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There is a duality of modes that certain harpists subscribe to. Track harpist Dorothy Ashby, one of the very first to bring the harp into a prominent role in jazz, or the regal Alice Coltrane—whose husband, saxophone legend John Coltrane, bought a harp for her but never got the opportunity to hear how his life partner would become a legend herself.
Or even tap into Grammy-winning harpist Brandee Younger, who meanders through an “Afrofuturist sonic palette” to strike a balance between old-school hip-hop and R&B that she’s known for fusing-stretching jazz ideas alongside the rich church background she grew up with. You can see a pattern, a tradition of blending the melodic with the sublime, mixing multiple genre palettes.
Bay Area fans of jazz, soul, and supreme music are lucky to have Oakland’s own singer and harpist, Destiny Muhammad, self-described “harpist from the hood” and sonic storyteller, mixing jazz, Celtic, and classical traditions here in the Bay.
Playing family matinee shows at SFJAZZ, where she’s able to introduce the harp as another voice in the jazz idiom for the younglings to consider; holding court with her trio on the Great Lawn of Yerba Buena Gardens; or participating in a Dorothy Ashby Birthday Celebration at the Four Star Theatre during a screening of the iconic Valley of the Dolls, Muhammad illustrates how this instrument can be incorporated into a number of musical settings.
A surprise encounter sparked love for the harp in Destiny—at nine years old, she watched Harpo Marx playing one on an episode of “I Love Lucy.” Unfortunately, a hardscrabble upbringing kept the instrument out of reach for almost 30 years, during which Muhammad opened her own barbershop. It was only when she dated a harp builder that her musical destiny was sealed. “That’s when the dream came rushing back,” Muhammad told KQED in 2024. “Didn’t I say I wanted to do this when I was a shorty back in Compton, watching an episode of ‘I Love Lucy’? I said I wanted to do this!”
She soon went to musical school to discover her gifts and share them with the Bay Area, wielding the complexities of instrument like a Swiss Army knife, arpeggiating from one genre to another. We’re so lucky to benefit from that fated encounter.
Catch a family matinee with Destiny Muhammed at SF JAZZ Saturday, September 19, at 11am. More info here.
