Dorothy Ashby - The Jazz Harpist / 3CD set

3 CD Box Set including a 20-page booklet with session details, photos, original art & liner notes.

Dorothy Ashby (1932-1986) was probably the most recorded and, until Alice Coltrane came along in the 1960s, the best known jazz harpist. She was not the first to play the instrument in jazz - the great Boyd Raeburn orchestra of the 1940s had a harpist, and later Pettiford and Ellington used Betty Glamann, while Herman included Corky Hale in his band but she was the first to record as a leader. In itself, that underlined the validity of her standing in jazz, where she was accepted alongside the conventional horn players as a jazz musician, not merely a harpist who spiced her music with jazz riffs.

A good composer and a sensitive and lightly swinging performer, she produced solos that were like distillations of beautifully phrased, richly coloured guitar outings. Frank Wess, on flute, shares the solo honors with her in the first quartet sessions, while she swings with close, perceptive support from bassist Herman Wright on the trio date, and on the last quartet sessions the combination of her harp and Terry Pollards vibes produces some lovely sonorities. Intelligently conceived and beautifully crafted, these swinging, straight-ahead performances are ample testimony to the talent of one of the finest jazz harpists of all.

This 3-CD set gathers all 5 albums recorded under her name from 1957 to 1961.

Original sources:
CD 1, tracks #1-7 from the album "The Jazz Harpist" (Regent MG 6039)
CD 1, tracks #8-11 & CD 2, #1-3 from "Hip Harp" (Prestige LP 7140)
CD 2, tracks #4-11 from the album "In A Minor Groove" (New Jazz LP 8209)
CD 3, tracks #1-10 from the album "Dorothy Ashby" (Argo LP 690)
CD 3, tracks #11-21 from the album "Soft Winds" (Jazzland JLP 61)

Personnel on "The Jazz Harpist":
Dorothy Ashby, harp; Frank Wess, flute; Wendell Marshall (#3, 6, 7) or Eddie Jones, bass; Ed Thigpen, drums.
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, on August 27 (# 3,6,7) and 29 (#1,2,4,5) 1957

Personnel on "Hip Harp":
Dorothy Ashby, harp; Frank Wess, flute; Herman Wright, bass; Art Taylor, drums.
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 21, 1958

Personnel on "In A Minor Groove":
Same as above, but Roy Haynes replaces Taylor.
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, on September 19, 1958

Personnel on "Dorothy Ashby":
Dorothy Ashby, harp; Herman Wright, bass; John Tooley, drums.
Recorded at Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, on August 8, 1961

Personnel on "Soft Winds":
Dorothy Ashby, harp; Terry Pollard, piano, vibraphone; Herman Wright, bass; Jimmy Cobb, drums.
Recorded at Plaza Sounds Studios, New York City, August 15-16, 1961