SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SPRING, 2018
VOLUME FIVE NUMBER THREE
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
DOROTHY ASHBY
(April 21-27)
MILFORD GRAVES
(April 28-May 4)
LOUIS JORDAN
(May 5-11)
JOSEPH JARMAN
(May 12-18)
OTIS BLACKWELL
{May 19-25)
MARION BROWN
(May 26-June 1)
SKIP JAMES
(June 2-8)
CHARLIE PATTON
(JUNE 9-15)
STEFON HARRIS
(JUNE 16–22)
MEMPHIS MINNIE
(June 23-29)
HAROLD LAND
(June 30-July 6)
WILLIE DIXON
Dorothy Ashby
(1930-1986)
Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
There have been very few jazz harpists in history and Dorothy Ashby
was one of the greats. Somehow she was able to play credible bebop on
her instrument. As a pianist she studied at Wayne State University in
her hometown of Detroit, and in 1952 she switched to harp. Within two
years, Ashby
was gigging in jazz, and in 1956 she made her first recording as a
leader. Between 1956-1970, she led ten albums for such labels as Savoy,
Prestige, New Jazz, Argo, Jazzland, Atlantic, and Cadet, guested on many
records, and was firmly established as a top studio and session player.
She moved to the West Coast in the 1970s and was active up until her
death in 1986.
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/dorothyashby
Born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson, she grew up around music in Detroit where her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson, often brought home fellow jazz musicians. Even as a young girl, Dorothy would provide support and background to their music by playing the piano. She attended Cass Technical High School where fellow students included such future musical talents and jazz greats as Donald Byrd, Gerald Wilson, and Kenny Burrell. While in high school she played a number of instruments (including the saxophone and string bass) before coming upon the harp.
She attended Wayne State University in Detroit where she studied piano and music education. After she graduated, she began playing the piano in the jazz scene in Detroit, though by 1952 she had made the harp her main instrument. At first her fellow jazz musicians were resistant to the idea of adding the harp, which they perceived as an instrument of classical music and also somewhat ethereal in sound, into jazz performances. So Ashby overcame their initial resistance and built up support for the harp as a jazz instrument by organizing free shows and playing at dances and weddings with her trio. She recorded with Richard Davis, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess and others in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During the 1960s, she also had her own radio show in Detroit.
Ashby's trio, including her husband John Ashby on drums, regularly toured the country, recording albums for several different record labels. She played with Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman, among others. In 1962 Downbeat magazine's annual poll of best jazz performers included Ashby. Extending her range of interests and talents, she also worked with her husband on a theater company, the Ashby Players, which her husband founded in Detroit, and for which Dorothy often wrote the scores.
In the late 1960s, the Ashbys gave up touring and settled in California where Dorothy broke into the studio recording system as a harpist through the help of the soul singer Bill Withers, who recommended her to Stevie Wonder. As a result, Dorothy was called upon for a number of studio sessions playing for such popular recording artists as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Barry Manilow. Her harp playing is featured in the song “Come Live With Me' which is on the soundtrack for the 1967 movie, Valley of the Dolls. One of her more noteworthy performances in contemporary popular music was playing the harp on the song “If It's Magic” on Stevie Wonder's 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. She is also featured on Bill Withers' 1974 album, +'Justments.
Her albums include The Jazz Harpist, In a Minor Groove, Hip Harp, Fantastic Jazz Harp of Dorothy Ashby with (Junior Mance), Django/Misty, Concerto De Aranjuez, Afro Harping, Dorothy's Harp, The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby, and Music for Beautiful People. Between 1956-1970, she recorded 10 albums for such labels as Savoy, Cadet, Prestige, New Jazz, Argo, Jazzland and Atlantic. On her “Rubaiyat” album, Ashby played the Japanese musical instrument, the koto, demonstrating her talents on another instrument, and successfully integrating it into jazz.
http://www.spaceagepop.com/ashby.htm
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/dorothyashby
Dorothy Ashby
Born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson, she grew up around music in Detroit where her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson, often brought home fellow jazz musicians. Even as a young girl, Dorothy would provide support and background to their music by playing the piano. She attended Cass Technical High School where fellow students included such future musical talents and jazz greats as Donald Byrd, Gerald Wilson, and Kenny Burrell. While in high school she played a number of instruments (including the saxophone and string bass) before coming upon the harp.
She attended Wayne State University in Detroit where she studied piano and music education. After she graduated, she began playing the piano in the jazz scene in Detroit, though by 1952 she had made the harp her main instrument. At first her fellow jazz musicians were resistant to the idea of adding the harp, which they perceived as an instrument of classical music and also somewhat ethereal in sound, into jazz performances. So Ashby overcame their initial resistance and built up support for the harp as a jazz instrument by organizing free shows and playing at dances and weddings with her trio. She recorded with Richard Davis, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess and others in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During the 1960s, she also had her own radio show in Detroit.
Ashby's trio, including her husband John Ashby on drums, regularly toured the country, recording albums for several different record labels. She played with Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman, among others. In 1962 Downbeat magazine's annual poll of best jazz performers included Ashby. Extending her range of interests and talents, she also worked with her husband on a theater company, the Ashby Players, which her husband founded in Detroit, and for which Dorothy often wrote the scores.
In the late 1960s, the Ashbys gave up touring and settled in California where Dorothy broke into the studio recording system as a harpist through the help of the soul singer Bill Withers, who recommended her to Stevie Wonder. As a result, Dorothy was called upon for a number of studio sessions playing for such popular recording artists as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Barry Manilow. Her harp playing is featured in the song “Come Live With Me' which is on the soundtrack for the 1967 movie, Valley of the Dolls. One of her more noteworthy performances in contemporary popular music was playing the harp on the song “If It's Magic” on Stevie Wonder's 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. She is also featured on Bill Withers' 1974 album, +'Justments.
