Carol Robbins – Three & Four
Bob Perkins’ Must Haves, Jazzpix
The first time I heard Carol Robbins play the harp, I thought some record company might have lucked out and recorded an angel. I had to phone Robbins at her home in California to get a copy of her CD, since I could not locate it on the East Coast.
As I suspected, she is conservatory trained. Her resumé boasts numerous appearances in film, television, and in the recording studio. Her television appearances include The Tonight Show, Living Legends, Frasier, and The Dennis Miller Show to name just a few. She has performed in concert with Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis, Jr., among other legendary entertainers.
I was already impressed by Robbin’s work, then she hit me with the fact that she had been a student of the late jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby – with whom I’d deejayed in Detroit, more than three decades ago. (That unexpected bit of news had me talking to myself.)
Although classically trained, Carol Robbins has become a very accomplished jazz artist, and her playing on Three & Four (so named because she works with trio and quartet) bears that out. Her primary companion on the disc, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, is the equal of any saxophonist these mature ears have ever heard. The pop and jazz standards could not have been handled with more understanding and tender loving care.
Get the disc and hear for yourself.