The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (LP, Verve)

Jazz harpist Brandee Younger’s Grammy nomination last year has drawn the attention of many jazz fans to the narrow but all the more astonishing oeuvre of her great role model Dorothy Ashby. Arguably her most eccentric yet incredibly accessible album, she recorded for Cadet Records in 1970, The Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby. On it she set quatrains by the Persian poet Omar Chayyam (1048-1131) to music, charmingly merging spiritual jazz, funk and blues with elements of Asian and African music. In addition to her harp, Ashby also plays the Japanese koto and sang.