Results for "Dorothy Ashby"

Dorothy Ashby

Born: August 6, 1932

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.

Afro-Harping Deluxe Edition

By Dorothy Ashby

Label: Verve Music Group
Released: 2024
Track listing: Soul Vibrations; Games; Action Line; Lonely Girl; Life Has Its Trials; Afro-Harping; Little Sunflower; Theme From Valley Of The Dolls; Come Live With Me; The Look Of Love; Action Line Master A, Take 2; Afro-Harping Alt. Take; Theme From Valley of The Dolls Master B, Take 2; Lonely Girl, Master G, Take 1; Soul Vibrations Alt. Take;Life Has Its Trials Master C, Take 2; Little Sunflower Master F, Take 3; Theme From Valley of the Dolls Master B, Take 6.

Chris May's Best Jazz Albums Of 2024

by Chris May
December 3, 2024

In case you missed the sad news, our dear friend and compatriot, Chris May, passed away in November (read our tribute). Below are the albums he considered extraordinary in 2024--a final testament to his discerning taste and love of sound. -mR Rob LuftDahab Days Edition Records

Marysia Osu: Harp, Beats & Dreams

by Chris May
October 4, 2024

Who knows how the jazz harp paradigm might have evolved had the instrument's most adventurous twentieth-century player, Detroit-born Dorothy Ashby, lived beyond her premature passing in 1986. Since then, most American jazz harpists have stuck pretty closely to the neo-classical glissandos and block chords-based style established by Alice Coltrane. New York's Brandee Younger is among the ...

From McCoy Tyner To Nubya Garcia Via A Detroit Techno Cover From Japan

by Andy Crowther
September 28, 2024

Music from Uruguay, Denmark, plenty of piano old and new... Latin vibes, vocal pyrotechnics from Jon Lucien, the stunning new Jaubi and Nubya Garcia albums plus '70s Blue Note sample material. Playlist John Wright Trio “You Do It" from Nice 'N' Tasty (Prestige) 00:00 McCoy Tyner “Effendi" from Inception (Impulse) 05:49 Duke Pearson “The ...

Dorothy Ashby: Afro-Harping Deluxe Edition

by Chris May
September 6, 2024

There are certain instruments that struggled for attention in the years when the jazz ecology was an overwhelmingly male preserve--or rather, when many men perceived jazz to be a male preserve, and a heterosexual, alpha male one at that. Exhibit A, the flute, was described by one leading male alto saxophonist, a near contemporary of Charlie ...

New Releases Plus Birthday Shoutouts To Some Formidable Jazz Leos

by Mary Foster Conklin
August 19, 2024

This broadcast includes new releases from Cyrille Aimee, Tony Guerrero & Jeremy Siskind, Melinda Rose plus singles from Kristin Korb and Carla Hassett, with birthday shoutouts to organist Trudy Pitts, composer Bernice Petkere (Close Your Eyes, Lullaby of the Leaves), harpist Dorothy Ashby, vocalists Jeri Southern, Abbey Lincoln, Cyrille Aimee, Sarah Moule, Roberta Donnay, pianist Roberta ...

Ludovico Granvassu's Garden of Jazzy Delights 2023

by Ludovico Granvassu
January 3, 2024

If it is true that, like The Police once put it, “when the world is going down you make the best of what's still around," then throughout 2023 jazz fans were better off than most other social groups. In a year in which everyday news brought ever more inconceivable disappointments, jazz musicians, labels, festivals and venues ...

With Strings Attached, 1957-1965

By Dorothy Ashby

Label: New Land Records
Released: 2023
Track listing: The Jazz Harpist

Thou Swell; Stella by Starlight; Dancing on the Ceiling; Aeolian Groove; Quietude; Spicy; Lamentation.

Hip Harp

Pawky; Moonlight in Vermont; Back Talk; Dancing in the Dark; Charmaine; Jollity; There's a Small Hotel.

In a Minor Groove

Rascallity; You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To; It's a Minor Thing; Yesterdays; Bohemia After Dark; Taboo; Autumn in Rome; Alone Together.

Soft Winds: The Swinging Harp of Dorothy Ashby

Soft Winds; Wild as the Wind; The Man I Love; My Ship; Love Is Here to Stay; I've Never Been in Love Before; With Strings Attached; Laura; The Guns of Navarone; Misty; The Gypsy in My Soul.

Dorothy Ashby

Lonely Melody; Secret Love; Gloomy Sunday; Satin Doll; John R.; Li'l Darlin'; Booze; Django; You Stepped Out of a Dream; Stranger in Paradise.

The Fantastic Jazz Harp of Dorothy Ashby

Flighty; Essence of Sapphire; Why Did You Leave Me; I Will Follow You; What Am I Here For; House of the Rising Sun; Invitation; Nabu Corfa; Feeling Good; Dodi Li.

String Along with Dorothy!

by Patrick Burnette
August 24, 2023

A music with as complicated and rich a history as jazz is always going to be subject to rediscoveries and reappraisals and we wouldn't want it any other way. This fortnight's episode focuses on a pioneering practitioner on that truly rare avis, the jazz harp. Yes, we're diving into the early work of Dorothy Ashby in ...