Norah Jones Is Playing Along
GRAMMY-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger joins Norah to talk about finding her voice on an instrument with deep history.
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This episode is also available as video on YouTube. You can visit Norah Jones' channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. Hey, I'm Norah Jones, and today I'm playing along with Brandy Younger.
Hi, I'm Nora. This is Sarah.
Hi, welcome to my show.
It's our show.
Good, because it didn't feel right when I said it. Today, we have an incredible episode with Grammy-nominated, groundbreaking harpist, composer redefining the role of the harp in contemporary music, Brandy Younger. She honors the legacy of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane while carving out her own distinct voice. She's performed with artists across genres, and having her in this room was amazing, and her harp.
Yeah, I loved her.
Yeah.
She's so cool. Look, her album's over there in the corner.
It was like otherworldly almost.
It was so beautiful to hear the harp like that. And she's such a cool person. I really enjoyed hanging with her and playing. And we did some of her beautiful songs.
You're gonna hear about how she found the harp or more how the harp found her. You're gonna hear about touring versus staying home, what she prefers, and beautiful piano harp duets. And it was just incredible.
Yeah, it was so beautiful. I'm glad she came.
Yeah, thanks, Brandy. Thanks for listening, and I think you're gonna love this episode with Brandy Younger.
That's so pretty.
Thank you.
Oh my goodness, it's a harp in my midst.
Thank you, Randy.
Thank you so much. That was the first time I think I've actually played that.
Really?
Yes, and then with piano, and then with you. So cool.
I feel like piano and harp have a little bit of a sisterhood.
Well...
Is that my imagination?
They're... We're like a dysfunctional piano, lots of insecurities. When the harp is next to the piano, you have all this bottom, this bass. You've got all the, all the notes in front of you.
I hear a lot of bottom on the harp, actually. How low can you go?
On a concert grand, you can go all the way down to the lowest C. And I think it's the same range.
Really? It's like the same amount?
I'm pretty sure. This is not a concert grand. It's, I guess we call it a grand petite. So it has 44 strings. And I'm too afraid to play the lowest because maybe I didn't tune it.
Oh, let me hear it.
It's a D something.
I have a hard time hearing pitch really low.
It's a D flat.
I can't tell.
Wow. This is very exciting. It sounds so beautiful in the room.
I can't wait for you to get a harp in your studio.
I think it's gonna happen now. You can just help me pick one out. And then you can come over anytime. You don't have to bring this.
Be careful.
Even though it's beautiful. Tell me about your harps specifically. Do you have several?
I have a few, yeah. I have, well, okay. So this one that we have today. This was actually a gift from a wonderful harpist who's passed away. But she wanted to make sure that her harps were in the hands of people that she wanted them to be with.
That's really beautiful.
And it's small. So I actually use this for smaller spaces, places with stairs, rehearsals. And it's a Line & Healy. It's an American company based in Chicago.
So I have this one. It's called an 85. That's the name. Style number 85. And then I have a style number 23, same brand.
Larger?
Larger concert grand. It's probably the most popular in the States. And then I have a French company called Camac. And that's my acoustic electric. So you see me playing that when I'm with my band in town a lot. And it's really cute. It's bronze and ebony. So is my 23. It's ebony and bronze. But they're very, very different instruments. And then I have Alice Coltrane's Style 11 at home with me, which is an 18 karat gold.
Oh, my gosh.
Really beautiful. Doesn't leave the house.
How beautiful.
Is that smaller or is that?
Nope. Those are all concert grand. So this is the only small one that I have.
Okay. I'm so excited that you brought it.
Oh, I'm so excited.
Yeah. Well, welcome. This is incredible. And you're going through an amp?
I am. Right before leaving, I was like, hmm, should I bring my delay pedal? Sure, she has amps in there. And I was looking on the videos of the other one, so I knew you had amps.
Yep.
That's so cool.
I figured, why not?
What I was hearing in the room was both.
Okay, cool. Because it felt, I kind of got a little disoriented for a second because it sounded like it was coming from behind me, but that's because it is.
It is. It is, and with a very slight, slight delay.
I love the delay. It's really beautiful.
I wasn't sure if we should just do acoustic acoustic, and then I was like, wow.
Matters not.
She's got piano, I could add a little delay.
Whatever, whatever is fun, you know?
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If you're a music fan, I've got a new podcast you have to check out. It's called Before the Moment, a new series hosted by the legendary Nile Rodgers. You know him as the producer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of Chic. But in this series, he's hitting the road to sit down with some of today's most fascinating artists. From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren, Nile explores the stories behind the careers, the songs, and the moments that changed everything. Because every artist can point to that turning point, the moment before the breakthrough, before the success, before everything changed. Through candid conversations and personal stories, you'll hear what happened before the moment that made them who they are today.
