[Dixielandjazz] NYT-- Scott Robinson at jAZZ Standard in NYC

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML,  Musicians and Jazzfans list

From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

Here is article from today's New York times about multi-talented,
multi-instrumentalist  Scott Robinson.  I have included the link in case you
wish to see the photo of him playing the Theremin.  ( DJML doesn't transmit
photos) I  have always admired his work, especially with obscure
instruments.  For example, there is an Arbors record where he plays various
instruments-a bass saxophone so big it has wheels, Theremin and other
obscure instruments.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/arts/music/scott-robinson-at-jazz-standard
.html?pagewanted=print
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/arts/music/scott-robinson-at-jazz-standar
d.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0> &_r=0

 

 

 

  _____  

October 28, 2012


Lots of Deep-Down Rumbles to Salute the Man of Bronze


By
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/nate_chinen/in
dex.html> NATE CHINEN


A deep, satisfying rumble anchored the home stretch of Scott Robinson's
first set at the Jazz Standard on Wednesday night. It came from a few
different sources, including a theme terra, the sub-woofing bass drum rarely
heard outside of Brazilian samba troupes, and an upright bass, expertly
bowed to produce a drone. But its primary engine was the hulking contrabass
saxophone to which Mr. Robinson was attached, and which had previously sat
untouched onstage with the mute, conspicuous presence of a bodyguard.

The contrabass sax is an exotic totem for Mr. Robinson, a multireedist whose
enthusiasms run toward the unfashionable and unwieldy. No surprise, then,
that he gave it an impressive workout, puffing some staccato blurts, then
some elephantine bleats, and finally a corkscrew line negotiated with
staggering agility. He was working his way through a composition called "The
Man Who Shook the Earth," and the context behind the music gave it an
expressionistic purpose: that rumble was meant to be taken literally.

Mr. Robinson has a vividly realized new album, "Bronze Nemesis," that pays
homage to Doc Savage, the fictional pulp hero of the 1930s and '40s, also
known as the Man of Bronze. Each of its 12 tracks is titled after a Doc
Savage novel, in a show of dedicated fandom that doubles as an outreach
beyond the usual jazz circles. (This month Mr. Robinson attended the 15th
annual Doc Con, a gathering of the faithful in Glendale, Ariz.)

As on "Bronze Nemesis," which Mr. Robinson released through the Doc-Tone
imprint of his ScienSonic Laboratories label, he appeared on Wednesday with
the band he calls the Scott Robinson Doctette. Its other members are the
trumpeter Randy Sandke, the pianist Ted Rosenthal, the bassist Pat O'Leary
and the drummer Dennis Mackrel - musicians not generally associated with the
jazz avant-garde, despite a few
<http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-07-05/music/avant-derriere-garde/>
meaningful forays.

The performance was a worthwhile reminder that in jazz, experimentalism
flows across delineations of style. "The Metal Master," a funk groove
bracketed by clanking abstraction, indirectly evoked the Art Ensemble of
Chicago. " <http://youtu.be/LXaZa5zzdaA> Mad Eyes," which had Mr. Robinson
playing a toylike slide saxophone within the signal area of a Moog theremin,
suggested both the spooky theatricality of a
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/halloween/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-classifier> Halloween special and the vintage futurism
of the Sun Ra Arkestra. (Outer space is another of Mr. Robinson's
preoccupations; one of his other recent albums features the Arkestra's
longtime steward, Marshall Allen.) And on "The Mental Wizard," a complexly
plotted finale, Mr. Robinson deftly weighed open-ended intrigue against
effervescent swing.

Switching often among the saxophone family - not just alto and tenor but
also bass and mezzo-soprano, along with that gargantuan contrabass - Mr.
Robinson managed to locate a different voice and sonority for each. (His
mellow alto clarinet tone on " <http://youtu.be/rlINGKAoce0> The Secret in
the Sky" struck yet another identity; likewise his theremin swoon.)
Versatility has long been his trademark as a section player, notably in the
Maria Schneider Orchestra, but here he made it feel compulsory.

He doesn't often get his own platform. "Bronze Nemesis," he said onstage,
had been 10 years in the making. Trotting it out seemed both a relief and a
privilege, one that he good-naturedly took to heart. Before the set's close,
he distributed a laminated Doc Savage Award to each member of the band,
saving himself for last.

 

 
--End--