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When the Harp Met Jazz: The Revolutionary Sounds of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane
Few musicians have attempted to play jazz on the harp, and even fewer have succeeded. Two women from Detroit, Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, mastered the feat during the 20th century, setting the bar for harpists to follow.
The harp is not traditionally associated with jazz. The instrument carries more solemn associations, likely obtained through its long-standing connection with royal and religious contexts. A lot of European religious art from the 13th to the 16th centuries depicts the harp, and portraits of royals (such as Marie Antoinette and Josephine de Beauharnais) playing the instrument helped to popularize it during the 18th century.
In her book , harpist and author Roslyn Rensch writes that, for the young 18th-century lady, this was “a most acceptable way to display pretty arms and a 'well-turned ankle.’ Eventually, the harp moved from aristocratic parlors into concert halls across Europe, to be included in some of the most prominent operas and orchestral works of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
