LP-690

Dorothy Ashby

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Dorothy Ashby, harp; Herman Wright, bass; John Tooley, drums
Chicago, August 8, 1961

11126 Booze
11127 I'll remember April (unissued)
11128 Lonely melody
11129 John R.
11130 Django
11131 Secret love
11132 You stepped out of a dream
11133 Satin doll
11134 Li'l darlin'
11135 Gloomy Sunday
11136 Stranger in paradise
11137 Aeolian groove (unissued)

Track Listing

Lonely Melody	Arranged By – O. McLaughlin	August 8 1961
Secret Love	Webster, Fain	August 8 1961
Gloomy Sunday	Javor, Seress, Lewis	August 8 1961
Satin Doll	Ellington	August 8 1961
John R.	D. Ashby	August 8 1961
Li'l Darlin'	Neal Hefti	August 8 1961
Booze	D. Ashby	August 8 1961
Django	J. Lewis	August 8 1961
You Stepped Out Of A Dream	Lane, Washington	August 8 1961
Stranger In Paradise	Forrest, Wright	August 8 1961

NB: You Stepped Out Of a Dream wrongly attributed to Lane, Washington rather than Gus Kahn, Nacio Herb Brown

Liner Notes

A JAZZ HARPIST is a rare thing. First of all the harp is a rather unlikely instrument to swing. It's an awfully difficult instrument to play really well and it demands technique that is incongruous With swinging. Perhaps as important is the thinking that the harp, by the very nature Of the instrument, is likely to attract musicians who, in themselves, are improbable swingers. Dorothy Ashby is, then, a rare thing. She is indeed a jazz harpist and she does swing.

I first became aware of Dorothy some years ago when hearing her front small groups of really exceptional musicianship. I heard her with Frank Wess playing flute, and with Ed Thigpen on drums, and with a great many men who's musicianship is, I think, a commentary on Dorothy as a woman in jazz. Frank Wess is regarded by many as having been the first jazz flutist, which might get you an argument in some quarters but not many. He has been an important contributor to the Basic band for nearly ten years. Ed Thigpen, now of the Oscar Peterson trio, is perhaps the ideal trio drummer and an infinitely respected one. That Dorothy has worked and recorded with these men and has performed consistently for such a long time with men of this stature suggests, I think, a rather unique position in music, not unlike that of Melba Liston. Melba was, for a time, an important part of the Dizzy Gillespie hand and the Basie band. She has sat side by side in trombone sections with such men as Brookmeyer and has worked among men who are real giants. This is not because a woman playing trombone is a novelty, but because she plays that well. Dorothy, too, has long worked among men of real stature, not because jazz played on a harp by a woman is a novelty, but because she plays that well.

Dorothy is a Detroit musician and in some circles that, in itself, is some claim to fame. Detroit has produced an uncommon group of splendid musicians...Milt Jackson, Paul Chambers, Kenny Burrell, Pepper Adams, all those Joneses, Frank Rosolino and many more — rather a strong group to stand out among, Cannonball Adderley recently made the remark that any musician who makes it among that Detroit crowd has got to be saying something, Dorothy is much loved and respected among her Detroit contemporaries and has surely distinguished herself in their company.

This is a trio album. With Dorothy are Herman Wright playing bass, and John Tooley on drums. Again Dorothy is with men of stature. Herman Wright has been a firmly established musician for a long time and appears in an enormous number of albums, but is probably best known for his work with Terry Gibbs and more recently with George Shearing. John Tooley's credits include that coveted experience of accompanying Billy Holiday.

Most of the music in this set is familiar, even if seldom heard. I think particularly of Gloomy Sunday, done so many years ago by Shaw. While rarely heard now, the tune is virtually a legend and so well remembered for the impact of its lyric that the beauty of its melodic line was all but overlooked at the time. And Diango, the wonderfully interesting John Lewis tune that is too rarely heard. Lonely Melody is borrowed from the theme music of the motion picture Goodbye Again and the Goodbye Again people rowed it from Brahms' Third Symphony. Much more familiar are three that have been very big pop hits, You Stepped Out of A Dream, Stranger in Paradise from and Secret Love, done here at a tempo that is a complete surprise. Ellington's Satin Doll and Neal Hefti's are two very charming things that belong to the jazz world because of their association with the Ellington and Basie bands, but have been adopted by the rest of the world for their simple and quite beautiful melodic lines. And there are two originals here, John R. and Booze. John R. is named for John R. Street in Detroit which, like Chicago's Rush Street, has been an important street in Detroit night club life. Dorothy has long been a regular performer on John R. Street. I don't know why Booze is called Booze!

This is not hard jazz. This is an album that says jazz can, after all, be melodic, that a thing can be gentle without being weak and can be sweet without being saccrine. What is done here is done well, the improvisation is creative, and in typical Dorothy Ashby thinking—it's done in beautiful taste. She is indeed a jazz harpist and she does swing.

Jim Rockwell