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John Fordham -The Guardian - Dec 2004

For all the broadening of what constitutes jazz instrumentation, the accordion still isn’t widely used, and is still considered a rarity. The UK’s Karen Street first surfaced in the jazz world in Tim Garland’s folk jazz band Lammas and on this set she commits her own compositions to jazz variations from a fine group featuring Stan Sulzmann, guitarist Mike Outram and bassist Fred Thelonious Baker.
Street is a superb textural player, an affecting composer and a thoughtful accompanist. Some of the music is folksy, some suggestive of an old Stan Getz jazz-samba, some is Kurt Weillian, but all of it is lyrical.
Sulzmann is in relaxed and inventive form smoking and flaring on the slowly gliding title track, hooting like a tenor-sax Johnny Hodges on the Ellington/Strayhorn piece Mount Harissa, shaping his narrative subtly in Getz-like mode on Which Way Up.

Jazz UK Jan 2005

It’s always risky to call something a ‘first’, but I can’t think of any other jazz record with a line-up of accordion, tenor sax, guitar and bass. But that’s the group assembled by Karen Street, and it’s not only a unique sound, but features some fine playing by individuals who evidently rose to the occasion. Musicians who have given the accordion a genuine voice are rare, but Karen Street is undoubtedly among them.

Kenny Mathieson - Jazzwise Feb 2005

Karen Street lifted the title of her latest disc form the book of the same name by the novelist E.Annie Proulx, but some folks would have you believe that all accordion playing is an offence. Karen Street is nothing if not dedicated to her often maligned instrument, however, and her partners in crime - saxophonist Stan Sulzmann, guitarist Mike Outram, and bassist Fred Baker - provide excellent support for her inventions on the box. That combination of instruments works very effectively both in terms oftimbre and musical texture and in the evocation of mood. Although accordion is primarily regarded as a folk instrument in this country, she comes at the music with a jazz sensebility and a strong influence from both central European and South American styles on the instrument. She includes the Ellington-Strayhorn composition 'Mount Harissa' and one traditional tune, 'When a Knight Won His Spurs' alongside a half-dozen of her own atmospheric compositions.

Dave Gelly - The Observer - Dec 2004

This is one of the most charming and unexpected releases of the season. Karen Street has evolved an entire vocabulary for the accordion that works beautifully in the jazz context without forfeiting the instrument’s awkward individuality. It hasn’t happened overnight as anyone has heard her work with Mike Westbrook, Tim Garland and others will know, but the firm confidence of this set establishes a whole new standard.