Features

Woman At Work: Sasha Dobson

When Sasha Dobson returned home after a recent tour with Norah Jones, she probably felt like Cinderella did when her magical carriage and horse disappeared. In Dobson’s case, the reckoning came after spending weeks both opening for and collaborating with Jones during her main set.

“I thought I was going to panic after being on the road like that,” says Dobson. “I thought, ‘Will I go back to teaching yoga or whatever it is we musicians do when we’re not making music?’ But fortunately, I realized—I have people I made connections with when touring.”

That’s not surprising when you consider that Dobson played her own music for thousands of Jones’ loyal fan and sold her six-song EP, Burn, on the road. The EP takes Dobson beyond her jazz roots into more of a folk/Americana sound, although she insists her recent music isn’t a departure from jazz as much as it is her maturation as an artist.

“It’s maybe more of an evolution,” she says. “I was first introduced to jazz through my parents and set out for New York at a young age. As I have become an adult, it has naturally become less about re-recording standards and more an evolution of the artist. What came out of me at first was something more simple.”

When Dobson moved to New York, she began playing famed jazz clubs including Small’s, which released her debut 2004 debut The Darkling Thrush on its own in-house label. She soon fell into a something of a folksy, jazz-driven Rat Pack of musicians that included Jones, Richard Julian and Jesse Harris that called the Lower East Side venue The Living Room their artistic home.

Harris, who wrote much of Jones’ Grammy-winning debut Come Away with Me, was also a strong supporter. He released Dobson’s bossa nova tinged sophomore album Modern Romance on his Secret Sun Records with help from Julian who co-wrote much of Jones’ second record, Feels Like Home.

Dobson balks when asked to classify her music and notes that writing—especially when collaborating—takes the artist down various paths that defy strict formats.
“It’s funny, it’s difficult for someone like me to focus on one [format] at a time,” she says. “Everybody wants to classify you as some sort of artist when we all strive to just be ourselves.”