Classical music pops up chiefly on the news these days
whenever there’s one of those studies every six months or so that shows playing
Bach and Beethoven to your unborn baby can increase his or her I.Q. by 575
percent or something. Once the popular music of its time, it’s now largely the
domain of arts benefactors. Serious conductors aside, many classically trained
musicians try to get into the lucrative world of film composing, or at least
working in orchestral scoring.

For better or worse, my own parents were enthusiasts of a sort,
occasionally spinning actual records, but also taking my younger sister and I
on trips to see the local symphony orchestra. While pop music and rock ’n’
roll, then old-school crooners, rap and the work of great songwriters like Bob
Dylan, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen would capture my imagination, I think
classical music provided a certain underpinning, as I strongly recall the
wonderment associated with watching violinists working in unison, or cello
players coaxing unusual new sounds out of their life-size instruments.

Combining the instrumental influence of Ray Brown and
Charles Mingus with the vocal styling of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, Montana-bred
jazz double-bassist and vocalist Kristin Korb has created a deep, evocative
scat sound all her own. This 75-minute concert was filmed in early 2005 at Vienna’s
famous Porgy & Bess jazz club, and features a legitimately engaging performance
by Korb, the former director of jazz studies at Central
Washington University.
“I’m Old Fashioned” kicks off the play list, followed by a deliberately
dawdling version of “They Say It’s Spring,” “Whirly Bird,” “Wouldn’t It Be
Lovely,” “Lined with a Groove,” “Alone Together,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Nobody
Wants to Sing the Blues” and “Top of the World.” Like blended yogurt, interwoven
with the live concert footage are discrete sit-down interview tidbits with
Korb, which give the title the feel of a real document rather than just a staid
recital.

Housed in a regular Amray case and presented in 4×3 full
screen on a region-free disc suitable for worldwide play, this DVD comes with
fairly a solid Dolby digital 5.1 audio track. Apart from the aforementioned
interstitial bits, there are unfortunately no other supplemental extras. While
somewhat limited to classical music fans already faithfully familiar with the
subject’s body of work, Korb comes across as an intelligent and unfailingly
positive-minded guide, and might just spark a certain nostalgia for elementary
school field trips amongst lapsed fans of the genre. To purchase this DVD via Amazon,
click here.
B (Concert) C (Disc)