{"title":"Dorothy Ashby","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eDorothy Ashby was born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson in Detroit in 1932 and grew up in the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom neighbourhood. Her father, Wiley Thompson, was a self-taught jazz guitarist who often brought other musicians home. She studied piano and music education at Wayne State University and began on piano in the Detroit scene, but by 1952 the harp was her main instrument. That was a hard sell. Even in Detroit, listeners tended to treat the harp as a novelty or an orchestral colour, and Ashby is widely credited with proving it could improvise and swing. Her first full jazz LP, \u003cem\u003eThe Jazz Harpist\u003c\/em\u003e (Regent, 1957), featured Frank Wess on flute, and \u003cem\u003eHip Harp\u003c\/em\u003e (Prestige, 1958) kept him in the band. She moved through Atlantic and then Cadet, where \u003cem\u003eAfro-Harping\u003c\/em\u003e (1968), \u003cem\u003eDorothy’s Harp\u003c\/em\u003e (1969) and \u003cem\u003eThe Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby\u003c\/em\u003e (1970) pushed into soul, African and Middle Eastern ground. On \u003cem\u003eThe Rubaiyat\u003c\/em\u003e she also played the thirteen-string Japanese koto, with arranger Richard Evans adding flutes, vibraphone, oboe, kalimba and her own vocals. It was somewhat maligned on release and is now valued as a mix of soul, world music and free jazz. She also wrote scores for the Ashby Players, a Detroit theatre company run with her husband, drummer John Ashby, making plays relevant to the city’s Black community. Later studio work included Bill Withers’s \u003cem\u003e+’Justments\u003c\/em\u003e (1974). She died of cancer in Santa Monica on 13 April 1986, aged 53.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"dorothy-ashby-the-rubaiyat-of-dorothy-ashby-2023-verve-by-request-180g-reissue-lp","title":"Dorothy Ashby - The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (2023 Verve By Request 180g Reissue LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDorothy Ashby - \u003cem\u003eThe Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP, 2023 Verve By Request Reissue (Cadet LPS-841, 180g, Third Man Pressing) \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eJazz harp, koto, vocals and piano from the musician who established the harp as a credible jazz instrument\u003c\/strong\u003e, with ten original compositions inspired by the poetry of Omar Khayyam, arranged and conducted by Richard Evans\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAn ensemble of unusual instruments\u003c\/strong\u003e: alto saxophone, flute, oboe, bass flute, piccolo flute, guitar, kalimba, vibraphone and violin alongside Ashby’s harp and koto, with no conventional jazz rhythm section credited\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eVerve By Request reissue\u003c\/strong\u003e mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed on 180g vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen most people think of the jazz harp, they think of Alice Coltrane. Dorothy Ashby was there first. She was a Detroit musician who spent the late 1950s and 1960s recording albums that insisted the harp belonged in jazz, a proposition the jazz world was slow to accept. By the time of \u003cem\u003eThe Rubaiyat\u003c\/em\u003e, her ninth album, she had moved beyond proving the instrument’s legitimacy and was using it alongside the Japanese koto, her own voice, and an ensemble arranged by Richard Evans that draws from soul, spiritual jazz, and world music without settling into any single category. The album is inspired by the \u003cem\u003eRubaiyat of Omar Khayyam\u003c\/em\u003e, the 12th-century Persian poetry collection in Edward FitzGerald’s English translation, and all ten compositions are Ashby’s own. The track titles (“Myself When Young”, “Wax and Wane”, “Drink”, “Wine”, “Dust”, “The Moving Finger”) are drawn from the Rubaiyat’s themes of mortality, pleasure, and the passage of time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvans’s arrangements use flute, oboe, piccolo, vibraphone, kalimba, guitar and violin around Ashby’s harp and koto, creating textures that have no real precedent in the jazz catalogue. Lenard Druss plays woodwinds. Stu Katz plays vibraphone and kalimba. Cash McCall plays guitar. The album has been widely sampled by hip-hop producers and has gained a significant reputation among vinyl collectors since its original Cadet pressing went out of print. Original copies command high prices. This 2023 Verve By Request reissue is mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed on 180g vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit. Catalogue number Cadet LPS-841.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Verve Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44814981070907,"sku":null,"price":70.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/DorothyAshby-RubaiyatOf_1LP-Cvr_27fc8e00_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1793347918"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/dorothy-ashby.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}