I am truly humbled and honored by this review by Doug Ramsey at Rifftides.
The bassist and singer Kristin Korb has married and moved from Los Angeles to Copenhagen. She returns to the US now and then, as she did to record this intimate collection. With only Bruce Forman’s guitar and Jeff Hamilton’s drums for accompaniment and no place to seek cover, Korb must “feel all the heat,” to paraphrase part of her ingenious lyric to Jerome Richardson’s “Groove Merchant.” If she feels the heat, it is not evident. What the listener feels is warmth, swing, good humor and compatibility with her colleagues. She and Forman flawlessly recreate the famous saxophone soli section of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis arrangement of the Richardson piece, a feat of unison singing, playing and lyric writing and a joy to hear. Korb’s singing, impressive from the time of her first recording with her mentor Ray Brown, has increased assurance, a knowing use of inflection and flawless intonation in the upper register. Her bass playing is in the Brown tradition; clean, tough, in tune and rhythmically irresistible. Her solo on “Green Dolphin Street” is a high point. In a varied set of songs by Matt Dennis, Mary Lou Williams, Dori Caymmi, Cole Porter and Frank Loesser, she is as convincing in Porter’s 1940s novelty “Don’t Fence Me In” as in Amber Navran’s contemporary “Always Searching For My Baby.” This could be a candidate for vocal album of the year. But, then, there’s that bass playing.
