Harp, Koto and Composition | 1932-1986

Dorothy Ashby was born Dorothy Jeanne Thompson in Detroit on 6 August 1932. Her father, Wiley Thompson, was a self-taught jazz guitarist. She studied piano and music education at Wayne State University, played piano in the Detroit jazz scene, and by 1952 had made the harp her main instrument. She established it as an improvising jazz voice, beyond its earlier use as a novelty or orchestral colour. She led ten sessions between 1957 and 1970 for labels including Regent, Prestige, New Jazz, Jazzland, Argo, Atlantic and Cadet. Her Cadet albums Afro-Harping (1968) and Dorothy’s Harp (1969) moved into soul, African and Middle Eastern territory. On The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (1970) she also played the koto. With her husband, drummer John Ashby, she ran the Ashby Players, a Detroit theatre company for which she often wrote the scores. She performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and introduced classical music to school students through special concerts. She died of cancer in Santa Monica on 13 April 1986, aged 53.