Her albums include The Jazz Harpist, In a Minor Groove, Hip Harp, Fantastic Jazz Harp of Dorothy Ashby with (Junior Mance), Django/Misty, Concerto De Aranjuez, Afro Harping, Dorothy's Harp, The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby, and Music for Beautiful People. Between 1956-1970, she recorded 10 albums for such labels as Savoy, Cadet, Prestige, New Jazz, Argo, Jazzland and Atlantic. On her “Rubaiyat” album, Ashby played the Japanese musical instrument, the koto, demonstrating her talents on another instrument, and successfully integrating it into jazz.
http://www.spaceagepop.com/ashby.htm
Dorothy Ashby
- Born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson 6 August 1930, Detroit, Michigan
- Died 13 April 1986, Santa Monica, California
Although not the first jazz harpist, Dorothy Ashby was clearly the most successful, and contributed some choice recordings in the hard bop and jazz-funk styles. She grew up around music in Detroit, where her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson, often brought fellow jazz musicians home to jazz while Dorothy comped in the background on their piano.
She came to the harp only after a short detour through saxophone and bass in the band of Cass Technical High School, where she attended alongside future jazz greats Donald Byrd, Gerald Wilson, and Kenny Burrell. She had to share five harps with fourteen other students, however, so she must have quickly discovered an affinity, because she was left with a goal of owning her own harp. As she later commented, "This isn't just a novelty, though that is what you expect. The harp has a clean jazz voice with a resonance and syncopation that turn familiar jazz phrasing inside out."
She attended Wayne State University, studying piano and music education, and after graduation, went to work in the small but lively jazz scene in Detroit. Although she could get hired as a pianist, she wanted to play harp more, and bought one in 1952. She overcame initial resistance to the concept by organizing free shows and playing to dances with her trio.
Ashby's trio, including her husband John Ashby on drums, toured the country and appeared on a variety of jazz labels through the late 1960s. She played with Louis Armstrong, Woody Herman, and other acts, and in 1962, was selected in down beat's annual poll of best jazz performers. She also worked with her husband on a theater company, the Ashby Players, he founded in Detroit.
In the late 1960s, they tired of touring and moved to California, where she broke into the studio system (which already had enough harpists for its needs) with the help of soul singer Bill Withers. Withers recommended her to Stevie Wonder and she ended up with a steady series of session gigs, playing behind such singers as Dionne Warwicke, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Barry Manilow. Ashby's Cadet albums have come to be viewed as among the best early examples of acid jazz, and now fetch eye-watering prices among collectors. Breaks and rhythm tracks from the superb Richard Evans arrangements have become favorites for sampling and remix artists.
Recordings
- Dorothy Ashby--Jazz Harpist, Regent MG-6039
- Hip Harp, Prestige PRLP-7140
- Soft Winds, Jazzland JLP-961
- Dorothy Ashby, Argo LPS-690
- The Fantastic Jazz Harp of Dorothy Ashby, Atlantic SD-1447
- Afro Harping, Cadet LPS-809
- Dorothy's Harp, Cadet LPS-825
- Rubaiyat, Cadet LPS-841
- Music for Beautiful People, Prestige PRST-7639
Detroit-born harp master Dorothy Ashby stands as one of the most unjustly under-loved jazz greats of the 1950s.
Talk About 'Shadow Classics'
Why isn't the harp more common in jazz?
Besides Rufus Harley, the famous jazz bagpipe player, what other
instrumentalists have brought unusual sounds to jazz?
It's a Minor Thing
Rascallity
You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To
- Recording: In a Minor Groove
- Artist: Dorothy Ashby
- Genre: Jazz
- Label: Prestige (1958)
Ashby swings, plain and simple. When she plays some mid-tempo scooting-along tune, like her own "Rascallity" (audio) all the stock riffage and jazz bravado common on so many records of this era disappears. Leading her chamber group, Ashby operates in an unassuming way, leaping through intricate arpeggios that no other jazz instrumentalist could attempt. Her single lines may not be terribly fancy, but she selects her notes carefully, and plays each one with a classical guitarist's stinging articulation. Ashby accompanies flautist Frank Wess on "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" (audio), sometimes snapping off chords as if the harp were just a bigger guitar, and at other times using its immense range to conjure an enveloping wash of sound in the background.
Given all the peak jazz experiences recorded around 1957 and '58 (Sonny Rollins' Live at the Village Vanguard, Miles Davis' Milestones, and so on), it's easy to understand why Ashby's In A Minor Groove didn't attract a massive audience. She and her groups of the day, here including Roy Haynes on drums, play pleasant, utterly typical and hardly earth-shattering chamber jazz. Still, it's a notably smart and polished version of typical, and anyone who can make a massive instrument like the concert harp dance — and use it to swing in such a cool, low-key way — deserves to be more than a footnote.
The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby
One of Ashby's early album dates as a leader, with a title that anticipated potential skepticism from the jazz audience of the 1950s.
In a 1950 article for Metronome, jazz promoter Leonard Feather made the case for expanding the repertoire of instruments used in jazz, calling for a “Bud Powell of the harpsichord, a Charlie Parker of the flute, or an Oscar Pettiford of the bassoon.” Eight years later Feather’s article was invoked by critic Ira Gitler in the liner notes for an album called Hip Harp, and in Gitler’s view, the Bud Powell of the harp, at least, had arrived, in the person of Dorothy Ashby.
Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1932, Ashby started out playing piano, and learned much about music from her jazz guitarist father. She took up the harp while studying at Cass Tech, a legendary school that a number of other notable Detroit jazz musicians passed through, including a fellow future jazz harpist, Alice Coltrane. Ashby also studied piano and music education at Wayne State University, and when she first made her way onto the Detroit jazz scene of the early 1950s, it was as a pianist; “I didn’t even own a harp,” she told jazz historian Sally Placksin. But she eventually acquired one and committed herself to one of the most unusual paths in jazz:
I just tried to transfer the things that I had heard and the things that I wanted to do as a jazz player to the harp. Nobody had ever told me these things shouldn’t be done, or were not usually done on the harp, because I didn’t hear it any other way. The only thing I was interested in doing was playing jazz on the harp.Being a jazz harpist presented many challenges for Ashby. The improvisations and musical structures of jazz were more difficult to execute on a harp than on other instruments, and even achieving the kind of mastery that Ashby attained did little to undercut the prejudices of the professional music business. Talking about the national scene, Ashby said that “Often the harpists who got write-ups and the media coverage were very pretty, and that seemed to be about all that they were interested in.” Even in her hometown of Detroit, where talent counted most, the notion of harp as a jazz instrument was initially met with skepticism.
