Without a doubt, Brandee Younger is one of the most celebrated and unique jazz artists to emerge in the 21st century. Following in the footsteps of pioneering jazz harpists Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby, this Grammy-nominee continues to redefine the harp’s potential in jazz and beyond, with a matchless style that marries this American-invented art form with elements of classical, R&B, electronica, spirituals, hip-hop, and more.

Since her debut with the 2011 EP Prelude, Younger has honored her two main influences while also carving out a critically acclaimed reputation as a composer, improviser, bandleader, and highly sought-after collaborator. In addition to recording the music of Coltrane and Ashby, she has collaborated with John and Alice Coltrane’s son, Ravi, a spellbinding saxophonist, and with iconic figures in the Coltrane legacy, such as the late Pharoah Sanders. Along the way, she has also become a go-to player in popular music, contributing to projects and performances by artists such as Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, the Roots, Common, John Legend, Makaya McCraven, Moses Sumney, and many others. 

Her new album, Gadabout Season, is her eighth as leader, her third for the prestigious Impulse! label. Younger had the unique opportunity to record this album at her home studio in New York City on the harp belonging to Alice Coltrane. 

Gadabout Season finds this NAACP Award Winner and newly-minted Doris Duke Artist Awardee reflective and exploratory on what is her most personal project to date, on which she has written or co-written nearly every composition. “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,” says Brandee Younger. “Musically Gadabout Season is more creative and slightly more cerebral than my other works.”

Read on to learn more about her remarkable career and the making of her latest album.

Gadabout Season is your eighth album as leader, your third for a major label, the esteemed jazz label Impulse! It’s also the first comprised mainly of your compositions. Is this something you approached with confidence or a little trepidation, an album of all originals when you are so well known for your imaginative covers of other people’s tunes?

This is my third release for Impulse!, but my first album for the label was all originals as well. The main difference between that album, titled Somewhere Different, and this one is that this one is much more personal. Somewhere Different mimicked my live set, whereas Gadabout tells a story. These compositions are super personal, and it feels like a diary entry. That said, I don’t feel like I approached the release of it with a ton of confidence, because the vulnerability of it felt really uncomfortable.

The title of your album came from a word-of-the-day email while on tour with your collaborators, bassist-producer Rashaan Carter and drummer Allan Mednard. How did the meaning of “gadabout” – a carefree pleasure-seeker always in motion – inspire the album and its title track?

Well, “gadabout”, the word, actually popped up on a word-of-the-day email as you said, and it happened twice. It became a term we used when we were on the road, really tired, but trying to maximize the time we had—which is not much—between soundchecks, concerts, and those very early lobby calls. It came down to making an intentional decision to do something enjoyable — to experience the food of whatever country we were in, go for a walk, learn a little about the city.

That’s the most tangible way to explain how we saw the gadabout. On a larger scale, it’s about making an intentional effort to find joy and silver linings along life’s journey. Life sometimes takes dips, and it takes a lot of effort and intention to be happy. So, it’s just an intentional way of finding joy.

“Reflection Eternal” mirrors one of your biggest influences, the pioneering jazz harpist Alice Coltrane. How has she influenced your musical vision, both as an improviser and now as a composer? Please tell the story of how you came into the possession of her harp, the instrument with which you recorded this album?

Alice Coltrane has undoubtedly influenced my musical vision as an improviser. Hearing her music helped me hear the harp in a completely different way. The first time I heard the harp in the context of a rhythm section was on her composition “Blue Nile”, and I’d never heard a harp sound so soulful and swing through a blues like that. It really changed the game for me.

As a composer, she had a profound influence on me, as I didn’t study composition in school. I was a classical harp major for both undergrad and graduate degrees. So, when it came time for me to start writing my own music, the first thing I did was mirror one of her compositions. That’s how I got my toes wet in terms of writing music.

Now, about her harp — it’s really special. After she passed away, I began to play with her son, Ravi Coltrane. He “discovered” me, as he calls it, and invited me to play for her memorial in 2007 at St. John the Divine Cathedral. That began a wonderful working and mentorship relationship, where I learned a great deal as a musician and as a bandleader.

Over the years, I would always ask about the harp. Ravi would say, “I have the piano, my sister has the harp.” His sister Michelle lives in California, and we’re here in New York City. I finally got the opportunity to play it for a Red Bull event in California some years back, and that was amazing.

In what we’ve been calling the “Year of Alice,” with so many events — the exhibition at the Hammer Museum, the concert at Carnegie Hall — we wanted the harp to be part of this celebration. We got it restored, and it had its “debut” at the Detroit Jazz Festival. After that, we had the harp shipped to New York, and it arrived just in time as I was recording my album. I recorded the album at home, so I had the time to get up in the morning, practice on it, and find my own voice on her instrument. This made it special and enabled me to execute the music from a personal place.

“Breaking Point” is one of my favorites on the album, a fusion of Debussy’s pastel chord voicings and then a driving, detective movie beat with cool electronic touches that sound like backward looping. How did this track come about?  

Oh my gosh, that composition came from a place of anger! I was studying some harp competition repertoire at the time for my students, and there was this one part of a piece that I really loved and held onto. But what I wanted this piece to do was evoke a sense of discomfort and anxiety. It’s not in an even time meter — I didn’t even write a time meter! I wrote the bassline first and then added the harp part on top.

Rashaan is responsible for the electronic touches. He added them to the whole album. I didn’t want it to be too electronic. I just wanted little hints of what I’d do in a live performance, since I use a delay pedal, but he really had fun with it, and I’m so glad you like it.

“Surrender” is a ballad you wrote for and which features one of your frequent collaborators, pianist Courtney Bryan. How did Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols” inspire this tune, which you saw has a “church spirit?” 

Well, first of all, I called Courtney Bryan because whenever Courtney and I play, there’s always church involved, regardless of where we’re playing! We grew up in similar church backgrounds. I’m Baptist, and we have a loud church, LOL. So, it’s quite ironic that the piece inspiring this one was absolutely not a Black church, but the complete opposite experience.

As a harpist, one of the most popular pieces we play is Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols”. It’s traditionally performed in a cathedral with a children’s choir — just harp and these pure voices resonating with the high steeples of the cathedral. Imagine how pure that sounds! That’s what I aimed for in writing this. I wanted it to be still. Even in the beginning, I’m not rolling the chords. I wanted it to begin with almost a stoic quality, and if you want to go searching, the Britten piece that inspired it is the second movement of “A Ceremony of Carols”, and it’s titled “There Is No Rose”.

Once again, you traverse a diverse range of styles and moods on Gadabout Season, from jazz and classic to R&B, hip-hop, gospel, and even subtle electronica. Do you think this fusion of styles is where jazz as a whole is heading?

I think the fusion of multiple styles is a part of where jazz is heading. Jazz has always incorporated multiple styles of music, but it has also been the source of many styles. Nothing’s too foreign. Those elements have always been present, but different artists choose to emphasize different aspects. So, it’s a natural evolution, and it’s exciting to see where it all goes!

The album’s final track, “Discernment,” has a kind of psychedelic haze. What’s the story behind this track, one which is a real showpiece for saxophonist Josh Johnson and another frequent collaborator, Meshell Ndegeocello?

To clarify, Meshell Ndegeocello isn’t actually on this track, but she suggested I add Josh Johnson to it. Rashaan Carter created the track. He took a sample of something I played and built the foundation from that. Then the three of us — Rashaan, Allan, and I — got together in the studio and played over it. After that, I sent it to Meshell for her opinion, and she just said, “Call Josh, call Josh.” It’s funny, because once everything was done and she listened to the track, she just said, “You’re welcome,” and walked away. Haha!!

Like some of your earlier albums, you manage to record this and achieve excellent sound quality, thanks to a studio setup in your apartment. Do you find recording at home an easier way to work?

Absolutely. Recording at home allows me to move at my own pace, which is really important for a project like this, one where I wanted to be intentional with every sound. It gave me time to experiment and to sit with the music without the pressure of watching the clock, but also without any additional people around. It was just the three of us (and special guests) without any engineers, agents, etc. I’ve always done my overdubs at home, but this was the first time recording with the full band in my space. It was a learning experience, but also a freeing one, and I think that ease and comfort come through in the final sound.

Your prior release, 2023’s Brand New Life, was a tribute to another of your significant influences, Dorothy Ashby. Tell us a bit about what Ashby meant to you and how it was covering some of her great moments on record, including “If It’s Magic”, the Stevie Wonder classic on which she played.

Dorothy Ashby was probably the most prolific jazz harpist to date. She had an extensive body of work, yet she was often underappreciated both as a harpist and as a musician. Covering “If It’s Magic” was special. I heard a bootleg of her playing it solo in the early 1980s at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, and that’s where my version came from. It was a way to honor her influence and bring some of her magic to life.

While this is a tribute to Ashby, it takes some fun directions, such as the reggae-influenced “Dust”, featuring Meshell Ndegeocello, and the hip-hop flavored “Livin’ and Lovin’ in My Own Way”, featuring Pete Rock. Was this a premeditated plan to give Dorothy’s work a more contemporary sheen?

Yes, it was intentional, but it wasn’t just about making her work sound more contemporary. It was about connecting with artists who shared a special kinship with her, like Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, and Meshell Ndegeocello. Both Pete Rock and 9th Wonder sampled her music, and 9th Wonder discovered her through a sample from Pete Rock. Meshell was also a big fan of hers. So, it was about honoring that connection.

When I recorded these pieces, I didn’t want to play them the way she would have. I played all the music through my own lens, making sure I respected her legacy. For example, the instrumentation was intentional. You hear vibraphone, you hear flute—those are instruments she used. I just recorded it in a way that felt like me.

The title track, featuring vocalist Mumu Fresh, “Brand New Life”, is representative of how you are adding a celestial spin to what I would call an old-school R&B slow jam. Is this a style of music that you were drawn to in your youth?

This answer is a hard yes! My parents were listening to old-school R&B. They met at Howard University in the 1970s, so they were literally children of that era. You definitely hit the nail right on the head.

You were the first African-American woman nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for “Beautiful Is Black” from your 2021 album, Somewhere Different. What was it like receiving this honor? The album also has a track called “Olivia Benson”, the central character from the TV show Law & Order: SVU. Are you a fan of the show, and have you heard from the actress who portrays her, Mariska Hargitay?

Yes, I was the first woman nominated in that category, and it was really special. I was surprised and shocked, because it’s not like Black women don’t write music! It hit me that people often mistake me for a singer, and while I love singers, Black women can do everything. It was a little disappointing that it took this long for a Black woman to be nominated in that category, but it was indeed an honor.

As for “Olivia Benson” from my last album, I am a huge SVU fan. I haven’t heard from Mariska Hargitay, but Danny Pino, who played Detective Amaro, does follow me on Instagram!

One of my favorite albums of yours is the one you recorded at home with bassist Dezron Douglas during the COVID-19 pandemic, Force Majeure. It’s super charming the way you feature little bits of dialogue and conversation before and as you’re recording. So, were you sending a message, or just coping, with the selections on it, the wonderfully charming cover of “The Creator Has a Master Plan” and “Toilet Paper Romance?”

The truth is, at first, these all started as live streams. There was no intent to make this an album. It was just a live stream that we quickly realized was touching people at the exact moment they needed it. We often chose songs based on what one of us felt like playing. I like to lean towards tunes that make me feel happy. For example, “Sing” from Sesame Street is probably my favorite on the album. It just makes me feel happy.

“The Creator Has a Master Plan” was special, and because we both had the opportunity to play with Pharoah Sanders, maybe there was a bit of a message there. Then something like “Toilet Paper Romance” was just a literal response to the times—everyone was fighting over toilet paper, and it was absolutely ridiculous!

It’s humbling that so many people are still touched by it today. Every time I’m at a show, people come up to me and tell me how much those sessions helped them during such a dark time.

For those who may not know, how and when did you become interested in music, and start studying the harp? Who were your major artistic influences, maybe ones beyond harpists?

I was always interested in music, and I grew up singing in the church choir, like so many other musicians. I actually started out on flute, but it’s a funny story—I meant to pick the clarinet, but once I opened the case and saw it was a flute, I was too embarrassed to say anything, so I just went with it!

There was a woman at my dad’s job who played harp as a hobby, and my parents asked if they could bring me over to play with her. We played some harp and flute duets, and she mentioned that I might be able to get a scholarship if I learned the harp and became proficient at it. That’s all my parents needed to hear!

Beyond harpists, I’d say French composers like Ravel and Debussy have been huge influences. And, like I mentioned earlier, old-school R&B is a big part of my musical DNA.

Collaboration appears to be a significant motivating force for you, both on your projects and when guesting with others, including mainstream pop artists such as John Legend, Lauryn Hill, and Beyoncé, as well as jazz veterans like Ravi Coltrane, Makaya McCraven, and Christian McBride.   What have been some of your most memorable moments in collaborations? Is there someone you would love to join forces with, but haven’t yet?

I do love collaborations. I’ve always excelled in small ensembles; back in college, I excelled in chamber music way more than orchestra. I love being able to contribute a little harp love to different styles of music. It’s also special when you get to collaborate with people who are close to you. Makaya McCraven is someone I’ve known for years, and the Alice Coltrane concert we did at Carnegie Hall felt like a family affair.

One of my most memorable moments? Say what you may about Ms. Lauryn Hill, but being able to play some of those hits with her on stage is a feeling like no other. 

Jazz singer José James has just released 1978: Revenge of the Dragon, his 13th studio recording in a career that has swung dramatically from relatively “straight ahead” jazz (his third Blue Note album was a tribute to Billie Holiday) to groove-based music, including a recent tribute to a different singer: Erykah Badu. It is his second consecutive recording, based at least in part on the music made in the year of his birth.

José James explains in this interview that “I still want to be known as a jazz singer, one who can do it all.” His insinuating baritone sound has a rich set of shades and overtones that any jazz singer should envy. However, James’ music arguably came alive on his fourth recording, No Beginning No End, recorded in 2013 with many soulful collaborators, including the jazz-new soul keyboard innovator Robert Glasper, bassist and producer Pino Palladino, and jazz and hip-hop drummer Chris Dave. Released on Blue Note, this recording was the most sophisticated and pleasurable of its decade, and it found a recipe for creating a blend of jazz, soul, and hip-hop.

In the following dozen years, José James has applied his voice and production to a wide range of music that tells his story: the Holiday and Badu tributes, of course, but also a wealth of original compositions, a Christmas album, and a set of Bill Withers interpretations.

1978: Revenge of the Dragon is among José James’ most intriguing sets and a great place to discover him for the first time. It is uncategorizable: four original songs and four classics from 1978, with each cover song, by the Bee Gees, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, and Herbie Hancock, beyond category. The soul and hip-hop grooves are deep, the rubbery bass lines refuse to quit, and the impressionistic harmonies are straight from a modern jazz recording. Every track puts the leader’s voice in the leading role, seducing, searching, cutting across decades with lyrics that name-check heroes from Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder to Nas.

In conversation, jazz singer José James is literate and a good listener, clearly excited about connecting music to politics, culture, and history.

I just listened to your guest vocal spots with jazz pianist Junior Mance from his 2007 live album. The sound and energy you have in 2025 were already present on those tracks. Your jazz skills make you a canny singer and a sophisticated songwriter, but your core musical identity seems closer to Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Gil Scott-Heron, and Bill Withers. Do you hear a consistent voice in your work? How do you approach being a “jazz artist” who perhaps isn’t creating music that is “jazz”?

I look for freshness in everything I do. I love the jazz tradition. I loved working with [jazz drummer] Chico Hamilton and Junior Mance, who were both my teachers at the New School. They contained a depth of knowledge, the stories they would tell about working with Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Joe Williams, and Charlie Parker — to name just a few — were incredible. I think there’s no way to move forward in music without going deeper into the past. You have to understand why Louis Armstrong was such an innovator and why Bessie Smith was the biggest black entertainer of her time.

Jazz was never a small room for me. Jazz is a template or blueprint you learn to use to do whatever you want. I relate to someone like Miles Davis. He style-hopped, too, but his sound remained consistent from when he met Charlie Parker until he was doing electronic stuff in the 1980s.

The problem of being labeled a “jazz singer” is considerable. People want you to record standards (and you have), but it is not easy to advance the art or to express yourself beyond tradition. You remind me of an artist you have worked with: Becca Stevens. You both have a knack for incorporating a jazz attitude into adventurous music that bends other styles into something creative. 

Becca was in the same class as me at the New School. Jazz school is a huge umbrella for everything but classical music. I still want to be known as a jazz singer who can do it all. I think jazz singers are historically known for doing one or two things very well, but I try to be expansive. I would look at George Benson as an artist and a guitarist, and he could go from his Wes Montgomery stuff to singing and playing like an R&B crooner on his version of “On Broadway”.

You were born in 1978, but it seems interesting to you for other reasons. That year was filled with musical turning points (the dominance of disco, the recent birth of hip-hop) as well as being a time of transition from an era of protest to the Reagan era. Talk about the salience of that year in framing musical projects for you.

Exactly, you get it. 1978 came at a culture-defining moment. Politically, we had recently withdrawn from the Vietnam War and were grappling with women’s liberation. My mom, who raised me, was a staunch feminist who had me door-knocking in our Minnesota neighborhood. Musically, disco was everywhere. There was a musical opening to other cultures. The US had previously heard world music as something other, some exotic, but now you had someone like Bob Marley and the Wailers talking about global politics while selling millions of records.

At the same time, you have David Byrne and punk rock, and you still had people like Billy Joel, Elton John, and James Taylor working and hitting new heights. I’m fascinated by all of this music, and it all had things in common. People still recorded in the studio and often in the same studio with the same musicians, who shifted from style to style.

You have four intriguing covers here: Michael Jackson’s hit “Rock with You” from his first solo album Off the Wall; the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You,” which making rock fans heard as a disco song; “Love You Inside and Out” from the Bee Gees, who were disco stars after the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album; and “I Thought It Was You” where Herbie Hancock used a vocoder to continue his experiments with jazz in pop music. Talk about choosing to interpret those songs.

To me, these songs are like a prism of disco. In 1978, disco was king, and there was no escaping it. Even if you weren’t doing it, you were reacting to it. All four of these artists were grappling with disco. You can hear an A&R man saying, “Herbie, we gotta get into the disco thing.” These four songs each deal with disco in a different way. 

Michael was uptown at Studio 54, hanging with that subset of New York, the uptown glamour of it. The Rolling Stones are in New York, but they are going for this gritty downtown scene that has an edge to it and keep it rock ‘n’ roll. People thought that the Rolling Stones’ career was over, and Some Girls was a comeback album that showed them incorporating this new style that was so popular, but in their own way.

The Bee Gees had already had huge success with disco, but it was with this album that they cracked into Black radio. Herbie, who hadn’t yet made “Rockit”, was showing jazz musicians how to incorporate disco. Without this music, there would be no Robert Glasper Black Radio, no Erykah Badu, no J Dilla, and no Madlib. They were all moving in different spaces, but it’s all great music.

“Last Call at the Mudd Club” and “Tokyo Daydream” sound like classic disco songs in their groove, but they have those mysterious chords that suggest the approach of Quincy Jones, taking songs into jazz territory. Of course, he was the producer of the original “Rock with You.”

Absolutely. I was trying to evoke that Quincy Jones formula of 1978. Off the Wall was really his album; he picked all the tunes and musicians. Quincy’s formula, and no one did it better, allowed him to put jazz on top of any other style. That’s what Stevie Wonder did as well, and that’s what Al Green did. I think it’s an important approach because you’re meeting your audience at the highest level. You’re not dumbing anything down, but you’re not overcomplicating it either. You’re saying that the music can be a bit harmonically richer and still connect.

“They Sleep, We Grind” has the most contemporary sound on your new album, with those off-kilter moments built into the groove, suggesting up-to-the-minute hip-hop, but also the soul of 1978.

My Erykah Badu project influenced me a lot. I think she is one of the greatest living artists of my generation, and I don’t think she has entirely gotten her due. I enjoyed getting inside her head. This track is my nod to her and great hip-hop producers like J Dilla, Prince Paul, and Madlib. They had all the jazz records and knew all these beats and samples. I wanted to pay tribute to them and Erykah. This is the contemporary space where that 1970s music ended up as it was transformed over time.

I assume that you were also heavily influenced by Prince. You are from his hometown, and he was also a brilliant chameleon like Miles Davis.

DJ culture and crate-digging culture have been huge in my life. DJs listen to music differently from other musicians and singers. It’s important to have that perspective and feel that all that music is available. I discovered jazz through hip-hop, through samples. It was like time travel to listen to albums by De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, and Beastie Boys. Loving that music made me feel that jazz wasn’t old. It was like a beautiful bookshelf where you could just pull something out and read anything.

And his first album came out in 1978!

I can’t overstate his influence on me, musically and otherwise. To grow up in the same extremely segregated and extremely racist city as Prince, who looked like me, whose dad was also a Black jazz musician, it was important. Michael Jackson was king as I was growing up, and I even got to see him in Minneapolis on the Bad tour when I was ten, but to know that there was another artist going toe-to-toe with Michael who had so much in common with me? That gave me permission to be myself as a musician and a person.

Musically, Prince claimed every genre, and he produced, wrote the music, played so many instruments, and sang on every song to the highest level. To me, he will always be the GOAT, the legend. He is unstoppable. I wish I had met him!

You are from Minneapolis and spent vital years in New York. But now you live in Los Angeles. Tell us about the contrast and the rising importance of the Los Angeles scene.

The scene is wherever the artists are. I lived in London for two years and witnessed the birth and rise of dubstep, and that was one of the most musically exciting times of my life. Being present for that made you feel how someone might have felt about witnessing Coltrane at the Vanguard. That’s why I’m not surprised by this wave of London musicians, because they grew up listening to electronic music.

The West Coast has a different feeling from New York. LA gives off the vibe of having something to prove relative to New York, and I love that underdog quality. Terrace Martin and Kamasi Washington are obviously huge influences on the new generation out here. I think right now, pound for pound, the LA scene is incredibly strong relative to New York. In New York, you practice and then you go out to play in a club. In Los Angeles, you’re either going to the studio or thinking about soundtrack work or composing. That is a different way of expanding yourself. LA musicians tend to be more expansive in that way; they are scoring films and thinking cinematically versus the bandstand. That’s a cool perspective.

Speaking of Terrace Martin and Kamasi Washington, let’s talk about two great saxophonists who appear on 1978: Revenge of the Dragon. “Love You Inside and Out” gives us a fat tenor saxophone solo from Ben Wendel, and young Ebban Dorsey sounds great on “I Thought It Was You”. What does a young improviser in this tradition bring to your music that older players might not?

Ebban Dorsey is undeniable. Her talent is once-in-a-generation. I’ve heard a lot of horn players, but I really hear it in her. What immediately struck me about Ebban was her tone, that sound. Her conception is light years beyond her age. She was 18 when I first heard her, and when someone is that good at that age, you just feel that there’s something ancestral there. She has an ease and fluidity with the art form that is incredible.

She is the first sax player I’ve heard who is post-Terrace Martin. She is coming from players who are rooted in jazz but whose playing perhaps is not jazz per se, and she is going beyond that. I find it very cool. Her first recorded solo is on my Erykah Badu album. It was one take, and she is so unafraid to go in any direction. Someone older might think really hard about something before doing it, but she just jumps in and knows she is part of something bigger.

She is so humble. She was so excited to meet Ben Wendel on this session!