Dorothy Ashby

Dorothy Jeanne Ashby ( born August 6, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan as Dorothy Jeanne Thompson, † April 13, 1986 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American jazz harpist and composer.

Introduction

Dorothy Ashby is one of the few harpists of modern jazz, in particular bebop. The New Groove Dictionary of Jazz it considers to be the only important harpist of Bop. There were already in front of her jazz harpist Adele Girard, but not brought to the specific sound of the harp so successful in the modern jazz as a Dorothy Ashby, the already experimented with guitar -like electrically amplified sounds. So you influenced later harpist Deborah Henson - Conant as, Andreas Vollenweider and Carol Robbins.

Biography

Ashby grew up in Detroit, where her father, guitarist Wiley Thompson introduced her to jazz. As a young girl she first played the piano. She studied together with later jazz greats as Donald Byrd, Gerald Wilson, and Kenny Burrell at Cass Technical High School. At that time she also played saxophone and bass before they dealt with the harp.

After her studies (piano and music education ) began in the Detroit jazz scene as a pianist; Finally, the harp was in 1952 her main instrument. In order to promote the recognition of the harp, which was rather attributed to their specific sound of European classical music in that time very horn- dominated jazz, she organized shows with free entry and played with her ​​trio at dance festivals and weddings. From the late 1950s on, she took on with Ed Thigpen, Richard Davis, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess and other plates. During the 1960s, she also had a radio show in Detroit.

With her ​​trio, which also includes her husband John Ashby belonged as a drummer, they toured regularly and recorded several albums and also played with Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. In the annual poll of Down Beat magazine it was in 1962 as the best jazz musician on their instrument. During this time she also worked with her husband in a theater company, the Ashby Players, for which she wrote screenplays.

In the later 1960s, the Ashbys in California settled where Dorothy Ashby worked as a studio musician. They supported Bill Withers, who recommended her to Stevie Wonder. Thus she established herself in the studio scene in Los Angeles and took with numerous artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire and Barry Manilow plates. She played the harp in the song " If It 's Magic " on Stevie Wonder's album Songs in the Key of Life by 1976. She is also on the to hear Bill Withers album Just Apartments.

Dorothy Ashby wrote a guide for the use of harp and cello in jazz with modern harmonies.

Auswahldiskographie

Between 1956 and 1970, Dorothy Ashby recorded ten albums for jazz labels such as Savoy, Cadet, Prestige, New Jazz, Argo, Jazzland and Atlantic.

• The Jazz Harpist ( Regent, Savoy, 1956) with Frank Wess, Eddie Jones or Wendell Marshall, Ed Thigpen
• In a Minor Groove ( Prestige, 1958) with Frank Wess, Herman Wright, Art Taylor
• Hip Harp ( Prestige, 1958) with Frank Wess, Herman Wright, Roy Haynes
• The Fantastic Jazz Harp of Dorothy Ashby (1965 ) with Junior Mance
• Django / Misty (1984 )
• Concerto De Aranjuez ( 1984)
• Afro Harping ( Cadet, 1968)
• Dorothy's Harp (1969 )
• The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby ( Cadet, 1970)
• Music for Beautiful People.