Dorothy Ashby

Doxy present a combined reissue of legendary jazz harpist and poly-instrumentalist Dorothy Ashby's Hip Harp and In A Minor Groove, both released separately in 1958. Both albums feature Frank Wess. Dorothy Ashby had a unique soul jazz harp sound, and although the instrument she used is probably more thought of in terms of bedtime lullabies, she actually makes it swing nicely, and with a soulful sound that draws back to traditions of African stringed instruments. Ashby was part of the same scene as Yusef Lateef, and like Lateef, she managed to use odd instrumentation in new contexts, to get a very unique jazz sound.

From the original liner notes for Hip Harp: "In Hip Harp in addition to the interpretations of standards like 'Moonlight In Vermont', 'Dancing In The Dark', 'Charmaine' and 'There's A Small Hotel', Dorothy and Frank work out on three Ashby tunes: 'Pawky', a minor-key blues, 'Back Talk', major-key blues and 'Jollity', a medium-up original. Dorothy Ashby has added to the basic territory that the harp previously occupied. In fusing her sometimes guitar-like, swinging line to the expected harp effects, she has added another step to the instrument-scope of jazz (...)"