Ashby, Dorothy
New Land, 2023, CD
Instrument: Instrumental
Issue: 29.4
Jazz Ruler Type: Swing
Performance: 4
Sound: 3
Score: 90
O’s Notes: We don’t normally consider the concert harp a staple jazz instrument, but Dorothy Ashby did a fine job as a jazz harpist during the 1960s. As a Black woman during that time, she was a pioneer on many fronts! While she was a prominent straight-ahead jazz artist, she was also fluent in contemporary genres, even Jewish traditional music, along with her original compositions. A petite woman, she was dwarfed by her harp but played it masterfully. Ashby is one of the lesser-known jazz stars and thankfully With Strings Attached surfaces a wide span of her music between 1957 and 1965. She’s influenced many musicians and been sampled by many more.
Publicist: Fully Altered Media