When Destiny Muhammad was a 9-year-old living in Compton, she saw Harpo Marx playing the harp on the beloved sitcom, I Love Lucy. She knew instantly in her heart that that was her future and her destiny.
A $400 layaway plan, classical lessons and unwavering belief later, Muhammad began rewriting what the harp could sound like. Over the past three decades she has expanded the possibilities of the 4,500-year-old instrument, pushing it into jazz, improvisation and entirely new sonic territory.
About three years into her first lessons, Muhammad was introduced to the music of Dorothy Ashby, an American jazz harpist and vocalist. Despite her previous teachings focusing on European classical song structures, Muhammad was entranced by the freedom of improvisation and continued to draw on inspiration from the likes of Miles Davis and Alice Coltrane. Speaking of these musical giants, she says, “I knew I was going to walk in that legacy.”…