Written by Harp and big band is a tricky combination, as Brandee Younger’s appearance at Finland’s biggest festival, The Helsinki Jazz Festival, showed.
Over the past decade or so, Brandee Younger has brought back the harp as a jazz solo instrument, joined by Amanda Whiting, Iro Haarla and more recently Nala Sinephro. They all explore the path blazed by Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. Like these forebears, Younger combines a luminous string sound with robust compositional and improvisational chops.
Ashby debuted as a leader in 1957 and went to guest with Freddie Hubbard, Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers and many others, while Coltrane first recorded with her husband in the mid-60s before a string of classic albums after his death.
The spirit of those foremothers hung benevolently over Younger’s show with an acoustic trio at Helsinki’s Flow Festival in August 2023, but was more muffled in this return appearance a year later with the 14-man UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra.
Younger’s harp has been featured in many settings, from jazz bands with the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane and Jack DeJohnette to hip-hop appearances with Beyoncé, Drake and Lauryn Hill, and with Pete Rock on her own 2023 Brand New Life. But the combination with a mighty big band proved to be dicey.
This Helsinki Festival show marked the first time that Younger was featured with big-band arrangements of her own compositions as well as pieces she’s recorded by Ashby, Coltrane and Wonder.
The night came off as an interesting experiment with mixed results. The harp is an intimate instrument that needs space to resonate – and that’s hard to find in an orchestral setting. Too often, her solos were buried by the brawny horn section.
The problem was the often heavy-handed approach of conductor Ed Partyka, who arranged the nine pieces along with pianist Artturi Rönkä and bassist Oskari Siirtola. The evening was a constant balancing act between the delicacy of the harp and the drive of the big band.
Adding to that built-in challenge, the show was in an urban festival tent, hardly the ideal setting. The sound technicians surely did their best, but the mix was hit-or-miss, never the concert-hall acoustics that this project deserved.
The four originals included ‘Respected Destroyer’ from her debut a decade ago and ‘Olivia Benson,’ which Younger dedicated to the just-deceased guitarist Russell Malone. That featured an evocative bass clarinet solo by Max Zenger, UMO’s newest member, while tenor saxophonist Manuel Dunkel was exquisite on Alice Coltrane’s floating ‘Blue Nile’. Otherwise, most of the band’s soloists turned in rather rote, predictable contributions.
Younger did her best to be heard, dazzling on moments when Partyka reined in the horn sections and gave her space backed by just a restrained quartet and flutes, such as on Ashby’s ‘Running Game’ and her own ‘Moving Target’.
The encore was perfect: ‘If It’s Magic’ played as celestially as Ashby’s original on Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life – as close to the sound of heaven as most of us may ever hear.
You can find out more about Brandee Younger here at her website.
All photos by Julius Konttinen
Last modified: September 23, 2024
