Welsh harpist Amanda Whiting teaches at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Cardiff and The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and works with jazz artists in the U.K. She exploits the harp’s resonant sustain with a repertoire selected or composed to explore the instrument’s unique qualities, with melodies and technique that avoid pummeling listeners with any of the harp’s parodic cliches.

Little Sunflower (2021), a trio outing, opens with an evocative reimagination of the Freddie Hubbard classic. Whiting’s read of Astor Piazzola’s “Libertango” offers some fine bowed and plucked bass work by Deej Williams, with understated percussive underpinning by Tony Robinson. Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” has a bossa nova feel, while “Caravan” leaves solo room for Williams and Robinson. Rounding out the EP is Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” a downtempo reimagination of Kylie Minogue’s original disco-tease that turns the song inside out.

Lost in Abstraction (2022), recorded during the COVID lockdown, exhibits Whiting’s ensemble sensibility, in dialogue with the restrained rhythmic combo of Aidan Thorne (bass) and Jon Reynolds (drums). The core trio’s cohesion is manifest on “Too Much,” where Thorne and Reynolds stretch out on the low end, and “Where Would We Be,” cast in a Moorish mood that takes the harp back to its Spanish roots, echoing the 16th-century instrument carried to the Americas, where it took root especially in Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico. This title’s ten originals showcase Whiting’s compositions and melodic feel, fronting the harp as an expressive solo instrument in creative dialogue with her rhythm section and a handful of tracks with guests Chip Wickham (flute, alto flute, tenor sax) and Baldo Verdú (percussion).

The Liminality of Her (2024) reprises Whiting’s core trio with guests Wickham (flute on “Waiting to Go”), Mark O’Connor (percussion on “Alchemy”), and Australian singer Peach (airily on “Intertwined” and “Rite of Passage”). “Facing the Sun” opens with an Andalusian-like figure and offers some lovely harmonies, while “Nomad” proffers a koto-like intro that morphs into flamenco-tinged terrain. O’Connor’s bongo work brings dimension to “Liminal” and an insistent drive to “No Turning Back,” while Whiting’s dialogue with Thorne’s bowed bass teases out the introspective open-endedness of “Alchemy.”

Finally, Whiting released A Christmas Cwtch (Welsh for “hug” or “embrace”), which includes some deftly rendered seasonal tunes as well as Bill Evans’ “Peace Piece,” a delicate rendering that invokes Erik Satie as much as it does Evans.

Find the artist online.

Further reading and listening:
Nduduzo Makhathini - uNomkhubulwane
Hiromi and Edmar Castaneda - Concert review
9Bach - Anian
VRï - Islais A Genir - A Sung Whisper

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