A first-call session musician in the '00s, NYC harpist Brandee Younger built her rep by playing with major figures such as Lauryn Hill, Ravi Coltrane, and BADBADNOTGOOD. Now Younger has blossomed into a jazz star in the 2020s, with her breakthrough coming via the collaborative LP with bassist Dezron Douglas, Force Majeure. Released during the pandemic's early days, it included life-giving covers of compositions by Kate Bush, Alice and John Coltrane, the Stylistics, and Sting, among others. The duo's rendition of Pharoah Sanders's holy “The Creator Has a Master Plan” compresses the 33-minute original to about three, distilling its most beautiful and hypnotic passage into a delicate tapestry of pure spiritual love. Younger's approach—making the harp the main engine of melody instead of its traditional role as ornamentation—also appears on her latest release, Brand New Life, a tribute album to the great post-bop harpist Dorothy Ashby. Whether with her own tunes or interpreting others', Younger's melodic gracefulness and supple soulfulness induce shivers.  by Dave Segal