and tactical conversation that had Carter’s bass getting into funk mode and Mednard’s snappy snares sharing in the undercurrent, while the strings ricochet’d off of Mednard’s high hat of a rivulet on “Moving Target”. The slow jam of “Unswept Corners” evoked mellow 70s “R&B”, while the fun and quirky “Gadabout Season” had Younger’s single note dots and dashes almost flute like in tone and playfulness.
Between songs, Ms. Younger brought the audience into her musical, personal and fashion world, telling the stories behind each songs, and while reminding the Angeleno audience that she’s from Long Island, “I’m rated G”, confirming in the appreciative listeners their thoughts that matched with the title of her closing tune, namely Marvin Gaye’s “I Want More”
Few and far between are the artists who dare to bring the harp into the jazz world, so having Ms. Younger bring the heavenly strings to the City of The Angels was a fitting blessing during this Lent season.
Upcoming shows at The Sun Rose include Chaz Shepherd 04/03, Jazz Symposium Plays Nancy Wilson 04/11, George Brown 04/24 and Eric Wortham 04/26