New Land announce a 6-LP Boxset release – ‘Dorothy Ashby – With Strings Attached, 1957 – 1965’; the accompanying 44-page book features deeply researched liner notes by Shannon J. Effinger as well as a foreword from Grammy-nominated harpist Brandee Younger.
Last month saw the release of ‘Brand New Life’, the seventh album from contemporary harpist Brandee Younger. The album was heavily inspired by American Detroit-based jazz harpist, singer and composer Dorothy Ashby (1932-1986), and it also featured a number of her compositions. The album, which includes several of her compositions, highlighted Ashby’s contribution to jazz, a new name to many and still considered one of the most overlooked artists in Jazz history. She released her first album in 1957, eleven years before fellow Detroit-born harpist Alice Coltrane released her debut in 1968. While Coltrane is better known, they both made a lasting contribution to contemporary music and inspired future generations, something Younger has helped to highlight.
To appreciate how the odds were stacked against Dorothy Ashby at every turn, you need to turn back the clock and remember that this was not only a young black woman trying to follow her dreams by trying to change the attitude towards the harp in a male-dominated, brass-led jazz scene…it was also a very different society – Two years before her first album, a young and brave Rosa Parks made a stand against bus segregation which led to the famous 382-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system but the Civil Rights Act that superseded all state and local laws requiring segregation wouldn’t be passed until 1964.
Ashby was a determined young woman, and considering the barriers she faced, what she achieved was nothing short of miraculous. She wasn’t afraid to make a stand, and not just in music. During the 1960s, Dorothy, and her husband, John, led The Ashby Players, who used theatre to explore the experiences of African Americans and cover topics that were considered controversial at the time, including abortion, the pill and welfare.
Ashby’s father, Wiley Thompson, was a self-taught jazz guitarist who had introduced her to the sax and piano at a young age. Still, the sight of the towering harp, first glimpsed at Cass Technical High School, changed her future, and no gentle coaxing by her father would dissuade her. In one discussion on Jazz in the School Curriculum1 she recalls how she had to improvise unorthodox playing techniques:
“From In Black Music in Our Culture, you’ve read how Wes Montgomery improvised his own instruction and invented his own techniques. I guess, to an extent, I had to do the same thing-for want of money, and because I didn’t have a harp until I was out of college. I began harp in high school. The school had only five harps, but there were thirty students. Scheduling problems forced me to design a fast learning plan so I could get as much accomplished as possible during the school year. Naturally, I developed some unorthodox techniques. Wes Montgomery developed skills other guitarists would have thought impossible, and he developed them out of his own necessity, lacking a teacher or a guide.”
The harp’s distinct lack of chromaticism doesn’t make it a natural jazz contender, let alone one to improvise on – that requires some clever foresight and footwork on those harp pedals (all seven of them). While the harp wasn’t absent from jazz at the time, it was a very uncommon one – those that did play it – the likes of Casper Reardon and Adele Girard, was conservative sounding – Girard’s ‘Harp Boogie’ may as well have been from another planet when comparing it to the deep and expressive bebop-language that moved and inspired Ashby. Her early harp sound has been compared to sounding a little like the guitar, piano and harp, an innovative style that continued to evolve. This becomes most apparent when comparing her early works with the more radical-sounding Afro Harping (1968) and, more so, The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (1970), on which she also played the koto and sang.
Ashby’s early vision for the harp went beyond anything else at that time, and she seemed unperturbed by the practicalities involved in getting the sound she wanted. In an interview with W. Royal Stokes for his Living the Jazz Life book, she stated, “Nobody told me these things were not done on the harp, I was just doing what I knew I liked.”
Money was also a hurdle; Ashby needed to play a lot of piano gigs around Detroit to make up the necessary funds to buy her first harp…I’ve read that this equated to purchasing a new car at the time. I’ve no idea how she continued to hold such a firm conviction to bring the harp into jazz when she struggled to even get gigs for the piano at the time, but she persevered. In the interview with Stokes, she said: “The audiences I was trying to reach were not interested in harp, period — classical or otherwise — and they were certainly not interested in seeing a black woman playing the harp. I think I had to pave my own way in terms of that area.”
Where perseverance didn’t pay off, she adapted, so when jazz promoters showed no interest in booking Ashby and her harp, she sought out alternative venues, including cafes and colleges, eventually building enough of a reputation to get her first record deal in 1957 with The Jazz Harpist with the help of Frank Wess who played the flute on her first three albums. Ten more albums would follow alongside some impressive sidewoman appearances in the 1970s and early 80s on albums by Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Bobby Womack and more.
Her first six albums are included in a “Dorthy Ashby – With Strings Attached, 1957 – 1965“, a New Land deluxe book-shelf style box release (more details below). Hopefully, the five albums that followed from 1968-84 will be included in a future release, as Afro-Harping (1968) and The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (1970) are among her most celebrated. On the latter, her musical field broadened, as did her playing as she took on the 13-stringed Koto. Just listen to The Moving Finger – this recording has been described as her greatest moment on record. The track also features in our latest Monday Morning Brew weekly playlist.
Dorothy Ashby – With Strings Attached, 1957 – 1965
New Land’s 6-LP release is beautifully presented and includes a 44-page book that has a forward by Brandee Younger.
“Imagine having been a Black female artist & innovator in the ‘60s. Imagine being a jazz musician with a focus on the concert harp. Oh, to be alive at that time…in music…in culture…in politics. This was Dorothy Ashby, and she was so much more than her musical output. She was a true visionary; her impact is still heard in many genres and eras of music, even today” – Brandee Younger.
The 6 LPs cover her early works from 1957 to 1965, a period that found her represented by some of Jazz music’s most important record labels; Regent, Prestige, Jazzland, Argo and Atlantic. The Jazz Harpist, Hip Harp w/ Frank Wess, In A Minor Groove w/ Frank Wess, Soft Winds: The Swinging Harp Of Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby and The Fantastic Harp Of Dorothy Ashby have been officially licensed with the full support of the Dorothy Ashby estate.
All albums were remastered and lacquers cut by the exceptional Kevin Gray directly from the original analogue tapes except The Jazz Harpist and Dorothy Ashby, from which the original tapes have unfortunately been lost. Manufacturing has been handled by Pallas, and all albums have been pressed on 180gm black vinyl and housed inside thick reverse-board sleeves.
At the centre of this package is a 44-page book featuring a foreword from Grammy-nominated harpist Brandee Younger. Impassioned and deeply researched liner notes by Shannon J. Effinger provide historical context to Dorothy’s life, offering the most in-depth piece of writing ever committed to print on Dorothy as well as interviews with those that knew her best.
It is housed inside a deluxe book-shelf-style box with stunning silver-foil detail. This is a one-time pressing limited to 1,000 copies worldwide.
1 – Dominique-René de Lerma’s REFLECTIONS ON AFRO-AMERICAN MUSIC