ABOUT US

KRISTIN KORB

Gear I Use

Owning my Morelli bass since 1992, there isn’t a string that sounds or feels better on it than my Pirastro Obligatos. For my travel bass, I’m sold on Evah Pirazzi. These strings hold up extremely well to the fast transition between bass assembly and concert time. I’m a proud endorser of Pirastro Strings.

Bass Amplifier: Depending on the situation, we feed the bass microphone out to the house and use the bass amp as our stage monitor. I like using Acoustic Image. It is light and sounds great.

Microphones: My husband founded DPA microphones, so I realize that I’m probably a little biased. While he’s no longer affiliated with DPA, we still use primarily DPA for everything from my voice to my bass and the rest of the band. (no endorsement)

Vocal Monitor: No matter where I travel, I have my TC Helicon Voicesolo FX150 with me. There are always places that either don’t have a monitor or they are lacking reverb for the voice. With the monitor, I have it all with me and I can control the sound myself. (no endorsement)

Sound Gear: Traveling to venues of varying sizes, there are times when the sound board is in a “less than convenient” location. We travel with the QSC TouchMix-16 to avoid problems. Morten can control it with his iPad and plug into the existing sound system. It has been a real life saver. We also have QSC speakers for the rare occasions when we have to bring our own stuff. The sound is killin’ and it is easy to haul around.

There are few bassists who can sing and there are even fewer who can do it well. Kristin Korb is one of those artists who make you forget that she is playing the bass when you hear her crystalline voice. Inspired by the days when music was romantic and made you want to dance, Kristin and her trio embody that spirit and carry their audiences along for the ride. Love eventually brought the American bassist and vocalist to Denmark in 2011.

In November 2016, Korb released her eighth CD, Beyond the Moon. Inspired by the storytelling of one of America’s greatest lyricists, Johnny Mercer, Kristin includes several of his biggest hits and then takes a voyage of discovery into unpublished texts that Mercer never made into songs.

Kristin’s performances of all eleven songs thrive on elements that she and Mercer have in common; reverence for melody; phrasing and inflection influenced by the blues; understanding of the relationship of harmonies to tunes and words. In making songs of orphan texts from the Mercer archive, Kristin and Magnus Hjorth, the pianist in her trio, evoke Mercer’s powers of rhythm and rhyme. They and drummer Snorre Kirk comprise a working group in high demand in Europe, where they live, and in their US tours.

Additional background information:

Korb earned her Music Education degree at Eastern Montana College and her masters in Classical Bass Performance the University of California, San Diego. It was while she was a student at UCSD that her professor, Bertram Turetzky inspired her to sing and play bass at the same time. She also studied with Ray Brown, with whom she made her recording debut, Introducing Kristin Korb with the Ray Brown Trio released in 1996.

She has taught at the University of Southern California where she was coordinator of vocal jazz studies, Azuza Pacific University, Grossmont Community College and was Director of Jazz Studies at Central Washington University. Korb is still very involved in educational outreach and teaches at universities, jazz camps and festivals with young students.

As President of the International Society of Bassists, Korb was artistic director for the 2013 ISB Convention in Rochester, NY (Eastman School of Music).

Kristin tours across the world and has performed with jazz artists such as Llew Matthews, Kim Richmond, Pete Christlieb, Jeff Hamilton, Alex Riel and Jan Lundgren.

She now lives in Denmark with her Danish husband. When she’s not playing music, Kristin enjoys going to the gym, maintaining her position as family salad ninja, and exploring the world of wine tasting through travel.

ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT

High Res Pics

Concert Education Guide

I love doing outreach concerts for students. In order to prepare students for what they’re going to see and hear, I’ve made a little online guide with videos and more to tell students a little about the band and what we do.

(Grades 5-12)

CHECK IT OUT

NEW IN 2019:

READ & HEAR MORE ABOUT BLONDE BASS

THE TRIO

Magnus Hjorth

Piano

Magnus Hjorth was born and raised in a small town called Laholm on the west coast of Sweden. Since 2004, however, he is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hjorth began his professional career in 1999 playing locally as he completed his high school studies.

After graduating high school in 2002, he attended the renowned jazz college Fridhems Folkhögskola in Svalöv, Sweden for two years before moving to the danish capital for further studies at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory. In 2006, he formed Magnus Hjorth Trio, which has released three recordings: “Loco Motif” (Calibrated, 2007), “Old New Borrowed Blue” (Stunt, 2009) and “Gershwin With Strings” (Stunt, 2011).

