Ron Korb

In addition to issuing several solo albums, flutist and composer Ron Korb has also lent his talents to motion picture soundtracks and other artists recordings. Of Japanese and Canadian heritage, Korb discovered his love of wind instruments from playing the recorder as a child and the flute in his teens, joining an Irish fife and drum band while still in high school and building a deep admiration for jazz music. After graduating with honors from the University of Toronto, Korb discovered a Chinese bamboo flute, which subsequently became his primary instrument of choice. Soon after, Korb recorded his debut album, 1990′s Tear of the Sun, with tabla player Donald Quan, which led to Korb moving to Japan in the early ’90s to study traditional flutes, where he also recorded his sophomore effort, 1993’s Japanese Mysteries. Korb was then hired as a songwriter for the JCM publishing company in Tokyo, where a song he penned for singer Alan Tam became a huge hit and was selected as Best Original Composition by Radio and Television Hong Kong. Korb’s interest with different kinds of flutes continued to grow, as his third album, 1994′s Flute Traveller, contained 15 different flutes from around the world. For his next release, 1995′s Behind the Mask, Korb penned a short story about Indonesian shadow puppet plays, which contained a wide variety of musical styles, including Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, calypso, and Celtic. Subsequently, Korb penned the music for the Mitra Sen film Just a Little Red Dot and the TV shows Legacy and Emily of New Moon, plus issuing further albums — Taming the Dragon, Titanic: Odyssey, and Persian Arabesque, the latter credited to a band Korb formed with bassist Donald Quan and pianist Stephen Bacchus. Over the years, Korb has guested on recordings by such artists as Pat Clemence, Mychael Danna, Bruce Mitchell, and Bacchus, among others. ~ Greg Prato