From transcendental meditations to soulful RnB, there’s a lot more to the harp than heavenly vibrations.
By Freya Hellier
23 Jun 2023
With its ability to evoke ethereal, dream-like soundworlds, the harp is often associated with the classical music of the early 20th century, particularly with the impressionistic works of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1975-1937).
But the harp is one of the world’s oldest instruments, featuring in the ancient music of the Middle East, to West Africa, the celtic folk music of Ireland to the traditional music of the Americas, and of course, lots of classical repertoire. As the jazz age merged with western art music in the early 20th century, the harp was ready to find a new home. Trailblazing classical harpists extended their techniques, and curious pianists sought new instrumental horizons. While the story of jazz harp may be relatively short, it’s a tale that has a chapter for fans of any jazz genre.
So whether you’re completely new to jazz harp or looking to push your knowledge, here’s the Everything Jazz guide to the Art of Jazz Harp.
All Roads Lead to Alice
ALICE COLTRANE, 1937 -2007
Photo: Photo by Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images.
Alice Coltrane is the most influential and well known of jazz harpists, but she was also a pianist, composer, organist and vocalist. She learned her craft at school, church and in the vibrant jazz scene of her native Detroit.
She emerged as a band leader in the late 60s and released much of her output on Impulse! and Warner Bros.
Alice was trained in both classical and jazz piano styles and she studied with Bud Powell in Paris, where she made her first TV appearance.
In 1963 she met Coltrane who encouraged her to pursue the harp. By 1965 they were married, had started a family and were on a joint spiritual and musical journey which would define the rest of their lives.
In the decade following the death of John Coltrane in 1967, Alice was at her most productive as a recording artist. She worked extensively with the saxophonist Pharoah Sanders.
From the late 70s, Alice dedicated the rest of her life to the study of Hinduism and adopted the Sanskrit name of Turiyasangitananda. Her mainstream recorded musical output made way for devotional music which she released on cassette through her Ashram. Much of that music has since been re-released and found a new audience. Her final album “Translinear Light” – produced by her son, Ravi – was released on Verve in 2004.
Alice Coltrane’s dedication to spirituality and experimentalism has made her famous beyond the world of jazz and she is rightly recognised as an important figure in 20th century music.
Albums we love
WHERE TO START:
ALICE COLTRANE / Journey in Satchidananda Impulse!, 1971
Alice Coltrane’s best loved album, and it’s easy to hear why. Journey in Satchidananda is a beautiful sonic fusion of the meditative drone of the tamboura, the plaintive bowed bass, Pharoah Sanders’ restless soprano saxophone and Alice Coltrane’s expansive, glittering harp.
Satchidananda distills the best of Alice Coltrane: her own distinctive creative and spiritual vision, imbued with the presence of her late husband John. The inspiration for the album came from Swami Satchidananda, Coltrane’s own ‘spiritual preceptor’ and in the liner notes, Alice hopes that ‘Anyone listening to this selection should try to envision himself floating on an ocean of Satchidananda’s love, which is literally carrying countless devotees across the vicissitudes and stormy blasts of life ot the other shore. Satchidananda means knowledge, existence, bliss’
COLTRANE’S POST BOP ROOTS:
ALICE COLTRANE / Ptah, The El Daoud Impulse!, 1970
There’s not a lot of harp playing on this, but it’s well worth a listen to hear how Coltrane’s harp style evolved so naturally out of her fluid, searching piano playing. The album is named after the ancient Egyptian God Ptah, creator of the Earth through speech. El Daoud translates as The Beloved and the sound is both bluesy and contemporary
Coltrane also took an embodied approach to the recording process. Following the twin hemisphere model of the brain, she placed the two saxophonists on either side of the stereo image. Throughout the album you can hear Pharoah Sanders – who Alice thought of as abstract and transcendental – on the right hand channel, and Joe Henderson, who she considered more cerebral on the left.
Did you know?…
Alice Coltrane’s grand nephew is the producer Flying Lotus.
Her ashram in California was burned down in the 2018 wildfires.
A VISION, MANIFEST:
ALICE COLTRANE / Universal Consciousness Impulse!, 1971
Harp + Wurlitzer Organ:
Alice Coltrane
Violins:
Joan Kalisch, John Blair, Julius Brand, Leroy Jenkins
Bass:
Jimmy Garrison
Drums:
Jack DeJohnette, Rashied Ali, Clifford Jarvis
Only a year on from “Ptah, The El Daoud” and Coltrane is writing a new musical chapter. Created shortly after a trip to India, Coltrane embraced the organ’s harmonium and tambura like sonorities. With the addition of its pedal bass, she was also able to extend her own harmonic possibilities. She enjoyed the increased musical independence that it offered and dispensed with reeds in the band. The ensemble is instead expanded with a quartet of violins (arranged by Ornette Coleman). While this creates a more challenging sonic atmosphere, the musical horizons feel wider and even more spiritual. In her fifth studio album, Coltrane is blending her classical, jazz and spiritual worlds, and it’s a work best suited to total immersion
Like all 3 album choices here, this was recorded in Coltrane’s home studio and the familiar territory is reflected in music which feels incredibly free whilst existing within the recognisable structures of the post bop and modal soundworlds of the late 60s. Alice Coltrane was a woman firmly in charge of her creative vision, even in the aftermath of the death of her husband and with the demands of a young family.
