Jason Robinson
A saxophonist, improviser, composer, and teacher, Jason Robinson is schooled in jazz and experimental music. A founding member of the San Diego-based Trummerflora Collective and founder of the small artist-owned record label Circumvention Music, he is mostly active in creative jazz as a leader, but his sideman duties have included West Coast funk and roots reggae bands. He has played in Cosmologic, Crucial, Groundation, and Cannonball, among other groups.
Robinson's professional activities started while he was based in Sonoma County, where he completed a double bachelor's degree in philosophy and music. He played in Ernie Small's Monday Night Big Band and studied with bassist Mel Graves, whom he cites as a mentor. Graves appeared on his debut album, From the Sun, released in 1998 on his freshly incepted label. That year, Robinson moved to San Diego to pursue graduate studies at U.C.S.D. Among his teachers was Anthony Davis, with whom he has recorded (the student appears on Tania, while Davis is featured on two pieces of Tandem).
The experimental music scene in San Diego was on the verge of coalescing. Robinson got acquainted with Marcos Fernandes, Marcelo Radulovich, Hans Fjellestad, and Robert Montoya. Along with a few more musicians, they formed the improvising group Trummerflora Collective, whose debut album No Stars Please came out in 2001. Robinson also formed the trio Maroja with Fernandes and Montoya. These projects represent his most exploratory music. Meanwhile, he put together his own avant-jazz sax/bass/drums trio with Rob Thorsen and Brett Sanders, plus he started the jam-jazz quartet Cosmologic. In addition to these projects, he got involved in a number of reggae, funk, and groove music bands.
Since the very end of the 1990s, Robinson has been teaching jazz theory at U.C.S.D. He performs regularly in the San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles areas, but also made trips to Alaska and New York. In 2002, he released Tandem, a set of duos, on the Trummerflora-associated label Accretions.
© François Couture /TiVo
Discography
10 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Two Hours Early, Ten Minutes Late: Duo Music of Ken Aldcroft
Jazz - Released by Accretions on 25 May 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tandem
Alternative & Indie - Released by Accretions on 17 Sep 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ancestral Numbers I
Jazz - To be released on 14 May 2024 by Playscape Recordings, PSR#082323
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Cerberus Reigning
Alternative & Indie - Released by Accretions on 17 Oct 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Two Faces of Janus
Jazz - Released by Cuneiform Records on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiresian Symmetry
Jazz - Released by Cuneiform Records on 1 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jason Robinson Live
Humour - Released by Starz Music on 29 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
From the Sun
Jazz - Released by Circumvention Music 031 on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fingerprint
Jazz - Released by Circumvention Music 050 on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo