#Brandee Younger

[dustedmagazine]

Amaro Freitas — Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)

Photo by Gelder Tavares

Jazz pianist Amaro Freitas laces his fusion-y jazz with sounds of the rain forest in this expansive outing, infusing fluid reveries of keyboard with tropical rhythm and heat and intimating the sounds of water, birds and insect life. A native of Brazil’s northeastern Pernambuco state, he is as steeped in the music of rain forest peoples like the Sateré Mawé indigenous community as in the jazz canon, and he has strong connections to a global jazz scene, as demonstrated by cameos from Brandee Younger, Jeff Parker and Shabaka Hutchins.  The music slips, sometimes, into soft-focus, new age-y mysticism, but at its best conveys clear-eyed wonder at the heritage human beings are in the process of destroying.

Y’Y proceeds smoothly from one cut to another, so that you are not always sure without looking about exactly where you are in its sequence. Indeed, you could think of it as one long track, flowing majestically downstream like the river that inspired it. Nonetheless, there are scenes with in it, the trebly, altered piano notes that weave through knocks and booms and twitterings in the opening “Mainguari (Encantado da Mata”) one of two cuts dedicated to Amazonian spirits. “Uiara,” the second, sets brief agitated flights of piano against the sound of wood groaning; it sounds like bird song in the midst of rain. The piano becomes more insistent as the cut goes on, hammering and pounding and making staccato chords. It pulses with life, evolving, intertwining, competing life, as abundant as the life in the jungle.

The title track is particularly good at balancing traditional, tribal sounds with the fluencies of jazz. It starts in a stretched out chant, the thump of hand-drums, a metallic clash of tonal percussion. The reedist Shabaka Hutchings plays an airy flute over this, a hoarse whisper of melody over spare percussion. The piano enters, first as a single note played again and again, and then more lavishly, with chords. The piece has an open-ended inquiry to it as the musicians explore connections between jazz and ritual music.

Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker guests on “Mar de Cirandeiras,” dropping smooth elegiac runs into a groove set by Freitas’ playing. It’s maybe the track that sounds the closest to American jazz, but even here, a tropical heat envelops the sound. And finally, the Chicago harpist Brandee Younger takes a hand in “Glorioso,” in graceful runs and flourishes. You could hardly imagine two instruments less suited to the Amazon than piano and harp, but they flourish here, unencumbered by humidity.

Y’Y has its lovely moments, but it wallows sometimes in woo-woo-y mysticism. It’s a bit soft and cushiony, hard edges sanded down to harmless auras. That’s why “Encantados,” late in the album, is such a kick, rushing ahead on running bass and drums, piano and flute bits flying off as it takes the corners on two wheels.  The Amazon may be full of gorgeous tranquility, but how nice, just this once, to hear it lift up its head and roar.

Jennifer Kelly

#amaro freitas #y'y #psychic hotline #jennifer kelly #albumreview #dusted magazine #jazz #amazon #shabaka hutchings #jeff parker #brandee younger

[asmallexperiment]

And Brandee Younger is no slouch herself. What I actually love about this is that there is this great pocket that's clear and firm and then vanishes a little, where it's more a suggestion than something concrete.

Also fun (for me) is Rashaan Carter. In that trio setting, I think a lot of people would be tempted to double down on that pocket. He is definitely doing a certain amount of grooving, but he then hops up near the top of the instrument's range and leaves space with these lines that wrap around what Brandee is doing. Marcus Gilmore is kind of effortlessly fantastic and they both let Brandee bring out the transcendental side of the piece.

#brandee younger #rama rama #rashaan carter #marcus gilmore #alice coltrane #Youtube

[burlveneer-music]

Lizz Wright's new single "Your Love" features Meshell Ndegeocello AND Brandee Younger

#lizz wright #soul #Meshell Ndegeocello #brandee younger #female vocal #harp #2024 #Youtube

[cheddar-baby]

Her newest album isnt on bandcamp and you will not catch me posting spotifys rancid 15 second clip links so heres brandee youngers lovely tiny desk performance. Check out her new album Brand New Life.

#music #brandee younger #I feel like harp fits really beautifully into a jazz ensemble and its a shame its not more common #Youtube

[ceevee5]

#meshell ndegeocello #brandee younger #julius rodriguez #jazz #Spotify

[jukbox]

Brandee Younger, Unrest I, 2022

#Unrest I #Brandee Younger #2022 #jazz #harp

[nonesuchrecords]

Makaya McCraven's new album, In These Times, is out now on International Anthem / Nonesuch / XL Recordings! You can get it and hear it here.

It’s the album McCraven’s been trying to make since he started making records, an appropriately career-defining body of work. It was created over 7+ years, as McCraven strived to fuse odd-meter compositions from his working songbook with orchestral, large-ensemble arrangements and the edit-heavy “organic beat music” he’s honed over the years. With contributions from over a dozen musicians and creative partners from his tight-knit circle of collaborators—including Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill —'In These Times’ highlights McCraven’s gift for collapsing space, destroying borders, and blending past, present, and future into poly-textural arrangements of post-genre, jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music.

