Alina Bzhezhinska & Hip Harp Collective: Reflections

The Warsaw-trained harpist nods to staples such as Ashby and Coltrane but also widens the scope of jazz harp to include rap

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Alina Bzhezhinska has established herself in this country over the last few years, showing that the harp need not be a background or mood-setting instrument, but a lead in its own right – as did her inspirational figures, Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane.

She gives her music a greater fullness and texture than a piano might, juxtaposing single-note runs with often startlingly orchestral sweeps, and some of her solos have a decidedly folk feel, reminiscent at times of the Celtic harp.

The material here includes some associated with Ashby (the brisk opener Soul Vibrations and Action Line, on which her harp has a blues-guitar feel) and with the Coltranes. Perhaps understandably, it’s when Tony Kofi is introduced to the mix that the links with the latter are most apparent.

Take, for example, Fire, from Joe Henderson’s The Elements, the imaginatively arranged Afro Blue, with vocals by Vimala Rowe, and a trio version of John Coltrane’s Alabama in which Joel Prime’s percussion sympathetically and attentively supports the warmth and emotive delivery of Kofi’s tenor and the rhythmic platform of the leader, whose bass lines and solo make this a fine rendition.

Duke Ellington’s African Flower has an enlarged instrumentation from the Money Jungle trio version, Bzhezhinska’s harp stating Duke’s piano melody over which Kofi’s soprano is featured.

The leader’s own compositions include the gently balladic Reflections and Meditation (harp intertwining with Julie Walkington’s bass) and For Carrol, which has an attractively laidback but lyrical solo from trumpeter Jay Phelps. Of the two versions of Paris Sur Le Toit, one is instrumental with harp working effectively with the strings of Ying Xue, the other has rap vocals. Your call on this.

Bassist Mikele Montolli contributes Sans End, based on The Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby album, though the sceptic might point to Omar Khayyam’s “the flower that once has blown for ever dies.” Fortunately it’s recorded.

Discography
Soul Vibrations; For Carrol; Fire; Reflections; Afro Blue; Alabama; African Flower; Paris Sur Le Toit (instrumental); Sans End; Action Line; Paris Sur Le Toit (with rap); Meditation (62.58)
Bzhezhinska (hp); Mikele Montolli, Julie Walkington (b); Joel Prime (pc); Adam Teixeira (d); Ying Xue (vln, vla); Jay Phelps (t); Tony Kofi (s); Vimala Rowe (v); Sanity & Tom They/Them (v, rap). London, December 2020 & August 2021.
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