Today we begin our August
feature for Sunday music; this month’s feature artist is jazz harpist DorothyAshby. & when we say “harp” here, we don’t mean the slang for a harmonica;
we mean an actual harp.
Ashby is an overlooked
figure in jazz history; in general, the canon hasn’t given their due to women
instrumentalists, & has rather focused on including vocalists. But Ashby
was a true innovator, a composer, & a virtuoso player who was able to adapt
the harp—an unusual instrument in a jazz context—to bebop. Indeed,the only
other well-known jazz harpist being Alice Coltrane, who was also a pianist.
Today’s selection is “Nabu
Corfa”, from Ashby’s 1965 Atlantic release The Fantastic Jazz Harp of DorothyAshby; interestingly, the recording session for the album took place in 1958.
The session featured Ashby as leader on harp, backed by bassist Richard Davis,
drummer Grady Tate, percussionist Willie Bobo, & a horn section consisting
of Jimmy Cleveland, Quentin Jackson, Sonny Russo, & Tony Studd (though the
latter’s trombone isn’t heard on this selection). “Nabu Corfa” is an original
Ashby composition.
Enjoy!
Image links to its source
on Wiki Commons:
Autographed photo of photo
of American musician Dorothy Ashby. Wiki Commons lists the source of the photo
as this link,
& claims “fair use”. There is apparently no public domain or copyleft photo of Ashby.
Nice! I'd never heard of Dorothy Ashby before. I'd heard Jazz harp before, of course, from Alice Coltrane. There was also a Boston area Jazz harpist who used to show up on Eric Jackson's and Ron Della Chiesa's shows on WGBH, but I can't for the life of me remember her name. This looks to be an interesting August!
ReplyDelete