Listen to Before the Moment, a Lincoln Original Series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Can we try another song?
Yes.
Would that be OK? What about... I was thinking we could do... So wait, just really quick. So that song we did was called "Dreamful Love Story."
And it was sort of a meditation?
Yeah, yeah, sort of like a... People like the vibey things.
They sure do.
And I do vibey things in real life, but never thought to sit down and actually record the vibey thing.
Gotcha. So is that whole album just sort of you sitting down, just playing around?
Oh, that's beautiful.
Well, there are a couple of songs on there that I actually wrote for a children's harp competition.
Oh, how cool.
Yeah, so there's a mix-up of those on that record.
That's amazing. And so this next song we're gonna do is from, is this your newest album, "Gad About Season"?
Yes, this is my newest album, "Gad About Season".
That's great. And this is the title track?
I had to Google the word "gad about",
I know.
I feel like I've heard it before, but I'm like, I have no idea what that means.
It was the word of the day email, and that's when I learned what the word was.
Are you serious?
I love that.
But basically, with the album, I'm just really, the concept is just finding joy, regardless of what's going on, because sometimes life starts to life.
Oh, boy, does it.
Yep, and it takes a little bit more effort to try to find joy, so...
Well, that's good.
That's what this is about.
That's great.
It's about fun and being your quirky self.
Yeah, I like that. Okay.
Who wants to be serious all the time?
Let's be our quirky selves.
Squeak.
I didn't even plan to end it there, but I looked up and I was like, her hand's off.
I loved it.
Yay.
That one's so fun.
That was fun.
It's playful, get about.
That's, that's the whole, that's the theme.
So how did the harp choose you?
It chose me.
Yeah, I figured.
It did. Wow. Well, I started playing the harp because there was a woman at my dad's job who played for fun, it was a hobby. And my parents were like, our daughter's musical. Can we bring her over?
How old are you?
Like 11-ish.
Okay.
And I was playing flute. So we did some little flute and harp duos. And the woman was like, if she takes lessons and gets good, she can get a scholarship. And parents were like, bet. So I really just went to school for the scholarship.
Because there are so few harp players that you was a shoe in?
I think it's called like an endangered instrument.
Oh my goodness.
So there was often scholarship money aside.
That makes sense.
Yeah. But really, that's how it came to be. And I didn't anticipate really playing after school.
Are you talking school, college school?
College school, yeah. So.
You know, I had my own little obsession. So at home, I would always play like pop tunes at home on the side.
On the harp?
Yeah, you know, learning what I was supposed to learn, my normal harp repertoire. But then I play for these community events and my mom is like, you have to play things people know. I know you spent six months on that one piece, but you know. So the negotiation was, all right, I do like something people know and what I was working on.
That's kind of perfect.
Yeah, and then also I didn't want to seem too much like a weirdo at my own friends. So I would learn like what's on the radio.
So I always sort of had this dual life of playing the harp rep and then playing what I wanted to play.
Now, is that, are you talking about classical?
Yeah, basically, most harp rep is, a lot of it is French.
You know, like the Romantic period, we eat that.
That's a whole thing. I didn't know about that.
I mean, of course, the Baroque repertoire as well. But really, French Romantic period, we have it on lock.
Okay, I don't know anything about the harp. That is so cool.
Ravel, did you see all this stuff? Beautiful.
I mean, I know all that music, yeah. Okay, I see what you're saying.
It works out well and they wrote for us, so.
I didn't know that.
Or we just stole it, stole most of it and some of the piano stuff.
Wow.
But that's really how it happened. And as a kid, as a teenager, my dad like gave me this Alice Coltrane CD. And I was like, what's going on here?
And I really liked it and I was, this is before Google existed, way to sound old. And you couldn't just find people like you can find people today. So I would just, I went to college and Jackie McLean was still around. And I said, how can I, how can I meet Alice Coltrane? And I got my little dismount my Alice Coltrane CD. But the way that stars aligned when she passed away, Ravi called me to play for her memorial.
Oh.
So that's how that, that was like the beginning of a long, long, to this day, relationship, friendship, mentorship, you know, that I've had. And then on the other end, not the other end, this is just my other harp hero, Dorothy Ashby.
Of course.
The way things come together is just crazy. A very dear friend, family friend from home, who actually plays harp.
I don't want to bore you.
I'm like, where did you grow up?
Well, I was gonna say, so I was gonna say, growing up, no one played harp.
