Jazz harpist Brandee Younger uplifts the pursuit of joy on her current album, Gadabout Season, which is her third release for the storied Impulse! label. Younger saw the word Gadabout in an email and decided to make its definition the mission for the album. The musician has always melded different sounds into her music and GS is no different with its nod to jazz and dub. Her respect and admiration for Alice Coltrane, who also played the harp, takes on another level of passion because she recorded the album using the late artist’s instrument. Those who gadabout are forever seeking a good time but Younger’s album sounds more like music from a beautiful respite of meditation and spiritual renewal. She revealed in a press release that the recording process took place in a family member’s cabin in upstate New York, where “you get a lot of peace and quiet and birds chirping and you can see the stars at night.” Gadabout Season charms and soothes with soft, contemplative original compositions.
“Reckoning” is a whirlwind of harp notes and Makaya McCraven’s pattering cymbals that moves like a lullaby. Younger is lively on “BBL,” playing with a conviction that she calls a “musical confrontation.” The busy movement of that song is still in step with the tranquility of GS. The flow of it all begs for the album to be heard in its entirety in one sitting. Younger has successfully taken Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby’s harp work as a guide to her own creativity and GS reveals the growth of her voice and confidence as a composer and performer.
