WORLD HARP

1. No Strings Attached
2. Swinging Strings
3. Bossame Mucho
4. Pulling Strings (with Bart Samolis)

 Thirty-some odd years ago I discovered a very unusual jazz musician named Dorothy Ashby: she could mix classical music with blues and swing like crazy, but that didn't make her totally unique: what did, of course, was her choice of instrument: the harp (the full-on concert variety heard in classical orchestras).

 I went to on a crusade to find every Dorothy Ashby recording ever made and learned more about the harp along the way: I discovered Celtic harp, Paraguayan harp, new age music, the music of VeraCruz Mexico, and many other places - but little or no jazz harp - until now, that is.

 Lori Andrews plays the full concert harp and Lori Andrews is a jazz musician. Her recordings can roughly be divided two ways: solo recordings versus group recordings.

 Her solo recordings such as SWINGING STRINGS and BOSSAME MUCHO (a great pun, by the way) really stand out as the harp plays every note you hear. The instrument has a range roughly equivalent to the piano (a piano is actually a harp played on its side, with the strings hit with velvet hammers unlike harp and the harpsichord, there the strings are plucked. The strings of the harp, unlike those of the harpsichord, can also be strummed).

 Lori uses all these techniques and more to coax a myriad of founds out of her instrument.

 Her solo recordings can be listened to for their joy of jazz or as soft background music. We love listening to BOSSAME MUCHO (lots of Brazilian bossa nova tunes) as well as SWINGING STRINGS when we need to relax and get away from the tensions of the workplace: kind of like new age with brains, someone remarked - and soul, I added.

 These two recordings worked so well for us I decided to play them at a gathering: big mistake. It was supposed to be a laid-back gathering but not that much: I switched to NO STRINGS ATTACHED and PULLING STRINGS with partner and bass player Bart Samolis: much better!

 Things perked up right away to the perfect level we were seeking. The only thing wrong with Lori's group recordings, for an insatiably curious music nut like me, is I can't always tell if that's Lori's harp, the bass, or some other instrument playing a riff or series of notes. (I  know I should just relax and enjoy the music, everyone tells me, but hey - I used to be a musician.)

 Nearly all of Lori's albums contain a mix of jazz standards with Lori's own compositions. This is very smart marketing: people always respect a player more if they show they can master the standards; then compose.

 Discovering Lori Andrews may not be quite as exciting as discovering a treasure chest of lost Dorothy Ashby recordings, but it's awfully close: thanks Lori, and keep on pluckin' (you can use that as a cd title if you wish!)

 We first heard this lovely group play live at the annual harp festival (Festival of Harps) in California: we were amazed by the sound of a dozen harps playing together without any other instruments. MUSIC FROM AROUND THE WORLD is very similar to the program we heard that day: the music has strong folk roots throughout the world, but also has ties to classical music. ( Much of our classical music tradition is based on the folk music of the composers' country, after all.)

 All the members of the group are young ladies 8-18 years of age. The artistic director for the group is the renowned harpist and composer Diana Stork, but other world-acclaimed harpists have also helped out.

 There are 13 tracks on MUSIC FROM AROUND THE WORLD. Most tunes feature the entire troupe, but some feature harps only, while others add vocals occasionally, or other instruments such as the violin on Cut 9 'Death of Madam Flod'.

 The harps used are not always the Celtic and concert harps most of us are used to: on Cut 6, 'Bembe', we have African harps plus kalimba (African thumb piano).   Cut 10 sports three gothic-style lap harps.

 We have listened to MUSIC FROM AROUND THE WORLD six or seven times now and each time I hear things I hadn't noticed the first time, such as the understated percussion.

 The music comes from every inhabited continent, yet is the sound is cohesive: it doesn't sound like a variety package at all; it sounds as if it comes from one place - and it does: Planet Earth!