But people would always say, oh, there was this black woman named Sarah Lawrence, who played harp. And I'm like, okay. And my grandmother said, I know someone who plays harp. And I'm like, Nana, what do you know? And then she brought her over the house one day.
Apparently, my grandmother lived in her house when she came up north. She was like, part of the Great Migration. She lived with this family who had a little girl that played harp.
So, yeah, she, I'm from Hempstead, Long Island, and she grew up there, but she lives in California now. But guess whose harp she has?
Who's?
Dorothy Ashby's harp.
No way.
Yeah. I mean, just, I have so many of these stories that I'll, I'll spare your time, but...
This is the interesting stuff.
You realize that, like, okay, if I wasn't sure what it was meant to be, it's, the stars just align and align and align.
It was truly, chose you.
Yeah. That's why whenever you read anything about me, there was like, Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby. It's everywhere. It's like, well, people are like, are you sick of that? I was like, it's, seems to be the thing.
Yeah. Also, what a great association.
Yeah. Yeah. It's not easy in these harp streets, especially when you're playing music that's not orchestral repertoire, you know?
Yeah. And, and you, you tour?
Yeah, I tour. I do not bring the harp on tour.
You go to places that have a harp, or you rent one?
We rent, and a lot of times, you get the frantic call from the promoter, we, we can't find a harp. And so I usually reach out to colleagues or members of the Harp Society. Nerd alert, you know, can anyone help me out with harp? So, yeah, you gotta make sure you keep your friends.
Yeah. You don't go to a small town where you don't know any one in the society?
Right. Or you just reach out to that society ahead of time.
Yeah. There's always at least one, even in the smallest places.
Oh, my gosh. And as harps go, do they run the gamut? Or are they all pretty solid? Like, do you ever get a lemon?
So.
When you're touring?
I'll answer this question one way, but if you ask my bandmates, like my bass player, he's gonna say, at least you know, even if you get like something that's really old or really bad or really poorly taken care of, there's this standard. You're gonna end up with this line and heely harp, and I have to play this piece of junk.
And with a bass, yeah, totally.
Yeah, so if you ask him, he'll give you a mouthful. But sometimes you do get, in certain places, there is one harp. And that harp hasn't been serviced in a century.
Oh, wow, yeah.
And, you know, just like pianos, they're wooden instruments. They expand, they contract.
Exactly.
Yeah, it's a thing.
So they have a hard time holding their tunings sometimes?
Absolutely.
Okay, just like any instrument.
I live with this tuning.
Actually, just playing "Gadabala," I was like, ooh, I hock there, ooh.
How long does it take to tune?
In silence, just a few minutes.
In silence.
Are you sick of all these harp questions? I'm just so curious about it.
Well, no, because you're actually not asking. The "how did you start?" is basic, but everything else, people usually don't get into. So, no, this is great.
It's very interesting to me.
If you're a music fan, I've got a new podcast you have to check out. It's called "Before the Moment," a new series hosted by the legendary Nile Rodgers. You know him as the producer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of Chic. But in this series, he's hitting the road to sit down with some of today's most fascinating artists. From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren, Niall explores the stories behind the careers, the songs, and the moments that changed everything. Because every artist can point to that turning point, the moment before the breakthrough, before the success, before everything changed. Through candid conversations and personal stories, you'll hear what happened before
the moment that made them who they are today. Listen to Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series, on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
AI was supposed to make building simpler. Instead, people building with AI are navigating more models, tools, and resources than ever. The challenge isn't finding AI resources. The challenge is finding the ones that matter. With endless documentation, tutorials, and community threads, it can take longer to find the right path than to start building. That's where the Microsoft AI Innovators Hub comes in. Built for people turning AI ideas into working solutions, it brings together code samples, guided labs, and practical guidance on choosing models, building agents, and moving AI applications from prototype to production. And it's all in one place. Because the best way to learn AI is to build it.
And that's exactly what you can do at the AI Innovators Hub. Explore the Microsoft AI Innovators Hub and start building. Visit aka.ms/ai-innovators. That's aka.ms/ai-innovators.
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And details. Toyota, let's go places.
Um, should we do another song?
What about Un swept Corners?
All right.
All right. How old is this song?
This is on Gadabout season.
It's the new, from the new album. Okay.
Yes, so this is a positive light.
And someone sang on this.
Yeah, my friend Nia, she's over in LA. She left us for LA.
Oh, yes.
But I was like, can you sing on this? And then she wrote all these songs and I, I mean, words. And I was like, you know what? Just nix them.
You just like the.
