Neapolitan

album title: Hip Harp
recorded
on: March 21, 1958
at: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey
released:1958
style: Cool Jazz
Jazz artist:Dorothy Ashby - harp
musicians:
Art Taylor - drums
Frank Wess - flute
Herman Wright - bass
tracklist:

1. Pawky - 7:07
2. Moonlight in Vermont (John Blackburn, Karl Suessdorf) - 5:17
3. Back Talk - 5:07
4. Dancing in the Dark (Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz) - 4:45
5. Charmaine (Lew Pollack, Erno Rapee) - 4:04
6. Jollity - 3:38
7. There's a Small Hotel (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers) - 5:53

This is the perfect album for those uninitiated into the world of Jazz to play at their swinging cocktail party, or perhaps a change of pace for the consummate Jazzbo who wants to do a one-eighty degree turn away from music by Frownland, all depending who you are of course.

Moonlight in Vermont is a favorite of mine. I familiar with the song through Johnny Smith, it's the title track his 1956 album. In the beginning of the song, Frank Wess plays the melody on the flute while Dorothy Ashby provides a beautiful backdrop with the harp. The second part Dorothy takes over with the harp as the lead instrument during the middle. After the harp takes the spot light, the flute enters role as lead instrument, with bass solo by Herman Wright near the end the song. All songs are equally impressive. The album is cool as an autumn breeze. It swings like a leaf falling from a tree, meandering through the air, to a fro. It lifts your spirit off the ground like the autumn breeze gentling lifting a fallen leaf, and sailing it through the air with a care in the world.

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