Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Marysia Osu: Harp, Beats & Dreams

Marysia Osu: Harp, Beats & Dreams

By Chris May
October 4, 2024
View read count

Who knows how the jazz harp paradigm might have evolved had the instrument's most adventurous twentieth-century player, Detroit-born

Dorothy Ashby

harp
1932 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Dorothy Ashby, lived beyond her premature passing in 1986. Since then, most American jazz harpists have stuck pretty closely to the neo-classical glissandos and block chords-based style established by

Alice Coltrane

piano
1937 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Alice Coltrane. New York's

Brandee Younger

harp
b.1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Brandee Younger is among the few who have shown a more than passing interest in Ashby's work and its emphasis on horn-like single-notes runs.

In Britain, harps are often heard on the albums coming out of London's underground jazz scene. Scene auteurs tenor saxophonist

Binker Golding

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Binker Golding and drummer

Moses Boyd

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Moses Boyd, for instance, featured harpist

Tori Handsley

harp

" data-original-title="" title="">Tori Handsley on their gritty and often ferocious semi-free

Binker and Moses

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">Binker and Moses albums Journey To The Mountain Of Forever (Gearbox, 2017) and Alive In The East? (Gearbox, 2018). On the parallel scene in the northern city of Manchester, trumpeter and Gondwana Records founder

Matthew Halsall

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Matthew Halsall has featured harpists on all his albums to date, either

Alice Roberts

harp

" data-original-title="" title="">Alice Roberts or

Maddie Herbert

harp

" data-original-title="" title="">Maddie Herbert or

Rachael Gladwin

" data-original-title="" title="">Rachael Gladwin.

Again, as in America, most British-based harpists have kept to the Coltrane model. London-based, Ukraine-born

Alina Bzhezhinska

harp

" data-original-title="" title="">Alina Bzhezhinska is an exception. Starting out as a straight Coltrane disciple on her first album, Inspiration (Ubuntu, 2018), which was mostly composed of Coltrane covers, Bzhezhinska reshuffled the pack on the funk-infused Reflections (BBE, 2022), which included just one Alice Coltrane tune ("Fire"), co-written with

Joe Henderson

saxophone
1937 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Henderson, and "Action Line" from Ashby's Afro-Harping (Cadet,1968). In 2024, on a duo project with her regular collaborator saxophonist

Tony Kofi

saxophone, tenor
b.1966

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Kofi, Bzhezhinska struck out in a modern-day spiritual-jazz direction with Altera Vita (BBE).

Another exceptional London-based harpist is Poland-born Marysia Osu, aka

Maria Osuchowska

harp

" data-original-title="" title="">Maria Osuchowska, not so much for her playing style as in her use of technology to expand the harp's vocabulary. On her work with spiritual-jazz bands

Maisha

" data-original-title="" title="">Maisha and

Levitation Orchestra

various

" data-original-title="" title="">Levitation Orchestra, and on Harps, Beats & Dreams, her own-name debut, Osu, though by no means a Coltrane clone, approaches the harp more like Coltrane than Ashby. Osu's deft and imaginative use of fx pedals and studio technology on Harp, Beats & Dreams, however, takes the instrument into new audio territory.

Harp, Beats & Dreams may be too close to ambient music for some AAJ readers, but there can be no denying Osu's sonic invention. The album is essentially a solo affair, on which Osu also plays a little piano and clarinet, but she is occasionally joined by fellow Levitation members and/or Maisha associates Plumm, aka Sophie Plummer, on vocals, Yuis, aka Lluis Domenech Plana, flute and Tom Oldfield, cello. Also guesting:

Matt Davies

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Matt Davies, drums, and Riccardo Albini Dabire, bass.

P.S. Verve reissued Dorothy Ashby's Afro-Harping in a Deluxe Edition in late September 2024. The edition includes eight alternate takes including extended versions of Ashby and

Phil Upchurch

guitar
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Phil Upchurch's "Afro-Harping" and

Freddie Hubbard

trumpet
1938 - 2008

" data-original-title="" title="">Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower." A review can be read here.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Seatime; Melting Timbers; Memento Mori; Only U <3; Until Tomorrow Continues; Despite Being In Love; Care To Care; Dream Language; Cascades; Meditation IV.

Personnel

Marysia Osu

harp

Additional Instrumentation

Marysia Osu: harp, piano, clarinet; Emma Barnaby: cello; Plumm: vocals (2,7); Tom Oldfield: cello (2,7); Yuis: flute (3,8); Matt Davies: drums (5,7); Riccardo Dalbini: bass (7).

Album information

Title: Harp, Beats & Dreams | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Brownswood Recordings

PREVIOUS / NEXT

A Guitar Feast With Josh Meader, Era...
< Previous

Sam Wilkes: When I Can Read My Title...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.