DOROTHY ASHBY - Dorothy Ashby - LP - 180g Black Vinyl [OCT 24]

LP - 180g Black Vinyl 

Killer soul-jazz LP by the great jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby – the complete album + bonus track “Laura”. Considered one of the most unjustly underrated jazz greats of the 1950s, and certainly the most accomplished modern jazz harpist ever, Dorothy Ashby (1932–1986) was the first to establish the instrument as an improvising jazz instrument – in fact, well ahead of the instrument's better known practitioner Alice Coltrane, who would have undoubtedly been influenced by Ashby. Until then the instrument was viewed as something of a novelty, used mainly as in an accompanying sound within string orchestras, the 1950 Charlie Parker with Strings album, for example. Ashby proved the harp could play bebop as adeptly as any other instrument.

Although the album is self-titled, giving the impression that it was her debut, there were in fact three others starting with The Jazz Harpist in 1954.

Tracklist:

Disc 1
Side 1
1. Lonely Melody
2. Secret Love
3. Gloomy Sunday
4. Satin Doll
5. John R.

Side 2
1. Li'l Darlin'
2. Booze
3. Django
4. You Stepped Out Of A Dream
5. Stranger In Paradise
6. Laura (Bonus Track)