Dorothy Ashby Afro-Harping (1968) NEW EXPANDED DELUXE EDITION

• Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations
• Dorothy Ashby – Games
• Dorothy Ashby – Action Line
• Dorothy Ashby – Lonely Girl
• Dorothy Ashby – Life Has Its Trials
• Dorothy Ashby – Afro-Harping
• Dorothy Ashby – Little Sunflower
• Dorothy Ashby – Theme From Valley Of The Dolls
• Dorothy Ashby – Come Live With Me
• Dorothy Ashby – The Look Of Love

• 1. Soul Vibrations
• 2. Games
• 3. Action Line
• 4. Lonely Girl
• 5. Life Has Its Trials
• 6. Afro-Harping
• 7. Little Sunflower
• 8. Theme From Valley Of The Dolls
• 9. Come Live With Me
• 10. The Look Of Love
• 11. Action Line Master A, Take 2 (Deluxe Edition Only)
• 12. Afro-Harping Alt. Take (Deluxe Edition Only)
• 13. Theme From Valley Of The Dolls Master B, Take 2 (Deluxe Edition Only)
• 14. Lonely Girl Master G, Take 1 (Deluxe Edition Only)
• 15. Soul Vibrations Alt. Take (Deluxe Edition Only)
• 16. Life Has Its Trials Master C, Take 2 (Deluxe Edition Only)
• 17. Little Sunflower Master F, Take 3 (Deluxe Edition Only)
• 18. Theme From Valley Of The Dolls Master B, Take 6 (Deluxe Edition Only)

Definitive deep funky album from harpist Dorothy Ashby. Excellent late 60's soulful jazz harp recorded for Chess with arrangements by Richard Evans and a killer (unknown) line-up! Samples galore, from "Soul Vibrations" and "Come Live With Me", plus a version of "Little Sunflower". Like an earlier version of Alice Cotrane's seminal 70s releases on Impulse.

Remastered from the original ¼ inch tapes by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios, Afro-Harping is filled front-to-back with sumptuous and hypnotic grooves.

Its African percussion, soulful orchestrations, in-the-pocket rhythms and Dorothy’s virtuosity take it far beyond jazzy mood music and made it a favourite of beat heads and producers; sampled by Pete Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Jay Dee (aka J Dilla), Madlib, Flying Lotus and many others.

This deluxe version features eight bonus tracks, alternate takes from the surviving four-track session reels that are arguably superior to those on the album, including an explosive rendition of the single, ‘Soul Vibrations’, extended versions of its title track and ‘Little Sunflower’ and two fantastic jazzy readings of ‘Theme from Valley of the Dolls’.

Additional flavour is provided by some of the in-studio ‘atmosphere’ that accompanies the bonus cuts. The session reels also featured the voices of Dorothy, Evans and others: encouragement, laughter, a brief burst of beatboxing and a mild disagreement over how many bars had been played, for example. In many cases these elements have been left where they were found, the better to experience the sheer joy of being in the room with Dorothy and some of the Chicago’s finest musicians in the winter of ’68.

By that time, Evans was running every aspect of Cadet Records, applying his emerging funk formula to new and established artists, with an overflowing pipeline of work for Ramsey Lewis, John Klemmer, Frank D’Rone, Odell Brown and many more. His growing Afrocentricity, coupled with Ashby’s desire to highlight the Black struggle that had been the subject of several plays (from which three of the tracks on Afro-Harping were drawn) that she and her husband John had produced in her hometown of Detroit, provided the foundations for the recording of Afro-Harping. “Her jazz playing was very New York-ish, very sophisticated,” Evans said. “But I wanted things to be very Black, very funky at Cadet.”

Afro-Harping was rediscovered and sampled by hip-hop producers and DJs like Gilles Peterson and 4Hero.