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Ralph Towner:

At First Light

In his liner note for At First Light, Ralph Towner writes of the singularity of having most of his life’s work at one record label. He’s been an ECM artist for more than fifty years, appearing in many different contexts, one of the most important being a run of solo recordings which began with Diary in 1973. At First Light is the newest addition to the solo guitar series. “My solo recordings,” says Towner, “have always included my own compositions in which there are trace elements of the composers and musicians that have attracted me over the years. Musicians such as George Gershwin, John Coltrane, John Dowland, Bill Evans, to name a few. The blend of keyboard and guitar techniques is an important aspect of my playing and composition, and I feel that this album is a good example of shaping this expanse of influences into my personal music.”

Jessye Norman:

The Unreleased Masters

Decca Classics is proud to present Jessye Norman – The Unreleased Masters, showcasing never-before-heard recordings of one of the greatest classical singers of all time. The set includes Wagner and Strauss song cycles, and a live recording of an eclectic programme of cantatas by Haydn, Berlioz and Britten. 

Released with the support of Ms. Norman’s family and estate, the box set pays tribute to one of the exceptional vocal performers of recent times, one of the most wide-ranging and committed artists, and certainly one of classical music’s great personalities. Born in segregated Georgia in 1945, Jessye Norman became one of the most celebrated opera singers and recitalists in the world, with her four-decade discography amassing five Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ms. Norman’s continuous pursuit of excellence, combined with a relentless work ethic and schedule, meant many recording projects of extremely high standards were never finalized in her lifetime. As the former Head of Philips and Decca Classics, Costa Pilavachi writes in the booklet note: 

“A perfectionist, Jessye was hardest on herself and she struggled to get everyone to help her achieve the highest possible standards. Some recordings took years to reach the public and some were never released, although this set rectifies some of these omissions.”

The immense emotional range of Jessye Norman’s voice is demonstrated by a remarkable recording of highlights from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Recorded with Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra – the ‘dream team’ with which she made her celebrated Four Last Songs - the recording features Thomas Moser as Tristan, Hanna Schwarz as Brangäne and a young Ian Bostridge as the Seemann.     

Jessye Norman’s 1982 studio recording of Strauss’s Four Last Songs is frequently regarded as one of classical music’s all-time greatest recordings. On this new release, listeners will hear a fascinating alternative 1989 live recording of Norman performing the work, this time with James Levine and the Berliner Philharmoniker, paired with a 1992 recording of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. 
 

Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra:

Plays Well With Others

Jeff Goldblum releases his new EP ‘Plays Well With Others’ via Decca Records. There is no stopping Jeff Goldblum and his inimitable style, especially when it comes to something as close to his heart as playing the piano. Goldblum especially loves to accompany, punctuate, converse musically with friends and fellow music-makers, and so is in his element on this new release for 2023.

New single ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ is also out today, featuring multi-million-selling and award-winning singer Kelly Clarkson for Cole Porter’s 1930s classic. And what better choice for the opening words, “Wildcat Kelly..” beautifully delivered by Clarkson. This should also come as no surprise as Jeff actually put the idea to Kelly on camera, as a guest on her TV show, and even suggested the track. She said yes there and then! And they remained true to their word.

‘Plays Well With Others’ delivers sheer joy with Goldblum’s idiosyncratic take on a collection of standards that, for him, are amongst the best songs ever written. Here, the actor yet again brings his on-screen charisma and eccentricities to the keys, with a groove that is totally unique. With all tracks newly arranged by The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra themselves, Jeff is, as the EP title suggests, joined by an array of talented, and unexpected, guest singers, all as thrilled to be accompanied by Jeff as he is to accompany them.

Jeff describes the experience of making the EP, “The experience of collaborating with these fantastic singers has made me feel that I have revealed myself to myself, and has left me utterly drenched and purged.”

Max Richter:

SLEEP - Tranquility Base

Max Richter presents SLEEP: Tranquility Base, a thirty-minute EP of new SLEEP music, released today on Deutsche Grammophon ahead of World Sleep Day on 17 March. Remixes will come from electronic musician Kelly Lee Owens and German sound artist Alva Noto. 

Richter returns to his celebrated eight-hour magnum opus SLEEP with this new EP which offers a glimpse into the original material from an electronic perspective. “Tranquility Base” is the site on the Moon where, in July 1969, humans landed and walked on a celestial body other than Earth for the first time. With this in mind, the EP functions as a vessel that disconnects and travels through the body of work, allowing art to provide something which resembles peace within ourselves.
Richter’s SLEEP app to date has had over 350K downloads and today the FOCUS section of the app has been updated. The update includes added music from SLEEP: Tranquility Base and music from across Richter’s repertoire. This is the first time material drawn from outside the SLEEP project has been included.

“SLEEP is a kind of counter argument to what’s going on in the world. Yulia and I have talked about it as protest music. It’s a sort of alternative proposition to how things could be or how things are… towards the world we’re living in and helps to shine a light on the things we can do better.

The original thing which made us want to make this piece was a sense of being oversaturated – with data, with information – overstimulated… All of that is just worse now, there’s more of the same – much more of the same – and that makes the piece continually relevant.” – Max Richter

Yuja Wang:

The American Project

Yuja Wang gives a dazzling solo performance in the world premiere recording of a major new work specially written for her by her friend Teddy Abrams. Although originally conceived as a short companion composition to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Abrams’ Piano Concerto blossomed to become a 35-minute standalone showpiece. Celebrating the richness of America’s musical culture and the sheer depth and breadth of Yuja Wang’s virtuosity, the work now features on Yuja Wang · The American Project. Also included on the album is You Come Here Often?, created for the star pianist by another close friend, Michael Tilson Thomas. Both were recorded live with the Louisville Orchestra, conducted by Abrams, its Music Director. Yuja Wang · The American Project is set for digital and physical release by Deutsche Grammophon today.

Teddy Abrams and Yuja Wang met during their student days at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, one of the world’s leading conservatoires. The highly versatile Abrams – pianist, clarinettist, composer and conductor – and the then rising-star pianist became friends at the time, after he volunteered to accompany her in piano-only play-throughs of the standard concerto repertoire. Following his appointment as Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra in 2014, he began writing large-scale works for its musicians. “It was,” he recalls, “the beginning of a really special relationship that we have retained to this day.”

Klaus Makela:

Stravinsky - Orchestre de Paris

Klaus Mäkelä, the first conductor signed to Decca for forty years, brings the Orchestre de Paris to the label for a major new album of Stravinsky’s most iconic ballet scores. The album represents Mäkelä’s first recording with his French orchestra, which will be followed by a further Ballet Russes release in 2024 featuring Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Debussy’s Jeux and L’Apres midi d’une faune.

Klaus Mäkelä has electrified the musicians and audiences of the Orchestre de Paris since the start of his Music Directorship in September 2021. One of the major projects of his second season at the Philharmonie de Paris was a traversal of Stravinsky’s pivotal ballet scores The Firebird and The Rite of Spring that proved anything but routine. The performances captured live on Decca’s new release carry the combination of intensity, intelligence and authority on which the young conductor is building his extraordinary career.

Introducing the project Klaus Mäkelä says “For me, these two works represent a conclusion and a new start. The Firebird is like a last statement of late-romantic orchestral expression with its harmonic language and orchestration stretched beyond imagination, and carrying the narrative of the story with every slightest gesture. The Rite of Spring opens up a completely new world. The colours and sounds he gets out of an orchestra are different from everything heard before. When performing this work one feels the aspect of a ritual very strongly. This is music that has the craziest rhythmic drive imaginable.”

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring helped usher the art of notated music into the modern era. More than a century after its first performance in 1913, it retains its capacity to dazzle, provoke and shock. It calls for a huge orchestra while demanding absolute discipline and control from musicians and conductor, who must conjure an uncanny range of colours and moods. That score’s predecessor by four years, The Firebird, had already ensured the eyes of the world were on Stravinsky with its cinematic vividness and coruscating ‘infernal dance’.

PBS - GREAT PERFORMANCES:

Now Hear This - Season 4

In April 2023, Conductor and violinist Scott Yoo is on the road again, to more fantastic, far flung locations. In Now Hear This Season 4. Scott visits the many barrios of Buenos Aires to learn the tango and Piazzolla’s conflicted relationship with it. In Scotland and Germany, he explores the connection between mental health and creativity. In New York, he meets an unassuming visionary who’s combining elements that shouldn’t work, to point classical music in a new direction. And he revisits southern Spain, in a breathtaking portrait of Andalusia, as painted in music by Albéniz. Here’s a ‘what's coming up’ complete with videos to watch and share.

401. Piazzolla’s History with Tango
Scott and his wife Alice Dade, a leading flutist, travel to Buenos Aires to discover the music of Astor Piazzolla, who fell in love with tango. Then fell out of love. Then tango fell out of love with him. Scott and Alice play with Argentina’s greatest musicians and dancers, to find out if Piazzolla and tango could ever reconcile.

402. Schumann: Genius and Madness
Many composers have struggled with mental health problems, few more famously than Robert Schumann. Scott goes to Scotland, Germany and France, with leading musicians, psychiatrists and scholars, to try to understand the connection between mental health and creativity in the work of Schumann and other great artists.

403. Andy Akiho Found (his) Sound
Scott follows modern composer, steel pan virtuoso and video artist Andy Akiho, off the beaten path through Andy’s neighborhoods of New York, to try to figure out how this unassuming musical visionary has combined Caribbean, Asian and jazz influences to become one of the most in-demand composers in classical music today. 

404. Albéniz: Portraits of Spain
Like Scarlatti before him, Isaac Albéniz was a keyboard composer captivated by Spain. Scott travels with guitarist Manuel Barrueco and pianist Juan Perez Floristan through the great Spanish cities of Andalusia, to see how Albéniz captured their culture, history and sounds in a brilliant series of musical portraits, his most celebrated works.

Ralph Alessi Quartet:

It's Always Now

Each of Ralph Alessi’s three prior leader recordings for the label – Baida (2013), Quiver (2016) and Imaginary Friends (2019) – garnered high international praise. The New York Times lauded the “elegant precision and power” of Baida, whereas Downbeat declared that with Quiver, Ralph had found “an ideal venue, his penchant for the oblique statement and ventilated ensemble nicely couched in a pristine recording and a magical ensemble.” In a rave review, The Guardian called Imaginary Friends “an elegant balance of poignant, playful original compositions and gracefully probing improve”. For It’s Always Now, however, the cards have been re-shuffled, as Ralph Alessi steps away from his familiar New York collaborators and goes on an entirely different adventure with fresh casting on every position. A change in the line-up naturally provokes a shift in the music, because, as Ralph points out, “anytime you play with new musicians with strong ‘voices’ such as these, it changes how you hear your music”.

“I moved to Switzerland in August of 2020”, Alessi explains, “and it gave me an opportunity to collaborate with a new mix of musicians who I hadn’t had the pleasure of playing with before. And I strongly believe in the benefit of change.”  

Stephan Micus:

Thunder

Stephan Micus’ new album is a tribute and offering to thunder gods around the world. As a natural phenomenon so dramatic and alarming, it’s clear that cultures everywhere would create their gods to placate lightening and thunder.

However Micus’ original inspiration wasn’t the thunder gods, but an instrument. Since 1973 he’s been travelling extensively in the Himalayas, from the Hindu Kush, Ladakh and Zanskar in the west to Eastern Nepal and Sikkim in the east. “The great attraction first of all was the mountains and the dramatic landscapes, but a highlight always was spending time in the Tibetan monasteries. Whenever I could I would listen to the ritual and ceremonial music. Music that seems timeless - both ancient and modern - at the same time.”

The most striking instruments in these Tibetan monastic ceremonies are the long dung chen trumpets, growling as a deep fundamental tone behind the most significant and pro-found ceremonies. This ritual trumpet is the inspiration behind Stephan’s 25th solo album for ECM, a compelling statement about our reaction to the power of nature, our inability to control it and desire to placate it.

Stephan Micus has travelled the world studying and collecting instruments and playing them in his own compositions.  When he wanted to learn the Tibetan dung chen trumpet, it proved surprisingly difficult. He finally found a monastery in Bodnath, a Buddhist centre in Kathmandu, Nepal where the monks agreed to teach him. “They said that it is usually only taught to monks and that I am possibly the first non-Tibetan to learn and play it.”

The dung chen tracks are the most dramatic on the album and form the opening, centre, and closing, like a repeated pattern in a mandala.  The central track is dedicated to the Ti-betan Buddhist thunder god Vajrapani - usually depicted in images or statues with the the ‘vajra’ (lightning bolt} in his right hand. “I wanted to combine the dung chen with the nohkan - both instruments played in orchestras far from the Western understanding of music and both influenced by Buddhism.” The nohkan is the flute used in Japanese noh theatre. Although gyaling shawms are part of Tibetan Buddhist rituals ensembles, it seems surprising that flutes are not used.

In Tibetan music, the dung chen only plays a couple of low drone notes, but on this album Stephan makes it do agile horn calls. And he combines it with a Siberian instrument, the ki un ki, a two metre long stalk through which the player inhales, rather than blows. Closely miked, this sounds remarkably trumpet like. It’s amazing how these two contrasting in-struments sound so appropriate together.

ANNA:

INTENTIONS

Electronic producer & DJ ANNA announces her debut ambient electronic album Intentions, invites the listener on a journey of spiritual transformation through sound, out on May 19th via Mercury KX. The album is a unique encounter where ANNA’s spiritual side and electronic music side become one.

ANNA also announces her signing to Mercury KX, joining awe-inspiring acts such as Ólafur Arnalds, Isobel Waller-Bridge and Erland Cooper. Mercury KX Label and A&R Manager Cerys Weetch comments “ANNA’s powerful story stopped us in our tracks. Another pandemic zoom, turned into a transformational experience and we had to work with her. She truly is a world-class composer, producer and musician and we’ve only scratched the surface of what artistry is yet to come”.

Alongside the announcements, the Brazilian-born, Lisbon-based DJ and producer shares the record’s first single ‘Receiving’, a lulling and featherlight offering designed for surrendering to what is and welcoming what appears, featuring legendary ambient pioneer Laraaji.

‘Intentions’ is the result of ANNA’s self-realisation journey – opening her mind and forever altering her creative process and worldly outlook in the process, which sees her trading in her tougher, club-driven production for sound healing and ambient sensibilities. An immersive meditation experience, the album comes with a special listening guide written by ANNA, inviting the audience to set an intention for each track, which has been ordered and equipped with its own specific purpose on the album 

Speaking about the album, ANNA says “INTENTIONS captures the purest longing for the universal power of love. It’s borne out of a deep well of love that exists inside of me, and an enduring appreciation for all that we call ‘life’”.

Olafur Arnalds:

And We'll Leave It There feat. Ella McRobb

Grammy-nominated composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds releases ‘and we’ll leave it there…’, the result of an unlikely encounter between the Icelandic composer and unsigned rising singer-songwriter Ella McRobb connecting by chance through social media. The 23-year-old Londoner was inspired and moved by Ólafur’s short sound check improvisation posted on Instagram reel, which grew into a global viral hit, reaching 2.2 million views and counting. Collaboration is the cornerstone of Ólafur’s work, who lists 2023 BRIT Award nominee Bonobo, Nils Frahm and RY X as collaborators amongst others.

This release of  ‘and we’ll leave it there…’ is the tale of two musical talents coming together through social media to create something special, and resonates like a modern day collaboration story for Ella McRobb. Moved by Ólafur’s music, Ella decided to improvise her own lyrics to one of the Icelandic composer’s improvisations to tell her personal experience on loss and heartbreak.

Wearing her heart on her sleeve, Ella added her soulful vocals to the piece creating a heart-wrenching new composition. Without expectation, ahead of playing netball, absolutely unaware of Ólafur and the colossal dimension of his body of work, she shared it on TikTok, using the duet feature of the platform. Stunned by the quality of the resulting creation and Ella’s talent, Ólafur reached out to her, starting an exchange of voice notes and zoom calls which then developed into a full-on collaboration. In less than two weeks, he offered her the opportunity to record a studio version and film a music video in Iceland.

Killius - Zehetmair - Royal Northern Sinfonia:

Bartok/Casken/Beethoven

This New Series album represents a summing up of Thomas Zehetmair’s work with Britain’s Royal Northern Sinfonia, described by the Austrian-born violinist and conductor, at the time of its recording, as “a résumé and a departure”.  In his 12 years as Music Director of the British chamber orchestra, Zehetmair was noted both for bringing compelling new music into the repertoire and for insightful performances of classical and modern composition.

The album includes the premiere recording of British composer John Casken’s That Subtle Knot, written in 2012-3 for Zehetmair, Ruth Killius and the Northern Sinfonia. Inspired by the poetry of John Donne, the composition establishes a broad arc between the English Renaissance and music of today, paints portraits of the dedicatees, and draws influence, too, from the rugged landscapes of the North of England.  The title of the piece comes from Donne’s poem The Ecstasy. The poem focuses upon two lovers sitting on a riverbank, hands entwined: “Our eye beams twisted and did thread / Our eyes upon one double string.” The image seemed to John Casken perfect for a double concerto for viola and violin.

Eric Whitacre - VOCES8:

Home

Two branches of choral royalty entwine with majestic harmony on the latest Decca release from Grammy-winning composer Eric Whitacre and the acclaimed vocal ensemble VOCES8. The album includes a world premiere, All Seems Beautiful To Me, and a new recording of Whitacre’s deeply moving 2019 cantata The Sacred Veil.

The five-minute work All Seems Beautiful To Me, released on Friday 10th February, is based on a poem by Walt Whitman (from Song of the Open Road) celebrating the human spirit’s capacity for generosity and growth. It was commissioned by the United States Air Force Band and here receives its world premiere recording. Also included is a new recording of one of Whitacre’s most frequently performed and much loved pieces, The Seal Lullaby. Written to accompany an animated film (ultimately never made) based on Kipling’s tale The White Seal, the ravishing work sets the words of a mother seal tenderly singing her pup to sleep (Whitacre amusingly confesses that he sang it to his own baby son ‘with a less than 50% success rate’).

Gianluigi Trovesi - Stefano Montanari:

Stravaganze consonanti

More than 20 years ago Umberto Eco singled out “the quest for ancient timbres and classical echoes” that contributed, alongside “original inventions” to the special character of Gianluigi Trovesi’s art. The clarinets and saxophone of the reedman from Italy’s Lombardy region have spoken a sort of polyglot tongue almost from the outset, and each of his ECM albums has differently combined, contrasted and blended ingredients of diverse idioms.

On Stravaganze consonanti, an inspired collaboration with noted baroque violinist and conductor and Stefano Montanari, Trovesi extends the line of musical enquiry posited on his operatic Prufumo di violetta album. Supported this time by a cast of players well-versed in the ancient sounds of period instruments and the art of historical performance practice, he looks anew at music of the renaissance and the baroque – at Purcell, Dufay, Trabaci, Desprez and more. He also adds compositions of his own and stirs some additional improvising with percussion and electronics man Fulvio Maras into the intoxicating brew. As Montanari writes in the CD booklet, “Trovesi grasps the power and refinement of a language that passes in the blink of an eye from Dufay to Purcell, arriving at jazz without ever losing the profound meaning of a musical fabric whose primary motive is universal communication.”

Rachel Willis-Sorensen:

Strauss - Four Last Songs

Sony Classical International proudly announces the second solo album by American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, to be released on March 10. Presenting works of Richard Strauss’s later years, Willis-Sørensen’s latest release pairs the composer’s sublime Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) with the closing scene of his final opera, Capriccio. Renowned conductor Andris Nelsons leads the Gewandhausorchester and German bass Sebastian Pilgrim joins Willis-Sørensen for the Capriccio scene.

The first single “Frühling,” the opening track of the Four Last Songs is out today – Listen here.  Setting poet Hermann Hesse’s rapturous vision of spring, this matchlessly soaring music will provide listeners with an ideal introduction to Willis-Sørensen’s undisputable affinity for Strauss.

Various:

Storytellers On Verbier Festival Gold

Verbier Festival Gold's first release of 2023 is based on the concept of storytelling, a theme that is central to many of the festival’s performances. This offering pairs two tantalizing performances from the very first summers of the organization's history. First, Peter Ustinov narrates Jean de Brunhoff's iconic tale "L'Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant". Charming piano accompaniment by Poulenc, played by Roger Vignoles, serves as a backdrop to the text. Second, world-renowned soprano Barbara Hendricks is joined by Carmina Quartet for a stunning rendition of Fauré's “La Bonne Chanson”. The gorgeous poems of Paul Verlaine unfold their very own charm in Hendrick's interpretation.

Michelle Cann:

REVIVAL - Music of Price and Bonds

Curtis Studio—the recording label of the Curtis Institute of Music, dedicated to the discovery of new and traditional works performed by inspiring artists of our time—is proud to announce the release of its second recording: Revival, Music of Price & Bonds, featuring solo piano works performed by Curtis alumna and faculty member, pianist Michelle Cann. Curtis Studio is thrilled to offer the album on Apple’s highly anticipated new Apple Music Classical platform, which just launched today. Following Curtis Studio’s critically acclaimed first recording, Scheherazade (December 6, 2022), Revival is now available for pre-sale (http://curtis.edu/Revival) on Apple Music Classical and will be available on all other major streaming platforms on May 5. It is distributed by Platoon.
 
