The music of American saxophonist and scholar Jason Robinson thrives in the fertile overlaps between improvisation and composition, acoustic music and electronics, tradition and experimentalism. Initially a devotee of post-1960s jazz and creative music, Robinson’s music is a modern amalgam of cutting-edge trends in jazz practice and electroacoustic music. Robinson is a critically acclaimed distinct voice in a new generation of creative musicians in equal dialogue with jazz, popular music, experimental music, and electronic music and performs regularly as a soloist (acoustically and with electronics), in a variety of collaborative contexts, and with his nine-piece group the Janus Ensemble, featuring Robinson, JD Parran, Marty Ehrlich, Bill Lowe, Marcus Rojas, Liberty Ellman, Drew Gress, George Schuller, and Ches Smith. The Janus Ensemble's latest release, Tiresian Symmetry (Cuneiform, 2012), received rave reviews for compositional depth and improvisatory virtuosity. In February 2014, the group toured the US Northeast and Canada, with performances on the 25th season of the Magic Triangle concert series at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Roulette in Brooklyn, and elsewhere, including a stunning performance at Montreal's Casa del Popolo. Fall 2010 marked a watershed in Robinson’s output as a leader. He released three concurrent albums showcasing an enormous breadth of creative work, including The Two Faces of Janus (Cuneiform), featuring a New York-based ensemble that includes Drew Gress, Liberty Ellman, George Schuller, Marty Ehrlich and Rudresh Mahanthappa; Cerulean Landscape (Clean Feed), featuring the long time collaboration of Robinson and acclaimed pianist and composer Anthony Davis; and Cerberus Reigning (Accretions), the much anticipated second installment of the “Cerberus” trilogy, featuring Robinson’s solo electroacoustic music. He has performed at festivals and prominent venues in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe and/or recorded with Peter Kowald, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Drew Gress, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Marty Ehrlich, Eugene Chadbourne, Earl Howard, Toots and the Maytals, Groundation, Bertram Turetzky, Mark Dresser, John Russell, Roger Turner, Gerry Hemingway, Kei Akagi, Mel Graves, Liberty Ellman, Babatunde Lea, Mel Martin, Marco Eneidi, Lisle Ellis, Raphe Malik, Mike Wofford, Philip Gelb, J.D. Parran, Dana Reason, David Borgo, Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (at Pearl's, San Francisco), the La Jolla Symphony, SONOR (UCSD), and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, among others. As a scholar, Robinson’s work unpacks the relationship between improvised and popular musics, experimentalism, and cultural identity. He has published articles and reviews in Ethnomusicology, Jazz Perspectives, and Critical Studies in Improvisation/ Études critiques en improvisation. Robinson is an Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College and received a Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, San Diego. A West Coast transplant now living in New England, he is married to Stephanie Robinson, an acclaimed performer, composer, and electronic musician. "Wildly spontaneous."-Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times"[A] potent improviser."-Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes Magazine"[R]ugged and scintillating."-Nate Chinen, New York Times"[O]ne of the most respected soloists and bandleaders in jazz's experimental wing."-Ron Wynn, JazzTimes Magazine"Robinson is capable of merging both past and present jazz idioms, while creating a cultural bridge that spans both coasts."-Robbie Gershon, Audiophile Audition"Robinson's music is conceived and constructed with both historical perspective and a doorway to the future as often innovative free jazz is infused with vestiges of tradition."-Mike Reynolds, Musikreviews.com"Robinson's compositions manage to draw a straight line through bop, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy straight into the modern day with acute-angle swing, blues bluster and memorable themes that seem to scratch at the back of the mind with familiarity without resorting to quotation or imitation."-Shaun Brady, DownBeat Magazine
