Brandee Younger: A Hip-Hop Baby Transforms the Harp

Brandee Younger has carved out a very unlikely music career for herself, a classically-trained harpist who went from making her jazz debut over a decade ago to being an in-demand leader and collaborator in a wide range of musical genres. How she has transformed this instrument seems without precedent. But a huge role model for her was Dorothy Ashby, a jazz and later R&B harpist and composer who, in the years since her death, has become one of the recording artists most heavily sampled on hip-hop tracks. Brandee Younger's latest album, Brand New Life, plays tribute to Dorothy Ashby, by taking her poly-stylistic inclinations even further.