Since 2009 he has worked with japanese drummer Kazumi Ikenaga and the japanese record company and concert promoter Cloud Records. The collaboration has resulted in two recordings, “Someday. Live in Japan” (Cloud, 2009) and Plastic Moon (Cloud/Stunt 2010) and numerous Asian Tours.

In 2007 Magnus participated in the big international jazz contest Getxo Jazz with the jazz quartet People Are Machines, where he was voted the best soloist of the competition by both the audience and the judges.

Furthermore, Magnus is a sought-after side man and has performed and recorded with Chris Potter, Danish Radio Big Band, Marius Neset Golden Xplosion, Mads la Cour Im Beruf, Sidsel Storm Band, Malene Mortensen Band among others.

Other Fun Facts:

Musical Inspiration: His older brother was his mentor growing up. He made him mix cassettes and helped him with theory. Thelonious Monk, Jan Johansson (A Swedish jazz pianist who worked a lot with Stan Getz among others.)
Talented pianist, composer, and bandleader, Magnus has been featured in the Danish magazine Jazz Special. He’s also a wonderful musical collaborator.
Magnus is a family man. He has a toddler, Aksel. This means that touring is a sleeping “vacation” for him
Loves long distance running. He just runs regular marathons, not the “ultra” marathons. I didn’t even know that there was such a thing.
Magnus is my sherpa through Swedish “cuisine”. I haven’t been bold enough to try some things yet, but I may get there soon.

Snorre Kirk

Drums

On the highly acclaimed outing “Blues Modernism”, recently awarded with both the prestigious JazzSpecial-Award for “Album of the Year” 2012, as well as two nominations in the Danish Music Awards 2012, drummer Snorre Kirk gets to showcase his qualities as a composer and bandleader. Featuring a stellar cast of contemporary Scandinavian jazz greats, this mellow and soulful album is the downright antithesis of the often dreaded drummer-as-bandleader format, and shows Snorre Kirk to be an accomplished and highly original composer and artist as well as a drummer.

As indicated by its title, this album is testament to the unquavering and timeless qualities found in the blues, its uncanny ability to portray the full range of human emotion still unsurpassed in the year 2012. From sultry ballads to down home grooves, to church music and beyond, all drenched heavily in the comforting sound and familiar warmth of the blues, this is indeed a modern album for modern times.

Other Fun Facts:

Musical Heroes: Mingus, Ellington, Max Roach
Early Musical Experience: Originally wanted to play guitar, but there was no room for that at school. He was sent off to play drums and never looked back.
Talented drummer, composer, and bandleader, Snorre Kirk has been featured in the Danish magazine Jazz Special and his CD “Blues Modernism” won Album of the Year 2013. You can hear clips of it on his website http://snorrekirk.com
Loved dinosaurs as a kid…. No reflection on his drumming today.
He was the only 11 year old in Europe with an Adam Nussbaum poster over his bed
Has never even tried to drive a car before.
As of October, 2016, Snorre is now a dad.

OTHER KORB ACTIVITIES

Kristin Korb Trio +

We often have the occasion to expand my regular trio with the addition of a wonderful horn player. It is thrilling to work with such amazing musicians such as:

Mathias Heise, Bob Rockwell, Steen Nikolaj Hansen, Gerard Presencer and Karl-Martin Almqvist

Large Band Configurations

Not many are aware of this, but I actually have a collection of arrangements that were written expressly for me to play with:

Orchestra (arrangements by Rob Pronk, Bill Mays, Tamir Hendelman and more)
Big Band (arrangements by Bill Mays, Gordon Goodwin, Tom Kubis, and more)

Email me if you want to find out more about the book or hear some of this music.

All-Stars

I play with various other groups where we collaborate with a little of “yours, mine and ours”.

My partners in crime include:

Dena DeRose (piano / voice)
Jeff Hamilton (drums)
Jacob Fischer (guitar)
Russell Ferrante (piano)
Aaron Serfaty (drums)
Bruce Forman (guitar)
Nico Gori (clarinet)
and more

Educational Outreach

I was raised in a family of educators. Passing the tradition along is really important to me. As I tour, I enjoy stopping by schools and spending time with the students:

“Students in Madison Elementary second grade classes welcomed professional jazz bassist and vocalist Kristin Korb into Samantha Mack’s music room on January 30. Kristin was one of the clinicians and featured performers at the NDSU High School Invitational Jazz Festival; she performed several musical forms and involved the students in the changing-ups and improvisations of their singing games during the session.” (Image courtesy Samantha Gaffney-Mack)