San Diego Reader

Jason Robinson: Reeds

Genre: Alternative, Jazz, Noise | Xprmntl

Sound description: Experimental free-form jazz.

RIYL: Cosmologic, John Zorn Marcelo Radulovich, Hans Fiellestad, Marcos Fernandes, Donkey

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Discography

Related Links:

• http://www.jasonrobinson.com/

• Jam Session: "Jason Robinson's Star-Studded Farewell Show" · May 20, 2011

Synoposis

Inception: San Marcos, 2000

Current Status: Playing occasional dates.

Influences: John Zorn, Lisle Ellis, Donkey, Gunther's Grass, Marcelo Radulovich, Hans Fiellestad, Marcos Fernandes, Bill Horist, Peter Brotzmann, Cross Border Trio, 2 Foot Yard, the Assholes, Thomas Dimuzio, Nathan Hubbard, Wormhole, the Nortec Collective, George Lewis, Le Quan Ninh, Mike Keneally, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Rent Romus, Eric Glick Rieman, Michael Dessen, David Gould, Panoptica, Fussible

Background:

Reedist, composer, and scholar Jason Robinson divides his time between performing, research, and teaching. He has performed/recorded with Peter Kowald, Mark Dresser, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Eugene Chadbourne, Earl Howard, Emily Hay, Jeff Kaiser, Eek a Mouse, Bertram Turetzky, Mel Graves, Marco Eneidi, Mike Wofford, Philip Gelb, J.D. Parran, Gerry Hemingway, Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (at Pearl's, San Francisco), the La Jolla Symphony, SONOR (among others), as well as theater-oriented groups such as the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the New Pickle Circus.

Robinson is a published author and teaches regularly at the University of California, Irvine, the University of California, San Diego, Southwestern College, and elsewhere. He holds a PhD in Music. Robinson's 2002 release Tandem (Accretions Records) was a "critic's pick" that year in JazzTimes magazine. Robinson is the founder and artistic director of Circumvention Music and a founding member of the Trummerflora Collective.

In late 2010, he released three new albums from three different labels: The Two Faces of Janus (Cuneiform), Cerberus Reigning (Accretions), and - with Anthony Davis - Cerulean Landscape (Clean Feed).

Cerulean Landscape is stark, moody, and emotionally charged. The album features Robinson on tenor and soprano saxophones and alto flute, in collaboration with pianist and composer Anthony Davis, a UCSD professor who has been collaborating with Robinson since 1998. A collection of old and new original compositions, the music moves from minimalist, to orchestral, to beautifully melodic.

The Two Faces of Janus includes guest contributions from several distinguished figures in jazz and improvised music: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Marty Ehrlich, Liberty Ellman, Drew Gress, and George Schuller.

The second in a trilogy of Robinson's conceptual solo saxophone releases, Cerberus Reigning offers a richly evocative collection of electroacoustic pieces that tell a story about an other-worldly three-belled saxophone of sorts.

His farewell-to-San-Diego concert happened June 2, 2011, at Dizzy’s, after which he and his wife moved to New England.