“The word ‘harp’ seemed to just scare people,” Ashby told jazz historian Sally Placksin. She said that club owners, certain that she would play chamber music, sometimes refused to even give her an audition. But she aggressively pursued gigs of all kinds, and eventually made inroads into the nightclub scene. By the late 1950s she was signed to Prestige Records, where she made two albums in quick succession that furthered her growing reputation, and which once again utilized frequent early collaborator Frank Wess on flute:
Ashby generally received good notices from jazz writers of the day; in his liner notes for the album SOFT WINDS, Ira Gitler said, “Dorothy Ashby may not be the first jazz harpist or the first female jazz harpist, but her feeling for time and ability to construct melodic guitar-like lines mark her as the most accomplished modern jazz harpist…. Orrin Keepnews paid her a high compliment when he said that she reminded him of Wes Montgomery.” Ashby also demonstrated a gift for writing catchy, often-minor-key melodies, and knowing how they would translate to harp. Speaking to jazz historian Sally Placksin about the harp’s complexity, Ashby said,
Even arrangers admit that often they don’t know how to write what they’d like to write. What they would be willing to write for harp often doesn’t work, because they’re writing from a pianistic point of view, or maybe another instrumental point of view, and that doesn’t work on a harp, because you can only change two pedals at a time, and various other technicalities…. The harp has complexities that a person has to be able to work out in their head while they’re spontaneously creating jazz on it.From her eponymous 1962 album, here’s Ashby’s composition “John R”:
That same year Ashby won DownBeat critics’ and readers’ awards. Her touring trio, which included drummer and husband John Ashby, worked frequently, and she appeared with Louis Armstrong, Woody Herman, and other marquee jazz acts. Ashby’s discography went quiet for a couple of years, however, until she re-emerged in 1965 with The Fantastic Jazz Harp Of Dorothy Ashby. While most of her albums had been made in a trio or quartet context, this date added four trombones to some of the selections, and the results added to Ashby’s file of positive jazz-press notices. One reviewer, his comments reflecting in part the continuing prejudice against harps in jazz, wrote that “This isn’t just novelty, though that is what you expect. The harp has a clean jazz voice with a resonance and syncopation that turn familiar jazz phrasing inside out:”
Some, if not much, of Ashby’s musical output from this period remains unheard. She and husband John Ashby ran a black theater company called the Ashby Players of Detroit that presented plays and musicals which addressed the African-American experience; John Ashby wrote many of the scripts, and Dorothy Ashby often composed the music for these productions, recording it on reel-to-reel tapes that have never been released. She also hosted a jazz radio show in Detroit during the 1960s called “The Lab.”
Several years passed before Ashby recorded again commercially as a leader, when Chicago soul maven Richard Evans got her signed to Cadet Records. On her 1968 album Afro-Harping, produced by Evans, Ashby sounded in tune with the times, and her jazz harp, once considered so exotic, now seemed a good fit for the psychedelic tapestry of the late 1960s:
In the early 1970s Ashby and her husband moved to California, and she found a fair amount of studio work in the dayglow musical landscape of that place and time, recording with Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Earth, Wind and Fire, Diana Ross, and other notable jazz, pop and R & B musicians. She made more recordings as a jazz artist in the mid-1980s, but died in 1986 at the age of 55, at a time when she might have been a prime candidate for rediscovery by a new generation of listeners. Writing about Ashby for NPR in 2006, Tom Moon said, “Anyone who can make a massive instrument like the concert harp dance — and use it to swing in such a cool, low-key way — deserves to be more than a footnote.”
We close with music from Ashby’s 1970 album The Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby, inspired by the writings of Persian scholar and poet Omar Khayyam. Chicago soul wizard Richard Evans once again produced, and Ashby stretched her musical reach in his jazz-funk settings with electrified harp, koto, and vocals:
More About Dorothy Ashby
- Dorothy Ashby And A Harp That Swings (NPR story)
- Sally Placksin, American Women In Jazz, 1900-Present. A book that includes one of the most extensive accounts of Ashby, including quotes from an interview with the harpist.
- Richard Evans Put The Soul In Cadet Records (article about the producer of some of Ashby’s 1960s recordings)
https://pilotonline.com/entertainment/music/behind-the-groove/article_23ff3716-e7b7-55ee-abc7-dd54efa9a699.html
Dorothy Ashby, the jazz harpist who blurred the edges
IT MAKES SENSE that the first time I heard the exotic jazz and spiritual funk of Dorothy Ashby patchouli thickened the air.
The
combination of the incense smoke and the music booming from the
speakers was intoxicating inside the tiny New York City record shop. I
asked the heavily tattooed guy behind the counter, “Hey, who’s that?”
“Who’s what?”
“The music playing.”
He
pointed to the CD on display near the register: “The Rubaiyat of
Dorothy Ashby.” I bought a copy, and about six years later the 1970
underground classic has rarely left my rotation. I hardly understand the
dense poetry Ashby croons and recites in a soothing contralto, all
inspired by ancient Persia, specifically the philosophy of Omar Khayyam.
The music over which Ashby delivers the poems braids various styles –
from funk to bop, from swing to Japanese pop – and it all coheres
majestically, thanks to the arranging genius of Richard Evans.
By
the time Ashby recorded “Rubaiyat” for the experimental Cadet subsidiary
of Chicago’s Chess Records, the harpist had been a respected and
somewhat novel presence in jazz for about 15 years. She’d recorded
albums for the Savoy and Prestige labels that often brilliantly placed
an unlikely instrument like the harp in a hard bop context.
In 1968, the Detroit native moved left of straight-ahead jazz and
added funk and R&B textures to her Chess debut, “Afro Harping.” Two
years later, Ashby took another sharp left turn, imbuing her sound with
deep Eastern shades. In addition to playing the electrified harp on the
“Rubaiyat” sessions, Ashby also plucked the kalimba and the koto. The
esoteric lyrics were enfolded by music that swirled in several
directions but was all rooted in a groove-rich bottom, a sound and
attitude that could have only come from a wildly eclectic musical city
like Chicago in the late 1960s.
Nothing about the trans-cultural
blends feels forced or awkward. Perhaps that speaks to the experimental
mindset of many jazz artists at the time. John Coltrane had explored the
inner visions of his spirit just five years before on “A Love Supreme.”
After his death in 1967, his wife, Alice, extended such challenging
sounds on her own albums.
But
even in its exoticism, Ashby’s spiritual sojourn via music was
accessible. “Rubaiyat” presaged by just a few years the streamlining of
Eastern and black Christian philosophies that urban-pop artists like
Earth, Wind & Fire, Minnie Riperton and Stevie Wonder wove into
their music.
“Myself When Young” opens Side 1 with a glistening
harp and koto and introduces Ashby’s amber voice, not present on her
previous albums. It’s a robust sound, almost operatic, with earnest
gospel nuances. The song gives way to a swaggering jazz-funk groove,
overlaid with strutting syncopated strings. “For Some We Loved,”
anchored by koto and layered percussion, is driven by the blues, the
effect hypnotic. “Wax & Wane” extends the mood, with palpitating
rhythms straight from Africa and Brazil.
The undulating “Dust”
opens Side 2 and beautifully segues into “Joyful Grass & Grape.”
Springy plucks on the koto shadow Ashby’s throaty recitation. Then a
moody break beat, which sounds like something RZA of Wu Tang Clan forgot
to sample, kicks in. The album closes with “The Moving Finger,” which
ties together the hip blues and funk pulsing through the album, all
shaded by shimmering Eastern notes.
“The Rubaiyat of Dorothy
Ashby” wasn’t a hit upon release but later became a favorite among crate
diggers, hip-hop producers and adventurous jazz fans. Ashby never
eclipsed the artistic achievement of the record but remained an
in-demand session musician. That’s her playing the lovely harp on “If
It’s Magic,” a highlight on Stevie’s 1976 classic, “Songs in the Key of
Life.” Cancer took Ashby’s vibrant life in 1986. She was 53.
Rashod Ollison
757-446-2732, rashod.ollison@pilotonline.com
http://revive-music.com/2013/08/06/who-is-dorothy-ashby-to-our-generation-part-1/
https://www.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2014/01/23/the-jazz-diaspora-dorothy-ashbys-hip-harp
What do Stevie Wonder , Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Barry Manilow have in common? They all had the good sense to call in Dorothy Ashby to play harp on their records. There is little doubt that these performers had heard Ashby's exquisite playing on her late-'50s and '60s recordings and desired the ethereal sound of her harp to be on their records, too. Dorothy Ashby made the harp swing. When was the last time you heard a funky harp player?
The harp had made appearances in the jazz world before, but it was Ashby that helped elevate it beyond a mere colorant and into a strong lead voice that was just as intriguing as a guitar or piano. The harp's inherent mellifluous quality renders it immediately likable and in the hands of a strong lead player it becomes irresistible, an aural gossamer that wraps you up in just the right way. Check her albums Afro-Harping and The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby for prime examples of her dulcet, tasteful, and most of all, soulful playing.
Like her fellow Detroit natives Terri Pollard and Alice Coltrane, Ashby had started as a pianist and after enrolling in a high school music class the harp became her primary focus. Detroit was rife with pianists, so why not play harp? How many jazz harpists are there? Not many. Alice Coltrane famously utilized the harp on her sublime late-'60s and early-'70s recordings and yet she still considered the piano her main instrument. "I just never considered myself to be a harpist to begin with and I didn't have a lot of background experience [with the instrument] either. But people would say, 'Oh, she plays harp'. They would almost go to the harp first, and then the piano." Coltrane was almost certainly inspired by Ashby's command of the instrument, "There was another person from the city of Detroit [who played the harp] and her name is Dorothy Ashby. She was a most beautiful harpist, the very best. She used her (musical) voice with the harp so beautifully."
In this late-1960s interview, Ashby strongly advocates for jazz education in serious academic settings. "Jazz has a long way to go in the academic community because some of those who teach have not experienced being with jazz people or jazz music, either from circumstance or choice, and continued to think of it as the music of disreputable people, to be performed in disreputable places." She states with great erudition how accomplished jazz musicians could teach the subject, "This requires a keen ear, one that really has heard all kinds of jazz for years. It requires a sharp mind, one that has learned jazz outside of the formal educational system. Of course, we learned the basics of music techniques at school, but we did not study the art of improvisation. Jazz, being the product of the moment, must have spontaneous creation." She goes on to explain its instructional function, "how to create endlessly varying melodies and rhythms in a particular idiom, using a given set of chords; how to fashion continuous harmonic variations for a given melodic line in one or a multitude of forms; and how to design combinations of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic variations for this spontaneous improvisational form we call jazz."
Within that last quote lies one of the finest definitions of jazz I've ever read. Thank you, Dorothy Ashby.
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/dorothy_ashby_jazz_funk_harpist_extraordinaire
1968 was a great year in music, to be sure, great enough that in
addition to all of the uncontested masterpieces, it coughed up its fair
share of noteworthy oddities, including, among others, Sagittarius’ Present Tense, Dr. John’s Gris-Gris, God Bless Tiny Tim, The Monkees’ Head, and the first LPs by both Os Mutantes and the Silver Apples.
It was a rich and resonant year, so much so that a record as great and unusual as Dorothy Ashby’s incredible jazz-funk harp masterpiece Afro-Harping almost gets lost in the shuffle.
Almost.
Its title proudly emblazoned in futuristic 120-point Amelia (a typeface most often associated with Alvin Toffler), Afro-Harping is a landmark in jazz music, a truly funky album with the harp as the primary focus. Ashby already had several albums to her name but this remarkable project came about as a collaboration between herself and a producer named Richard Evans, whose biggest successes for Cadet Records to that point had been two albums by the Soulful Strings, 1966’s Paint It Black and 1967’s Groovin’ with the Soulful Strings. Evans had the brilliant idea of adding flute and theremin (!) as well as an enticing syncopated beat to make the album’s first track, “Soul Vibrations” an unforgettable piece of music. (It recently popped up in the opening credits of an episode of Aziz Ansari’s Netflix series Master of None.)
Here it is:
Born in 1930, Ashby was from Detroit, the daughter of noted jazz guitarist Wiley Thompson. Thompson used to invite his jazz buddies over to play, and Ashby (née Thompson, natch) would join in on the piano. She attended Cass Technical High School and Wayne State University, and somewhere along the way she drifted from the piano to the harp.
Dorothy Ashby
Roslyn Rensch in the volume Harps and Harpists writes:
I love the idea of a harp “riff”!
It’s actually difficult to find out much about Afro-Harping. Much of the album has a distinctive Henry Mancini feel, the perfect spice to any swinging party, but there’s not much on it that feels very “Afro” (aside from the smooth funk, of course). It features a cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “The Look of Love” and a composition by Freddie Hubbard as well as the theme music to Valley of the Dolls by André and Dory Previn.
The challenges of making harp the centerpiece of an ensemble were not minor in nature. As Rensch observes,
Sadly, unsung pioneers like Ashby are always sorely in need of greater recognition. You can hear her harp on classic songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, and Bobby Womack and she’s been sampled by Common, The Pharcyde, J Dilla, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Pete Rock, The GZA, Phife Dawg, Flying Lotus, Madlib, Jurassic 5, Angie Stone and Ghostface Killah. Belle and Sebastian did their part by placing “Soul Vibrations” onto their 2012 compilation Late Night Tales, Vol. II. Putting the song into your own mix matrix will make you the coolest cat on your block, no doubt.
https://flypaper.soundfly.com/play/dorothy-ashby-was-one-fierce-lady-pioneer-of-jazz-harp/
A few years ago, I had one of the most powerful live music experiences of my life when I went to see Stevie Wonder on his Songs in the Key of Life Tour. He delivered one of the greatest collections of musical material ever composed and performed at the highest level with the emotion, energy, and musicality of a true master.
The band was massive: two drummers, three guitarists, bass, two or three other keyboardists behind him, a full string section with a conductor, a horn section, backup singers, plus India.Arie sitting in as a featured guest vocalist.
The only thing missing was a harp. And this was going to be a problem because, soon, it came time to play the album’s classic vocal-and-harp duet, “If It’s Magic.”
Wonder confidently explained that he felt that harpist Dorothy Ashby should not be replaced, so this song would feature the only pre-recorded track of the evening. As he sang, a picture of Ashby was projected upon the screen, looking out over the crowd. Despite the size of the venue — the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore — and the awkward singalong situation, this “duet” captivated the large audience and was both intimate and moving, even without the live presence of the harpist.
Ashby’s playing was just that special.
Here’s a video from this tour‘s stop in Dallas in which Wonder introduces the same song, explaining that Ashby was “singing with her harp.”
By the time Dorothy Ashby recorded with Wonder, the Detroit-born harpist was already living in Los Angeles and playing on recording sessions with a long list of pop and R&B artists, including Bill Withers, Minnie Riperton, Aretha Franklin, and so many others. “If It’s Magic” is only three minutes and 12 seconds of music recorded in one day over the course of a career that spanned 30-something years, but here it was representing Ashby in a special tribute in front of tens of thousands of fans every night on a national tour.
So, I guess this is as good a place as any to begin exploring Ashby’s music.
Ashby was not only a high-profile session player, she also led a rich career as a composer and recording artist, releasing albums that ranged from straight-ahead jazz to jazz-funk and soul and covers of pop songs. And even though the legacy of innovation and experimentation with the harp as an open-ended instrument worth bringing out of the rusty cages of the classical orchestra perhaps belongs more definitively to Alice Coltrane, Ashby had already done a lot of that work years before Coltrane ever set foot into a studio.
Her discography shows the progression of an artist fighting against preconceived notions of the harp’s place in improvised music. On her early records, The Jazz Harpist (1957) and Hip Harp (1958), Ashby emerged as an iconoclast with a strong voice for jazz groove and improvisation.
On the occasion of what would have been her 87th birthday this weekend, here’s a quick overview of her recorded work.
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http://revive-music.com/2013/08/06/who-is-dorothy-ashby-to-our-generation-part-1/
When we think of Detroit’s rich musical legacy — from Motown’s
soulful artists to jazz greats including Ron Carter, Barry Harris, Alice
Coltrane, Kenny Garrett and Geri Allen — we should not forget the
harpist, pianist, composer, theatrical producer and radio host, Dorothy
Ashby. Born on this day, August 6, 1932, during the Great Depression,
she was a part of a generation of artists who came out of Detroit and
became fixtures on the global music scene. Choosing the harp as her
primary instrument, she was dedicated to giving the traditionally
classical instrument a clear voice in jazz and popular genres.
I wonder if she had any idea of the influence she’d have within just a decade of her death. My take is that she did. You may have heard her first on Stevie Wonder’s album Songs in the Key of Life, accompanying Stevie Wonder on his song “If It’s Magic.” Or, maybe you heard her groove on some of Bill Withers’ soulful albums. If you’re a jazz fan, you may have heard her swinging accompaniment with Frank Wess’ lyrical soloing or with Freddie Hubbard playing “Portrait of Jenny.” However, if you are of the hip-hop generation, she may have been brought to your consciousness on Pete Rock’s “Fakin Jax,” Common’s “Start the Show,” or on the remix to Jay Z’s “A Million and one Questions,” to name just a few. Having released 11 albums during her career, spanning from straight ahead jazz to big band to funk, she knew she had something special, whether the labels and producers of the time caught on to it or not.
Dorothy Ashby’s first album, The Jazz Harpist, came out in 1957 and featured Frank Wess on flute. I was particularly surprised when Wess told me he was responsible for getting her that recording date. Over the next 10 years she would continue to perform and record with her jazz quartet until she moved to LA and became one of the premiere studio session harpists. Actually, there is An Ongoing Attempt to List Every Record and CD that Dorothy Played On, because every day it seems as though another song with her playing surfaces. I could attempt to mention each identified recording thus far, but space and time are limited. Just know that Earth, Wind & Fire, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, The Gap Band, Bobby Womack, The Emotions, Minnie Riperton, Stanley Turrentine, Bobbi Humphrey and Gary Bartz were some of the incredible artists whose music was enhanced by Ashby’s harp playing. In fact, the day I met Gary Bartz he talked about challenging her to play John Coltrane’s composition “Giant Steps” on Bartz’ album, Love Affair. If you’re a musician, you know that “Giant Steps” is a challenging piece of music, but if you know anything about the harp, you know that playing it is quite the initiation with all of the pedals!
In 1968, Ashby released the funk heavy album Afro-Harping on the Cadet label. Often described as “ground breaking,” Afro-Harping showcased the harp in a way that it hadn’t before been heard: within thick, heavy grooves. Simply describing it as soulful and funky would be understatements. Ashby took songs of the time as well as original compositions, laid African and Afro-Latin grooves underneath, and played creative, soulful lines on top, placing the harp at the forefront. Her subsequent albums, especially Dorothy’s Harp and The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby, would continue to stretch the limits of the instrument beyond genres and styles.
Enter the Golden Age of hip-hop, and we hear a moment of the song “Come Live With Me” from Afro-Harping on the track “For Pete’s Sake” by Pete Rock and CL Smooth. This was in 1992! Since then, “Come Live With Me” has been sampled by at least 11 different artists with the latest being the single “Blessed” by Jill Scott. Ashby’s music has been used in multiple genres and has influenced artists like ?uest Love and The High Llamas. Producers and artists including J Dilla, Jay Z, Kanye West, Pete Rock, The GZA, Phife Dawg, Flying Lotus, Madlib, Jurassic 5, Angie Stone and Ghostface Killah have all sampled Ashby’s recordings in their music.
As a harpist, whenever I go into the studio with any hip-hop producer, they say “I want that Ashby vibe on this.” I always joke and insist that in order to get her sound, we must record analog, on tape, in a big room with a ceiling mic. However, quite seriously her style of playing and sound is very distinct. Her melodic approach is that of a horn player, and harmonically, one may be fooled into thinking they hear a guitar playing instead. Her impact on artists today across different genres is evident on recent recordings that either mimic her style or sample her unique playing. The example she set as a professional musician and of lending her support to political causes is one that artists today can aspire to in hopes of leaving behind such a strong legacy. More on that in Part 2.
“Miss Ashby deserves a place in the sun…because of her ability to offer the world a sound that is a clear voice in the wilderness of bland commercialism.” – Del Shields, 1968
Words by Brandee Younger (@harpista)
Courtesy of Brandee Younger’s Collection
I wonder if she had any idea of the influence she’d have within just a decade of her death. My take is that she did. You may have heard her first on Stevie Wonder’s album Songs in the Key of Life, accompanying Stevie Wonder on his song “If It’s Magic.” Or, maybe you heard her groove on some of Bill Withers’ soulful albums. If you’re a jazz fan, you may have heard her swinging accompaniment with Frank Wess’ lyrical soloing or with Freddie Hubbard playing “Portrait of Jenny.” However, if you are of the hip-hop generation, she may have been brought to your consciousness on Pete Rock’s “Fakin Jax,” Common’s “Start the Show,” or on the remix to Jay Z’s “A Million and one Questions,” to name just a few. Having released 11 albums during her career, spanning from straight ahead jazz to big band to funk, she knew she had something special, whether the labels and producers of the time caught on to it or not.
Dorothy Ashby’s first album, The Jazz Harpist, came out in 1957 and featured Frank Wess on flute. I was particularly surprised when Wess told me he was responsible for getting her that recording date. Over the next 10 years she would continue to perform and record with her jazz quartet until she moved to LA and became one of the premiere studio session harpists. Actually, there is An Ongoing Attempt to List Every Record and CD that Dorothy Played On, because every day it seems as though another song with her playing surfaces. I could attempt to mention each identified recording thus far, but space and time are limited. Just know that Earth, Wind & Fire, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, The Gap Band, Bobby Womack, The Emotions, Minnie Riperton, Stanley Turrentine, Bobbi Humphrey and Gary Bartz were some of the incredible artists whose music was enhanced by Ashby’s harp playing. In fact, the day I met Gary Bartz he talked about challenging her to play John Coltrane’s composition “Giant Steps” on Bartz’ album, Love Affair. If you’re a musician, you know that “Giant Steps” is a challenging piece of music, but if you know anything about the harp, you know that playing it is quite the initiation with all of the pedals!
In 1968, Ashby released the funk heavy album Afro-Harping on the Cadet label. Often described as “ground breaking,” Afro-Harping showcased the harp in a way that it hadn’t before been heard: within thick, heavy grooves. Simply describing it as soulful and funky would be understatements. Ashby took songs of the time as well as original compositions, laid African and Afro-Latin grooves underneath, and played creative, soulful lines on top, placing the harp at the forefront. Her subsequent albums, especially Dorothy’s Harp and The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby, would continue to stretch the limits of the instrument beyond genres and styles.
Enter the Golden Age of hip-hop, and we hear a moment of the song “Come Live With Me” from Afro-Harping on the track “For Pete’s Sake” by Pete Rock and CL Smooth. This was in 1992! Since then, “Come Live With Me” has been sampled by at least 11 different artists with the latest being the single “Blessed” by Jill Scott. Ashby’s music has been used in multiple genres and has influenced artists like ?uest Love and The High Llamas. Producers and artists including J Dilla, Jay Z, Kanye West, Pete Rock, The GZA, Phife Dawg, Flying Lotus, Madlib, Jurassic 5, Angie Stone and Ghostface Killah have all sampled Ashby’s recordings in their music.
As a harpist, whenever I go into the studio with any hip-hop producer, they say “I want that Ashby vibe on this.” I always joke and insist that in order to get her sound, we must record analog, on tape, in a big room with a ceiling mic. However, quite seriously her style of playing and sound is very distinct. Her melodic approach is that of a horn player, and harmonically, one may be fooled into thinking they hear a guitar playing instead. Her impact on artists today across different genres is evident on recent recordings that either mimic her style or sample her unique playing. The example she set as a professional musician and of lending her support to political causes is one that artists today can aspire to in hopes of leaving behind such a strong legacy. More on that in Part 2.
“Miss Ashby deserves a place in the sun…because of her ability to offer the world a sound that is a clear voice in the wilderness of bland commercialism.” – Del Shields, 1968
Words by Brandee Younger (@harpista)
https://www.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2014/01/23/the-jazz-diaspora-dorothy-ashbys-hip-harp
The Jazz Diaspora: Dorothy Ashby's Hip Harp
What do Stevie Wonder , Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Barry Manilow have in common? They all had the good sense to call in Dorothy Ashby to play harp on their records. There is little doubt that these performers had heard Ashby's exquisite playing on her late-'50s and '60s recordings and desired the ethereal sound of her harp to be on their records, too. Dorothy Ashby made the harp swing. When was the last time you heard a funky harp player?
The harp had made appearances in the jazz world before, but it was Ashby that helped elevate it beyond a mere colorant and into a strong lead voice that was just as intriguing as a guitar or piano. The harp's inherent mellifluous quality renders it immediately likable and in the hands of a strong lead player it becomes irresistible, an aural gossamer that wraps you up in just the right way. Check her albums Afro-Harping and The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby for prime examples of her dulcet, tasteful, and most of all, soulful playing.
Like her fellow Detroit natives Terri Pollard and Alice Coltrane, Ashby had started as a pianist and after enrolling in a high school music class the harp became her primary focus. Detroit was rife with pianists, so why not play harp? How many jazz harpists are there? Not many. Alice Coltrane famously utilized the harp on her sublime late-'60s and early-'70s recordings and yet she still considered the piano her main instrument. "I just never considered myself to be a harpist to begin with and I didn't have a lot of background experience [with the instrument] either. But people would say, 'Oh, she plays harp'. They would almost go to the harp first, and then the piano." Coltrane was almost certainly inspired by Ashby's command of the instrument, "There was another person from the city of Detroit [who played the harp] and her name is Dorothy Ashby. She was a most beautiful harpist, the very best. She used her (musical) voice with the harp so beautifully."
In this late-1960s interview, Ashby strongly advocates for jazz education in serious academic settings. "Jazz has a long way to go in the academic community because some of those who teach have not experienced being with jazz people or jazz music, either from circumstance or choice, and continued to think of it as the music of disreputable people, to be performed in disreputable places." She states with great erudition how accomplished jazz musicians could teach the subject, "This requires a keen ear, one that really has heard all kinds of jazz for years. It requires a sharp mind, one that has learned jazz outside of the formal educational system. Of course, we learned the basics of music techniques at school, but we did not study the art of improvisation. Jazz, being the product of the moment, must have spontaneous creation." She goes on to explain its instructional function, "how to create endlessly varying melodies and rhythms in a particular idiom, using a given set of chords; how to fashion continuous harmonic variations for a given melodic line in one or a multitude of forms; and how to design combinations of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic variations for this spontaneous improvisational form we call jazz."
Within that last quote lies one of the finest definitions of jazz I've ever read. Thank you, Dorothy Ashby.
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/dorothy_ashby_jazz_funk_harpist_extraordinaire
Hip harp: Dorothy Ashby, jazz-funk harpist extraordinaire
June 1, 2017
Dangerous Minds
It was a rich and resonant year, so much so that a record as great and unusual as Dorothy Ashby’s incredible jazz-funk harp masterpiece Afro-Harping almost gets lost in the shuffle.
Almost.
Its title proudly emblazoned in futuristic 120-point Amelia (a typeface most often associated with Alvin Toffler), Afro-Harping is a landmark in jazz music, a truly funky album with the harp as the primary focus. Ashby already had several albums to her name but this remarkable project came about as a collaboration between herself and a producer named Richard Evans, whose biggest successes for Cadet Records to that point had been two albums by the Soulful Strings, 1966’s Paint It Black and 1967’s Groovin’ with the Soulful Strings. Evans had the brilliant idea of adding flute and theremin (!) as well as an enticing syncopated beat to make the album’s first track, “Soul Vibrations” an unforgettable piece of music. (It recently popped up in the opening credits of an episode of Aziz Ansari’s Netflix series Master of None.)
Here it is:
Born in 1930, Ashby was from Detroit, the daughter of noted jazz guitarist Wiley Thompson. Thompson used to invite his jazz buddies over to play, and Ashby (née Thompson, natch) would join in on the piano. She attended Cass Technical High School and Wayne State University, and somewhere along the way she drifted from the piano to the harp.
Dorothy Ashby
Roslyn Rensch in the volume Harps and Harpists writes:
In the 1950s she toured with her own jazz trio of harp, string bass, and drums. The small size of the ensemble made it possible to feature the jazz harp player as soloist and as leading musician. The principle theme (riff) of the piece could be stated by the harp and all three instruments could alternate with solo verses and choruses. Blues, bebop, swing, and the “cool” jazz of Miles Davis all inspired Dorothy Ashby’s style. She was known for her pedal-slides which created “blue-notes” and her “spacious” melodic improvisations.
