TORONTO, Canada (Ron Korb/ www.ronkorb.com) - From Toronto to Taiwan, from Singapore to Shanghai, Ron Korb's innovative musical style is garnering a buzz around the world. Ron Korb
https://www.ronkorb.com/profile.html is a Toronto based, Japanese Canadian flutist and composer.
Ron and his band have know each other for over 20 years. They met at York University while studying jazz. The bassist and drummer went on to study with Dave Holland and John Abercrombie at the Banff school of Fine Arts and the guitarist studied with Chick Corea Electric Band alumni Frank Gamble in LA. The pianist Bill Evans is fluid in New Orleans piano styles, stride and be-bop. Although they all have a solid background in traditional Jazz this group has developed a completely new approach.
The newly released Ron Korb Live, DVD and CD, has a refreshing and original sound. Ron Korb Live covers a broad range of Jazz and World
Music styles with the different influences seemlessly complementing each other. The music runs the gamut from the understated smokey classiness of the ballad Green Eyed Maiden to the exotic sound of Shadow Dance based on a South East Asian scale and a reggae rhythm to the excitement Celtic/ Fusion piece Long Shadows.
Korb is an incredible flutist. His tone and expressiveness are unsurpassed. He is extremely versatile and he can improvise on bamboo flute in an authentic Japanese style and then run full tilt on the penny whistle and then play some Latin jazz tunes like Casco Viejo, Genji and Dark Eyes with a groove and feel that Dave Valetin or
Nestor Torres would admire.
Korb's well crafted compositions are an excellent spring board for the soloists to work their improvisations. Bill Evans piano solo in Green Eyed Maiden is exquisite and the more funky b3 organ of Shadow Puppets adds a different dimension to the sound.
The Ron Korb Live CD is 80 minutes in length and offers five bonus tracks not included on the DVD. The Ron Korb Live DVD has a generous helping of special features including interviews, bonus music videos, audio commentary, photo gallery and an impressive interactive instrument dictionary featuring photos and sound samples of thirty-five World music instruments. All descriptions and menus are in English and French.
While many groups will record a live album or DVD over several nights, this concert was recorded in a single evening and truly captures an extra level of authenticity. The DVD is very well shot, edited, recorded and mixed. You can really see and hear the detail in the musician's performance. For the listener who wants something more adventurist, this is the disc to buy.