Harp and Soul
DOROTHY ASHBY, 1932-1986
Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo.
Dorothy Ashby was an American jazz harpist and composer known for her innovative fusion of jazz and classical music. Her music is defined by her soulful groove, placing the harp at the front of the rhythm section, somewhere close to the piano or guitar. While she is undeservedly unsung in music history, for many harpists, Dorothy Ashby is considered the G.O.A.T of jazz harp, and she was a big influence on Alice Coltrane and the harpists who followed her.
Dorothy came from a classical training and threads of her story are woven with Alice Coltrane’s.
Both Dorothy and Alice were from Detroit.
The Motor City – particularly Cass Technical High School where Ashby studied with the legendary Velma Fraude – was a hotbed of musical creativity, alumni include Donald Byrd and Kenny Burrell. But while both Dorothy and Alice were pushing the boundaries of the harp, they were headed in musically different directions
With her jazz guitarist father, Dorothy Ashby’s chord voicings were very guitar-like, and she was a superb rhythm section comper. Dorothy was a big collaborator, she worked with Stanley Turrentine, Jimmy Cobb and Stan Getz, she often sang, and covered classics by the likes of Burt Bacharach.
Despite her death at the young age of 53, Ashby’s musical evolution covered a lot of ground, she branched out to play the Japanese Koto, and towards the end of her life, made a solo recording of the adagio from Rodridgo’s famous “Concierto for Aranjuez,” for guitar.
The soulful sound and tight strings that underpinned Dorothy Ashby’s music has made it a sampler’s dream. Her playing has been sampled by – amongst others – Jurassic 5, Pete Rock and Drake.
Did you know?…
Thanks to a connection with Bill Withers, Dorothy was introduced to Stevie Wonder and played on his song “If It’s Magic.”
Along with her husband, drummer John Ashby, Dorothy, founded the theatre company The Ashby Players, for whose productions, she composed much music. Sadly, now lost.
Albums we love
THE HARP’S NEW GROOVE:
DOROTHY ASHBY / Afro Harping Cadet, 1968
Uncredited ensemble Conducted by Richard Evans
Soul jazz meets chamber orchestra in this album that reflects the black pride aesthetic of the civil rights era.
Ashby’s compositions are brilliantly arranged by her collaborator and champion, the conductor Richard Evans. The Lalo Schifrin-esque treatment of the strings are the perfect foil to an Afro / latin accented rhythm section featuring vibes, congas and Dorothy playing electric harp.
Despite using a large ensemble here, the music has a wonderfully airy, layered feel; the beautifully sculpted melodic lines are given plenty of momentum with rolling percussion, and the whole thing is pinned down by driving, bluesy basslines. It’s a unique sound that effortlessly walks the line between classy and cool.
THE HARP IS HIP:
DOROTHY ASHBY / Hip Harp Prestige, 1958
Harp:
Dorothy Ashby
Flute:
Frank Wess
Bass:
Herman Wright
Drums:
Art Taylor
Produced by studio legend Rudy van Gelder, this is Dorothy early in her career and at her most straight ahead.
Dorothy’s lyrical lead playing fused with subtle, pianistic comping leaves listeners in no doubt about the harp’s place in a jazz line up.
With jazz flute legend Frank Wess completing the quartet, there’s a cool, conversational feel to this album which entirely lives up to its title.
EXPLORING HARP HORIZONS:
DOROTHY ASHBY / The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby Cadet, 1970
Whilst still infused with soul, “The Rubáiyát of Dorothy Ashby” is the album where the harpist stretched her musical and intellectual horizons even further. The string ensemble wears all of conductor / arranger Richard Evans soulful fingerprints. Drums and percussion remain funky and tight, but Dorothy, determined to push boundaries, is also playing the Japanese Koto – a sort of hybrid between the harp and zither
The title is inspired by the writings of the Persian poet / astronomer Omar Khayyam, and with Dorothy writing every track, singing, speaking and playing, her Rubaiyat signals an artist full of confidence in their creative direction.
Whilst this album wasn’t hugely successful in its day, it’s stood the test of time and shows Ashby at her most searching and experimental.
The Younger Generation
BRANDEE YOUNGER, 1983 –
Photo: Erin O’Brien/Impulse! Records
Carrying torches lit by Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby, Brandee Younger is one of the leading names in contemporary harp. Trained in both classical and jazz, and steeped in R&B and hip hop, Younger’s is a musical vision without genre boundaries.
Speaking about Ashby and Coltrane, Brandee notes: “I think that one thing to keep in mind is that they both were really really, truly under celebrated. Right? We’re celebrating them today. But at the time, we’re talking the 60s, right for Dorothy Ashby, the 50s, and the 60s with the harp, late 60s into the 70s. And with Alice Coltrane the late 60s into the 70s. They had these, I don’t want to call them barriers, but maybe challenges that I don’t have as badly as they did. So you have just the time that they’re in, they’re a woman in jazz. That’s a challenge. They’re black on the harp. That’s a challenge. And then they’re bringing the harp into this genre. And that’s a challenge, right? So it’s like a trifecta of things working against you, in a way.
The one thing I admire about them tremendously is they were playing what was true and unique to them. And I think that’s why their output was as large as it was. Dorothy Ashby had 11 albums as a leader. It just seemed as though nothing stopped her. She kept going and kept producing this music and her level of creativity or what she was putting out. She didn’t stop playing music because records weren’t selling. So, just to even have that drive and that passion to keep going and to keep going. So probably a decade after Dorothy Ashby passed away, Pete Rock started to sample her music, and then a whole new life was breathed into her music via hip hop samples.“
Did you know?…
Brandee’s track “Hortense” was used in Beyoncé’s documentary “Homecoming”.
She reworked the Beatles “For the Benefit of Mr Kite!” For Impulse’s Sgt Pepper tribute album.
Says Brandee: “It was important for me, to work with people and really try to get people involved that shared a special kinship with Dorothy Ashby that was really, really important for me to do, or else I didn’t want to do it, to be honest. And the first person who came to mind was Pete Rock. He was the first really to sample her stuff. And I was so honored when he said, yes. So the track that he’s on is “Livin’ and Lovin’ in my Own Way”, and that’s one of the previously unrecorded tracks that I said here, I got something you never heard of before. So it was really special to be able to work with him on that. And then also 9th Wonder, worked on “Windmills”, which was such a popular cover back when she covered it. We recorded it in Chicago at Makaya McCravens house, and my favorite albums of Dorothy Ashby’s were recorded in Chicago, on the Cadet label where Richard Evans produced it, so it was it was really cool to be able to, I call it having the Chicago grease on the record by by getting it done in Chicago, in such a comfortable environment with Makaya on drums and Rashaan Carter on bass, just the three of us working out the core of the whole record which was really, really, really special.”
GRAMMY NOMINATED GENRE MIXING:
BRANDEE YOUNGER / Somewhere Different Impulse!, 2021
Says Brandee: “It was important for me, to work with people and really try to get people involved that shared a special kinship with Dorothy Ashby that was really, really important for me to do, or else I didn’t want to do it, to be honest. And the first person who came to mind was Pete Rock. He was the first really to sample her stuff. And I was so honored when he said, yes. So the track that he’s on is “Livin’ and Lovin’ in my Own Way”, and that’s one of the previously unrecorded tracks that I said here, I got something you never heard of before. So it was really special to be able to work with him on that. And then also 9th Wonder, worked on “Windmills”, which was such a popular cover back when she covered it. We recorded it in Chicago at Makaya McCravens house, and my favorite albums of Dorothy Ashby’s were recorded in Chicago, on the Cadet label where Richard Evans produced it, so it was it was really cool to be able to, I call it having the Chicago grease on the record by by getting it done in Chicago, in such a comfortable environment with Makaya on drums and Rashaan Carter on bass, just the three of us working out the core of the whole record which was really, really, really special.”
NODS TO HARP HEROINES:
BRANDEE YOUNGER / Soul Awakening 2019
Harp:
Brandee Younger
Bass:
Dezron Douglas
Drums:
EJ Strickland Chris Beck
Tenor sax:
Ravi Coltrane Chelsea Baratz Antoine Roney
Trumpet:
Sean Jones Freddie Hendrix
Soprano sax:
Stacy Dillard
Flute:
Nicole Camacho
Trombone:
Corey Wilcox
Vocals:
Niia
Recorded in 2012, “Soul Awakening” shows that even earlier in her career, Brandee Younger was sure of her role in a contemporary jazz ensemble. Younger leads on a largely self composed album but she nods to her harp heroines with the inclusion of the Dorothy Ashby track “Games”, Alice Coltrane’s “Blue Nile” – compositions which show just how distinctive those two giants of jazz harp were. Staying true to her spirit of collaboration, Ravi Coltrane guests on a couple of tracks to great effect.
Freya Hellier is a radio, audio and content producer based in London and Glasgow. She has spent many years making programmes about all genres of music for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and beyond.
Thank you for registering! We have sent a confirmation email to {USEREMAIL}. Please check your spam folder for the email, if it does not arrive, click this link...