I love the idea of a harp “riff”!
It’s actually difficult to find out much about Afro-Harping. Much of the album has a distinctive Henry Mancini feel, the perfect spice to any swinging party, but there’s not much on it that feels very “Afro” (aside from the smooth funk, of course). It features a cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “The Look of Love” and a composition by Freddie Hubbard as well as the theme music to Valley of the Dolls by André and Dory Previn.
The challenges of making harp the centerpiece of an ensemble were not minor in nature. As Rensch observes,
When it became evident that the harp was not easily heard, even in so small an ensemble, early attempts at amplification began. ... Ashby’s husband placed two large microphones on the soundboard of her harp and put another one inside the instrument’s soundbox. To further enhance the acoustics, the harp’s inner body was carpeted and Dorothy played with small pieces of carpet glued to her shoes. Such ingenuity might have presented some difficulties to a player, but Dorothy Ashby’s smooth interpretations gave no indication of this.
Sadly, unsung pioneers like Ashby are always sorely in need of greater recognition. You can hear her harp on classic songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, and Bobby Womack and she’s been sampled by Common, The Pharcyde, J Dilla, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Pete Rock, The GZA, Phife Dawg, Flying Lotus, Madlib, Jurassic 5, Angie Stone and Ghostface Killah. Belle and Sebastian did their part by placing “Soul Vibrations” onto their 2012 compilation Late Night Tales, Vol. II. Putting the song into your own mix matrix will make you the coolest cat on your block, no doubt.
https://flypaper.soundfly.com/play/dorothy-ashby-was-one-fierce-lady-pioneer-of-jazz-harp/
Dorothy Ashby Was One Fierce Lady Pioneer of Jazz Harp
A few years ago, I had one of the most powerful live music experiences of my life when I went to see Stevie Wonder on his Songs in the Key of Life Tour. He delivered one of the greatest collections of musical material ever composed and performed at the highest level with the emotion, energy, and musicality of a true master.
The band was massive: two drummers, three guitarists, bass, two or three other keyboardists behind him, a full string section with a conductor, a horn section, backup singers, plus India.Arie sitting in as a featured guest vocalist.
The only thing missing was a harp. And this was going to be a problem because, soon, it came time to play the album’s classic vocal-and-harp duet, “If It’s Magic.”
Wonder confidently explained that he felt that harpist Dorothy Ashby should not be replaced, so this song would feature the only pre-recorded track of the evening. As he sang, a picture of Ashby was projected upon the screen, looking out over the crowd. Despite the size of the venue — the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore — and the awkward singalong situation, this “duet” captivated the large audience and was both intimate and moving, even without the live presence of the harpist.
Ashby’s playing was just that special.
Here’s a video from this tour‘s stop in Dallas in which Wonder introduces the same song, explaining that Ashby was “singing with her harp.”
By the time Dorothy Ashby recorded with Wonder, the Detroit-born harpist was already living in Los Angeles and playing on recording sessions with a long list of pop and R&B artists, including Bill Withers, Minnie Riperton, Aretha Franklin, and so many others. “If It’s Magic” is only three minutes and 12 seconds of music recorded in one day over the course of a career that spanned 30-something years, but here it was representing Ashby in a special tribute in front of tens of thousands of fans every night on a national tour.
So, I guess this is as good a place as any to begin exploring Ashby’s music.
Ashby was not only a high-profile session player, she also led a rich career as a composer and recording artist, releasing albums that ranged from straight-ahead jazz to jazz-funk and soul and covers of pop songs. And even though the legacy of innovation and experimentation with the harp as an open-ended instrument worth bringing out of the rusty cages of the classical orchestra perhaps belongs more definitively to Alice Coltrane, Ashby had already done a lot of that work years before Coltrane ever set foot into a studio.
Her discography shows the progression of an artist fighting against preconceived notions of the harp’s place in improvised music. On her early records, The Jazz Harpist (1957) and Hip Harp (1958), Ashby emerged as an iconoclast with a strong voice for jazz groove and improvisation.
On the occasion of what would have been her 87th birthday this weekend, here’s a quick overview of her recorded work.
The Jazz Harpist (1957)
Hip Harp (1958)
Her evolution continued over the course of records such as the eponymous Dorothy Ashby (1961) and The Fantastic Jazz Harp of Dorothy Ashby (1965). On 1968’s Afro-Harping, Ashby’s music showed a decisive stylistic change as she moved away from the jazz-group format. Paired with producer and arranger Richard Evans, they created a trio of funky, soulful records that found her stretching out, even playing koto and singing, too.
Afro-Harping (1968)
Dorothy’s Harp (1969)
The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (1970)
By the time the ’70s rolled around, Ashby was living in LA and her recording work was focused mostly on other artists’ sessions. But then in 1984, Ashby released two intimate solo harp records of mostly jazz standards, Django/Misty and Concierto de Aranjuez. She passed away shortly after this burst of creative output in 1986.
Django/Misty (1984)
Ashby’s work has been heavily sampled by hip-hop artists such as J Dilla (below), GZA, Flying Lotus, and many others. In addition to Stevie Wonder’s traveling tribute, harpist Brandee Younger has carried on in the tradition set forth by Ashby, performing tributes and recording her own modernized version of “Afro Harping.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nick Millevoi
Nick Millevoi is a Philadelphia-based guitarist and composer whose music draws upon the influences of avant garde jazz, modern classical, and rock and roll to create a personal sound. He currently leads Desertion Trio/Quartet, whose debut album, Desertion, was released in May 2016 on ShhPuma/Clean Feed. Nick is a member of Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band, Archer Spade, and Hollenberg/Millevoi Quartet, which specializes in the music of John Zorn. His music has been released on labels such as Tzadik, New Atlantis, and The Flenser. (Photo by Ryan Collerd.)
THE MUSIC OF DOROTHY ASHBY: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH DOROTHY ASHBY:
