Jason Robinson (musician)
Encyclopedia
Jason Robinson is an American jazz saxophonist, electronic musician, and composer. His musical projects cover a wide swath of creative approaches that draw heavily from post-1960s jazz experimentalism, more traditional post-bop
performance practices, and emerging electronic music
technologies. In addition to an extensive career leading his own groups and performing solo, Robinson co-founded the acclaimed collaborative avant-jazz group Cosmologic
and Cross Border Trio
, the latter a group featuring bassist Rob Thorsen and Mexican drummer Paquito Villa. Robinson has also performed extensively in the American reggae and jam band scenes, most notably with the Sonoma County, California-based internationally touring roots reggae group Groundation
.
Robinson studied jazz at the University of Southern California
in Los Angeles
and Sonoma State University
in Sonoma County, California
. Receiving degrees in Jazz Studies and Philosophy from Sonoma State, Robinson was mentored by the late bassist and composer Mel Graves, who also recorded on From the Sun, Robinson's first album as a leader. It was in Sonoma County that many of Robinson’s most important early musical partnerships were developed. He a founding member of the group Cannonball (an early group of San Francisco's Jazz Mafia
), was the first saxophonist in the influential roots reggae group Groundation
, collaborated with a huge variety of Bay Area jazz musicians, and founded Circumvention Music.
In 1998 Robinson moved to San Diego to begin graduate studies in the Critical Studies and Experimental Practices Program in the Department of Music at the University of California, San Diego. He studied under trombonist and scholar George E. Lewis and pianist and composer Anthony Davis
. Robinson’s scholarship took a marked turn towards cultural studies. In San Diego, he worked extensively with a trio that featured bassist Rob Thorsen and drummer Brett Sanders.
Robinson's interest in reggae began in the late 1990s, initially through his friendship and early involvement with Groundation (who have achieved widespread international success in their combination of roots reggae, dub experimentalism, and jazz improvisation). Through Groundation, Robinson has recorded with reggae legends Don Carlos
, Ras Michael
, Marcia Higgs, the Scientist
, and Cedric Myton
of The Congos
. After moving to San Diego, Robinson became a member of the bilingual (Spanish-English) group Elijah Emanuel and the Revelations. He has also performed with Eek-a-Mouse
, Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace
, and a host of other local reggae groups. He was featured on Toots and the Maytals’ Grammy-nominated 2007 album Light Your Light (Fantasy). He can be heard on a cut that features Toots in duo with Bonnie Raitt
.
In the late 1990s, Robinson also focused on developing long-term collaborative groups. In 1999, he co-founded Cosmologic
with trombonist Michael Dessen, bassist Scott Walton, and percussionist Nathan Hubbard. They have performed at festivals and prominent venues throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Europe. Their fourth album, Eyes in the Back of My Head, was released in May 2008 by Cuneiform Records
. In 2002, Robinson released his second album as a leader, Tandem
(Accretions). A conceptual “duo” album, Tandem features Robinson in a variety of settings with a stellar cast of experimentalists including George Lewis, Anthony Davis, the late German bassist Peter Kowald, and others. Garnering much praise, Tandem was chosen as a “critic’s pick” for 2002 in JazzTimes Magazine
. In 2003 Robinson co-founded the Cross Border Trio
, a collaborative transnational group that has performed extensively throughout Mexico. Their debut album, New Directions (2006/Circumvention), achieved widespread critical acclaim.
While in San Diego, Robinson co-founded Trummerflora, a musician collective dedicated to supporting creative music in and beyond Southern California. Largely modeled after the influential African American musician collectives of the 1960s and 70s (the AACM
, Black Artists Guild, etc.), Trummerflora continues to produce concert series, an annual festival of creative music (Spring Reverb
), and release compilation albums featuring member artists.
Robinson received a Ph.D. in Music at the University of California, San Diego
in 2005. He has taught in Music, Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, and Black Studies at the University of California, San Diego
, the University of California, Irvine
, Southwestern College
, San Diego City College
, Cuyamaca College
, and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College
.
Robinson has also directed and performed in several multi-site, networked concerts (most recently called "telematics
"). New developments in networking software allow near instantaneous CD-quality audio connections between distant performance sites. Robinson's most recent networked performance was titled "Trancontinental Circuits," which took place on April 3, 2009 and featured saxophonist Adnan Marquez-Borbon at Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University
, trombonist Michael Dessen at the University of California, Irvine
, and Robinson at Amherst College
in Massachusetts. Drawing upon this emerging technology, Robinson has composed several interactive compositions designed for multi-site networked performance.
Co-leader/collaborative groups:
Post-bop
Post-bop is a term for a form of small-combo jazz music that evolved in the early-to-mid sixties. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
performance practices, and emerging electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
technologies. In addition to an extensive career leading his own groups and performing solo, Robinson co-founded the acclaimed collaborative avant-jazz group Cosmologic
Cosmologic
Cosmologic is a cooperative avant-jazz quartet originally from San Diego, composed of saxophonist Jason Robinson , trombonist Michael Dessen, percussionist Nathan Hubbard, and bassist Scott Walton.-Discography:...
and Cross Border Trio
Cross Border Trio
Cross Border Trio is an international collaborate jazz group featuring American saxophonist Jason Robinson , bassist Rob Thorsen, and Mexican percussionist Paquito Villa. Formed in 2003, the group has released one critically acclaimed album, New Directions , and toured extensively throughout...
, the latter a group featuring bassist Rob Thorsen and Mexican drummer Paquito Villa. Robinson has also performed extensively in the American reggae and jam band scenes, most notably with the Sonoma County, California-based internationally touring roots reggae group Groundation
Groundation
Groundation is an American roots reggae band with jazz and dub influences from Sonoma County in Northern California.-History:Formed in the fall of 1998 by Harrison Stafford, Marcus Urani, and Ryan Newman, Groundation began on the campus of Sonoma State University's Jazz Program...
.
Biography
Robinson grew up in Folsom, California, where he first studied jazz under saxophonist Jeff Alkire and graduated from Folsom High School, where he was mentored by music director and saxophonist Curtis Gaesser. As a teenager, he frequented the jam sessions of Sacramento, then part of a thriving jazz scene in the Capital City.Robinson studied jazz at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University is a public, coeducational business and liberal arts college affiliated with the California State University system. The main campus is located in Rohnert Park, California, United States and lies approximately south of Santa Rosa and north of San Francisco...
in Sonoma County, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Receiving degrees in Jazz Studies and Philosophy from Sonoma State, Robinson was mentored by the late bassist and composer Mel Graves, who also recorded on From the Sun, Robinson's first album as a leader. It was in Sonoma County that many of Robinson’s most important early musical partnerships were developed. He a founding member of the group Cannonball (an early group of San Francisco's Jazz Mafia
Jazz Mafia
The Jazz Mafia is a young American musical collective that incorporates smaller ensembles in a larger family, based in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, that writes, plays, and arranges Jazz music while incorporating genres such as: electronica, soul, funk, big band,...
), was the first saxophonist in the influential roots reggae group Groundation
Groundation
Groundation is an American roots reggae band with jazz and dub influences from Sonoma County in Northern California.-History:Formed in the fall of 1998 by Harrison Stafford, Marcus Urani, and Ryan Newman, Groundation began on the campus of Sonoma State University's Jazz Program...
, collaborated with a huge variety of Bay Area jazz musicians, and founded Circumvention Music.
In 1998 Robinson moved to San Diego to begin graduate studies in the Critical Studies and Experimental Practices Program in the Department of Music at the University of California, San Diego. He studied under trombonist and scholar George E. Lewis and pianist and composer Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis (composer)
Anthony Davis, better known as Tony Davis , is an American composer, jazz pianist, and student of gamelan music.-Biography:...
. Robinson’s scholarship took a marked turn towards cultural studies. In San Diego, he worked extensively with a trio that featured bassist Rob Thorsen and drummer Brett Sanders.
Robinson's interest in reggae began in the late 1990s, initially through his friendship and early involvement with Groundation (who have achieved widespread international success in their combination of roots reggae, dub experimentalism, and jazz improvisation). Through Groundation, Robinson has recorded with reggae legends Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
, Ras Michael
Ras Michael
Ras Michael is a Jamaican reggae singer and Nyabinghi specialist. He also performs under the name of Dadawah.-Biography:...
, Marcia Higgs, the Scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
, and Cedric Myton
Cedric Myton
Cedric Myton born in Jamaica is a Reggae musician and Rastafarian. Myton played with Prince Lincoln Thompson in The Tartans in the early 1970s until they apparently fell out. Cedric Myton claims he was one of the backing harmony vocals on Prince Lincoln's Humanity album recorded in 1975, but he is...
of The Congos
The Congos
The Congos are a reggae vocal group from Jamaica active on and off from the mid-1970s until the present day. They are best known for their Heart of the Congos album, recorded with Lee "Scratch" Perry.-History:...
. After moving to San Diego, Robinson became a member of the bilingual (Spanish-English) group Elijah Emanuel and the Revelations. He has also performed with Eek-a-Mouse
Eek-a-Mouse
Eek-A-Mouse is a Jamaican reggae musician. He is one of the early artists to be described as a "singjay".-Biography:...
, Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace
Leroy Wallace
Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace is a Jamaican drummer who worked for several years at Studio One, and has worked with numerous reggae artists including The Gladiators, Inner Circle, Prince Far I, Sound Dimension, Gregory Isaacs, Burning Spear, Ijahman Levi and Pierpoljak. He starred as himself in the...
, and a host of other local reggae groups. He was featured on Toots and the Maytals’ Grammy-nominated 2007 album Light Your Light (Fantasy). He can be heard on a cut that features Toots in duo with Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
.
In the late 1990s, Robinson also focused on developing long-term collaborative groups. In 1999, he co-founded Cosmologic
Cosmologic
Cosmologic is a cooperative avant-jazz quartet originally from San Diego, composed of saxophonist Jason Robinson , trombonist Michael Dessen, percussionist Nathan Hubbard, and bassist Scott Walton.-Discography:...
with trombonist Michael Dessen, bassist Scott Walton, and percussionist Nathan Hubbard. They have performed at festivals and prominent venues throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Europe. Their fourth album, Eyes in the Back of My Head, was released in May 2008 by Cuneiform Records
Cuneiform Records
Cuneiform Records is an independent record label based in Silver Spring, Maryland.The label releases a mixture of musical styles, including progressive jazz, modern fusion music, progressive rock, the Canterbury Scene and electronic music...
. In 2002, Robinson released his second album as a leader, Tandem
Tandem
Tandem is an arrangement where a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction....
(Accretions). A conceptual “duo” album, Tandem features Robinson in a variety of settings with a stellar cast of experimentalists including George Lewis, Anthony Davis, the late German bassist Peter Kowald, and others. Garnering much praise, Tandem was chosen as a “critic’s pick” for 2002 in JazzTimes Magazine
JazzTimes
JazzTimes is a magazine that dates back to Radio Free Jazz, a publication founded in 1970 by Ira Sabin when he was operating a record store in Washington, DC. It was originally a newsletter designed to update shoppers on the latest jazz releases and provide jazz radio programmers with a means of...
. In 2003 Robinson co-founded the Cross Border Trio
Cross Border Trio
Cross Border Trio is an international collaborate jazz group featuring American saxophonist Jason Robinson , bassist Rob Thorsen, and Mexican percussionist Paquito Villa. Formed in 2003, the group has released one critically acclaimed album, New Directions , and toured extensively throughout...
, a collaborative transnational group that has performed extensively throughout Mexico. Their debut album, New Directions (2006/Circumvention), achieved widespread critical acclaim.
While in San Diego, Robinson co-founded Trummerflora, a musician collective dedicated to supporting creative music in and beyond Southern California. Largely modeled after the influential African American musician collectives of the 1960s and 70s (the AACM
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is a non-profit organization, founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States, by pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran....
, Black Artists Guild, etc.), Trummerflora continues to produce concert series, an annual festival of creative music (Spring Reverb
Spring Reverb
Spring Reverb is the third studio album released by the rock and roll jam band The Big Wu. This was the last album recorded with former member Jason Fladager before he departed the band.-Track listing:# "Break of Day"# "SPMC"# "Make Believers"...
), and release compilation albums featuring member artists.
Robinson received a Ph.D. in Music at the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
in 2005. He has taught in Music, Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, and Black Studies at the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
, the University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
, Southwestern College
Southwestern College (California)
Southwestern College is a public, two-year community college located in the city of Chula Vista, California. Southwestern College's football stadium hosts Bonita Vista High School's football games...
, San Diego City College
San Diego City College
San Diego City College is a public, two-year community college located in San Diego, California. City College is part of the San Diego Community College District along with San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College and San Diego Continuing Education...
, Cuyamaca College
Cuyamaca College
Cuyamaca Community College is a community college in the San Diego County community of Rancho San Diego, near El Cajon, California. Along with Grossmont College it serves the eastern suburbs in the San Diego area. Cuyamaca opened in 1978 and now offers 59 associate's degree programs and almost 66...
, and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
.
Electronic Music and Networked Performance
A major thread in Robinson's work focuses on new developments in software-based computer music and electro-acoustic signal processing. Using primarily the programming environment of the software Max/MSP, Robinson creates algorithmically generated environments for improvisation and uses various processes to transform the sound of his saxophones and flutes. His interest in electro-acoustic improvisation began in the early 1990s, when he began using guitar, keyboard, and vocal effects processors on his saxophone.Robinson has also directed and performed in several multi-site, networked concerts (most recently called "telematics
Telematics
Telematics typically is any integrated use of telecommunications and informatics, also known as ICT...
"). New developments in networking software allow near instantaneous CD-quality audio connections between distant performance sites. Robinson's most recent networked performance was titled "Trancontinental Circuits," which took place on April 3, 2009 and featured saxophonist Adnan Marquez-Borbon at Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, trombonist Michael Dessen at the University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
, and Robinson at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
in Massachusetts. Drawing upon this emerging technology, Robinson has composed several interactive compositions designed for multi-site networked performance.
Selected discography
As leader:- From the Sun (Circumvention, 1998)
- Tandem (Accretions, 2002)
- Fingerprint (Circumvention, 2008)
- Cerberus Rising (Circumvention, 2009)
Co-leader/collaborative groups:
- Cosmologic, Staring at the Sun (Circumvention, 2000)
- Cosmologic, Syntaxis (Circumvention, 2002)
- Cosmologic III (Circumvention, 2005)
- Cosmologic, Eyes in the Back of My Head (Cuneiform, 2008)
- Cross Border Trio, New Directions (Circumvention, 2007)
- Hans Fjellestad/Peter Kowald/Dana Reason/Jason Robinson, Dual Resonance (Circumvention, 2005)
External links
- Jason Robinson official website
- "Amherst College visiting professor Jason Robinson offers a multi-site, real-time collaborative concert", Valley Advocate, 2 April 2009