 Acclaimed as a “pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, called “exquisite” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and praised as a “compelling, sparkling virtuoso” by the Boston Music Intelligencer, Michelle Cann (Piano ’13) is known for her dynamic and sensitively nuanced performances of classical piano repertoire. One of the defining features of her exceptional career has been an unwavering commitment to promoting, programming, and performing works of composers such as Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, whose extraordinary music was either neglected in their lifetimes or abandoned after their deaths. “It humbles you in a certain way because you realize that there are a lot of stories that are yet to be told, that should be told. Loving both of their music so much, it’s really an important mission for me to program and to share their music with as many people as I can, so that they have a voice in our time,” says Ms. Cann.
 

Keith Jarrett:

Book Of Ways

‘Book of Ways’ was recorded on the 14th of July 1986 in Ludwigsburg. Rather amazing is the great variety of sound and rhythm – Jarrett played alternately one or two instruments simultaneously. Beyond unmistakeable echoes of lute music and Japanese koto, the whole range of modes of expression the clavichord is capable of is being fathomed out. All this has been supported by studio techniques, which recorded the sound of the instrument with rarely heard intensity.

About ‘Book of Ways’ Keith Jarrett noted in 2002:
„To my knowledge, this recording is unique in several ways. We had three clavichords in the studio, two of which were angled together so that I could play them both simultaneously, and the third off to the side. Also we miked the instruments very closely so that the full range of dynamics could be used (clavichords are very quiet and cannot be heard more than a few feet away). The two CDs were made on an off day between concerts with my Trio, and no material was organized beforehand. Everything was spontaneous. The recording was done in four hours.” – Keith Jarrett, 2002

Bobo Stenson Trio:

Sphere

The current incarnation of Bobo Stenson’s Trio, with Anders Jormin on bass and percussionist Jon Fält, has been active for almost two decades now, during the course of which they’ve recorded four albums – including this new one. The first, Cantando (2008), further investigated Bobo’s fluent ability to cover a wide range of influences and idioms, seamlessly integrating the new configuration into his personal sound from the start. The record prompted The Guardian to say, “few contemporary jazz groups sustain an atmosphere as evocatively as Swedish pianist Stenson’s trio, or conjure so many moods across a variety of material from Ornette Coleman to Alban Berg”. Praise continued with follow-up Indicum (2012), The New York Times noting that Bobo “is rightly heralded for his subtleties of touch and mood”, and then again with Contra La Indecision in 2018, which BBC Music Magazine called a “beautiful session”, proving ”that there is still much to be explored and revealed within this format.” More revelations and proof of the trio’s distinguished art are ever-present on Sphere.

Brandee Younger:

Brand New Life

GRAMMY®-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger announces her new album, Brand New Life (Impulse! Records), set for release on April 7th. Out now, the first single off of the Dorothy Ashby inspired album is the previously unrecorded and evocative Ashby composition, “You’re A Girl For One Man Only.” 

Produced by multi-hyphenate drummer and composer Makaya Mccraven, on Brand New Life, Younger celebrates one of her greatest inspirations, iconic jazz harpist and composer Dorothy Ashby. Ashby is widely credited with having asserted the harp’s place in contemporary music, showcasing the traditionally-classical instrument on groundbreaking albums such as Afro-Harping and Dorothy’s Harp. Her unparalleled body of work has continued to be influential for decades and has been heavily sampled and transposed across jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, by artists including Jay-Z, J. Dilla, Pete Rock and Flying Lotus.

Brand New Life is a stunning amalgamation of past and present, combining original works from Younger, select reinterpretations of Ashby’s work, and previously-unrecorded compositions by Ashby. Younger was initially introduced to Ashby’s work through the many hip-hop artists who sampled her music, and now collaborates with some of those very artists on Brand New Life, including the legendary Pete Rock and 9th Wonder. Brand New Life also includes features by Meshell N’degeocello, Mumu Fresh, and production by drummer and composer  Makaya McCraven. Younger says of the album, “Creating this album has been a longtime dream of mine. I really had a lot of living to do before being able to execute it, genuinely. The finished product is truly representative of where I am now and it is an honor to convey that through the compositions of one of my heroes.”

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