Let's do vibes. Yeah, the album's so, so vibey. So in order to make everything connect, it's like, just, just make noise.
Okay, I'm gonna make some noise then.
The idea behind this, though, we wanted it, I wanted it to sound like an R and B slow jam.
Oh, cool.
A medium slow jam.
Yeah, yeah.
And, um, we, it sounded too R and B-ish, so we took, we went from sticks to brushes on the record to kind of like, you know, make it fit with the rest of the album.
I like it. You did a song with my friend Tank from Tank and the Bangas.
Love her.
Isn't she great?
She's incredible. They're my, my favorite band.
They're so amazing.
Hands down.
Incredible.
And that's also on this album?
No, that's on my last.
That's two albums ago.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, somewhere different. I gotta bring you all the albums.
I know. You should have just brought them on.
I know, I didn't want to be that person.
Sitting here on the pump organ with the puppets. Thanks for bringing it.
Thank you for taking it.
All right, let's do Un swept Corners.
One, two, three.
啊啦啦啦啦
啊啦啦啦啦 啦啦啦
啊
哦
啊啦啦啦啦 啊啦啦啦啦 啊啦啦啦 啊 啦啦啦啦啦 啦啦啦 啦
Yes, it was.
Yeah, you got that Isley Brothers chord in there.
I did, I did. Gotta make it sexy and soulful.
That one? Okay, cool.
I was like, or was it this one?
That's a great one.
You gotta sneak them in there, you know?
I know. Are you going on tour this year?
I am.
Are you just in a constant state of playing and touring?
Well, yeah, because I don't do like six-month tours. I'm not cut out for that. So I do runs and I come home, and do runs and I come home. So yeah, it's not like, okay, I'm out six months on the road. And no, I can't. I'm just not built that way.
Gotta feed the cat.
I also am a homebody. But I have to work, and so here we go.
Do you also teach?
I do, I do. I teach harp at NYU and at the New School.
That's cool. How long have you been doing that?
Five years now at these two schools.
Okay, that's very awesome. I mean, that's very, it's very impressive to me.
Well, thank you.
Yes, I'm very impressed.
It's a lot to balance, but I actually like teaching.
That's good.
And I realize having like older students, especially with what I do, I can, especially teaching has taught me now that I'm older, because I've always taught kids.
Oh, yeah.
But now I see like, okay, I need developed artists, you know, developed musicians.
Someone who's interested in what you're saying.
Yeah, and becoming an artist and not just a musician to do a job.
I'm noticing that now in my age, yeah.
Yeah, and I feel like art is ever evolving for you, for me, you know.
For, yeah.
It's so, it's a weird business, but it's, it's fun.
It's a weird business, all right.
It's a weird business, but it's fun to just discover yourself and rediscover yourself and rediscover yourself.
Yeah, over and over and over. Like, oh, this? Oh, wow. Yeah.
Who knew I liked that?
I know, or I'm just accepting this.
Yeah, exactly. Yes.
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If you're a music fan, I've got a new podcast you have to check out. It's called Before the Moment, a new series hosted by the legendary Nile Rodgers. You know him as the producer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of Chic. But in this series, he's hitting the road to sit down with some of today's most fascinating artists. From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren, Niall explores the stories behind the careers, the songs, and the moments that changed everything. Because every artist can point to that turning point, the moment before the breakthrough, before the success, before everything changed. Through candid conversations and personal stories, you'll hear what happened before the moment that made them who they are today.
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All right, well, this has been so fun. And I wanted to ask you selfishly, because I've never played with a harp or a harpist on anything. And I wanted to ask if you would do a song of mine with me.
Oh, my gosh, I would love that.
Would that be OK?
All right. I have this song. It's very easy. I thought this might be the easiest one. I also wanted to ask you, is the keys that you play in specific? Or you just have access to everything? Because I'm just thinking of, my sister plays the sitar.
Oh, right. And then what you've got in that one.
So we can move from key to key.
With the pedals. And that's what the pedals do.
It's changing key mid-situation that's a problem.
OK. All right, cool.
That's what makes the harp not cute. Make sure that you play the harp before we leave here. Because you keep looking over here.
I do, I want to see. I'm just going to go look. How many pedals do you actually have?
Seven.
Seven?
Come, come, come.
Oh, my God, it's beautiful.
Go ahead, go ahead.
Seriously?
Yeah. So you're in unsubcorners key. So you've got three flats on. So the reds are Cs.
Mm-hmm.
Go ahead, lean it back on your shoulder. Your shoulder and your knees to support it. I'm going to let go.
OK.
So you've got C and F. So this would be C, D right now, E-flat, F, G, A-flat, B-flat, C.
So C and, C and F is a good key for you?
No, it just happened to be what key that song was in.
So the pedals are down.
Yeah, so that's how you know what key you're in, those Cs and Fs. Yeah. That's what everybody wants to do.
That's the finest thing in the world. I'm in heaven.
But we can do more than that.
I'm in heaven. No, I know you can do more than that. Oh, that is so beautiful. Thank you. That just made my day.
Anytime.
I've always seen those little tiny harps in stores. And then it just goes down. Thank you, beauty.
This is Ruby.
Ruby?
Aw.
She has a name.
That's great. Do they all have names?
No. This is the only, this one was special because it was a gift.
So she asked, "What do you name it?" And I said, "Ruby."
That's cute.
It's my birthstone.
This is a song I wrote with Jeff Tweedy. And it's on an album from like maybe 2016.
Maybe it had a cool cover.
It did, yeah. It did have a cool cover. It was like almost like a shorty album, like an EP called Begin Again. And this is called A Song With No Name.
Because I guess we didn't want to give it a name. I guess that's a cop out, maybe.
Do I love you too much?
Do I hold you too tight?
Have you had enough?
Shake me off in night?
If I had a gun
If I had a knife
If I had your love
If I was your wife
If I go on my own
Then I'll see you in my dreams
And I'll hold you again
I will silently scream
That's beautiful. That's so fun. Such a pleasure. Yay. Can you just leave the harp here and we'll do like a session tomorrow? Oh my gosh, so now I know what your stereo's like. I could bring the bigger one here, I might cry, or the electric one. Really? I'm not so precious with the electric one. Okay, but even the bigger one would fit down that stair? We did get this piano down there. It would fit. Okay, this is very exciting. Yeah. Now I'm silently scheming.
I love you, you're awesome. I love you, you're awesome. Thanks for doing this.
Thank you for having me.
I wanted to do, I don't really do podcasts at all, like I'm trying to start to listen to them.
And everything, so I really wanted to do more podcasts. So when they were like, Norah Jones podcast, I was like, well, well, yes.
You don't have to ask me twice.
We were on a gig together a few years ago, and it was like 2021.
Not.
It was at the winery, City Winery. No, no, it was at City Winery.
Down here?
Was it for the Jazz Foundation of America?
Uh-huh, yes, I remember that very well.
Yeah, that's where I first saw you.
Oh, wow, you're paying attention.
I was trying.
Yeah, yeah, that was actually fun.
Yeah, so, thanks for doing this.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited.
Yeah, let's play again.
I would love to, and your studio is awesome.
Thank you, thank you.
I just want to come back.
Yeah, come back.
Yeah, thank you.
Yay. That was beautiful.
Amazing.
I loved hearing her on my song too, selfishly.
I didn't want it to stop.
More harp, please.
Yeah, that was cool.
It's okay, it's just a little tiny thing that you just, you know, put in your purse, right?
Yeah, oh my God, I was like, can you get the harp down the stairs? Yes, she's used to it.
I felt like I asked a lot of dorky harp questions. I hope it wasn't too many.
No, there's so many questions to ask.
I know. It was beautiful. Thanks to Brandy Younger for joining us today. If you want to know about the songs we played, the first song was "Dreamful Love Story." I just love that title. From her EP called Serenity: A Collection of Mindful Meditations, released in 2024. The second song was "Gad About Season," from the album titled Gad About Season 2025. And the third song is from that same album, and it's called "Unswept Corners." The fourth song we played was a song of mine from Begin Again, released in 2019. And the song is called "A Song With No Name." I think that's the one, I wrote that song with Jeff Tweedy.
Special thanks to Brandy Younger for joining us today. We'll be back next week with Alison Russell. Norah Jones is playing along as a production of iHeart Podcasts. Visit Norah Jones' channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. I'm your host, Norah Jones. This episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry. Audio post-production and mastering by Greg Tobler. Artwork by Eliza Frye. Photography by Shirvin Lenez. Produced by Norah Jones and Sarah Oda. Executive producers Erin Wong Kaufman and Jordan Runtog. Marketing lead Alison Cantor-Graeber. Thanks for joining us. See you next time. See ya next time.
Building with AI should feel simpler, not harder to navigate. The challenge is finding the right resources to move from exploring AI to building with it. The Microsoft AI Innovators Hub brings together code samples, guided labs, and practical guidance to help you move from exploring AI to building with it. Learn by building at the AI Innovators Hub. Visit aka.ms/ai-innovators. That's aka.ms/ai-innovators.
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