#makaya mccraven #in these times #jazz #vinyl #unboxing #jeff parker #brandee younger #joel ross #marquis hill #international anthem #xl recordings #nonesuch #nonesuch records

[wqrer]

#Youtube #brandee younger

[diosa-loba]

#Dezron Douglas #Brandee Younger #this woman's work #Youtube

[agoodsongeveryday]

Day One Thousand One Hundred and Thirty Three

#brandee younger #brand new life

[asmallexperiment]

Brandee Younger on Dorothy Ashby

In The Guardian, Brandee Younger: Dorothy Ashby was the pioneer harpist who opened up the instrument to Black musicians like me. The whole thing is great, capturing some of the history of it all, along with her personal inspiration:

Here was a Black woman photographed playing my instrument: I had an immediate desire to dig deeper into her life. I went on a rampage of discovery and found out she had done exactly what I wanted to with the harp. She improvised and played jazz on her own records but she also played popular covers, soundtrack music, and appeared on sessions with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Bill Withers and Minnie Ripperton. Hers was the harp I heard on that Pete Rock track.

I realised that I wasn’t alone in what I wanted to do with the instrument and I was shocked that more people didn’t know about her work. Being a woman in jazz in the 50s and 60s, when she was playing, was no easy feat, never mind playing an obscure instrument like the harp. She wasn’t playing traditional repertoire and she was Black: she had every factor working against her. Yet she still produced 11 wonderful albums and I decided that at each concert I gave, I would cover a track of hers, as well as the work of her contemporary, Alice Coltrane, to keep the interest in their pioneering music alive.

#brandee younger #dorothy ashby #jazz #harp #the guardian #yes the harp can swing

[ouaix]

Brand New Life and Brand New Harp 🧡💥🍯 🍹🔥🧡

#youtube #music #soul music #jazz music #r&b #harpist #brandee younger #npr music #npr tiny desk #tiny desk concert

[ceevee5]

#brandee younger #npr tiny desk #jazz harp #jazz #listening to this is a harpourtunity #Youtube

[musicwithoutborders]

Brandee Younger, Unrest I I Unrest, 2022

#Brandee Younger #nowhere

[nonesuchrecords]

Makaya McCraven performs "Dream Another," from his album In These Times, live at public records in Brooklyn in a new video from the set on his new Hi-Res Qobuz-exclusive EP, International Anthem @ Public Records (Volume 3).

Filmed live at on September 19, McCraven, on drums, is joined by Junius Paul on bass guitar, Brandee Younger on harp, De'Sean Jones on tenor sax, flute, and EWI, Lia Kohl on cello, Marta Sofia Honer on viola, Macie Stewart on violin, and Zara Zaharieva on violin.

#makaya mccraven #dream another #in these times #brooklyn #public records #live music #jazz #junius paul #brandee younger #de'sean jones #international anthem #nonesuch #nonesuch records #Youtube

[culturedarm]

Stranded on an island, wading through the debris, or erecting her own private fort out of the flotsam and jetsam left over from a series of floods, the Johnstown producer Tatiana Triplin pays skewed homage to the poverty and disintegrating history of her city, embracing the genres of footwork, breakcore, and Detroit techno while using the internet and her dreamlike imagination to fill in the gaps. On the twelve pieces which make up Flood City Trax the result is at once unique and redolent of a twenty-first century electronic curvature, from the glitchy warmth and slow-wound music box melodies of the Icelandic outfit Múm to the atmospheric onslaught of Vladislav Delay, from the dizzying percussion and hyperreal Chicago-adjacent fabrications of Jlin to the Afrohouse mutations, skeletal rhythms, and sticky tarraxinha tempos of the Congolese club sensualist Chrisman. David Hajdu and Theo Bleckmann pour one out in memory of Lou Reed, the prolific producer and Fusion mes Couilles founder Emma DJ strays towards naif melodies, and the duo of Ale Hop and Laura Robles dust off the colonial legacy of the cajón, plus tracks by Issei Herr, Merzbow, Crosslegged, Colin Stetson, Brandee Younger, and the MultiTraction Orchestra, a fluid lineup of experimental musicians led by the composer and producer Alex Roth.

https://culturedarm.com/tracks-of-the-week-08-04-23/

#music #new music #best new music #tracks of the week #nondi_ #johnstown #floods #glitch #ambient #footwork #breakcore #vaporwave #electronic #brandee younger #multitraction orchestra #experimental #jazz #issei herr #david hajdu #lou reed #theo bleckmann #emma dj #ale hop #laura robles #afroperuvian #cajón #colin stetson #merzbow #crosslegged #noise