Dorothy Ashby - The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (2023 Verve By Request 180g Reissue LP)

Dorothy Ashby - The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby | Vinyl LP, 2023 Verve By Request Reissue (Cadet LPS-841, 180g, Third Man Pressing) 

• Jazz harp, koto, vocals and piano from the musician who established the harp as a credible jazz instrument, with ten original compositions inspired by the poetry of Omar Khayyam, arranged and conducted by Richard Evans
• An ensemble of unusual instruments: 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
• Verve By Request reissue mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed on 180g vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit

When 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 The Rubaiyat, 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 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 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.

Evans’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.