2005: Jason Robinson

Reedist/improviser/composer Jason Robinson leads a life of fractured multiplicity, dividing his time between a dynamic performance and recording career, teaching activities, organizing efforts, and ethno/musicological research. Robinson is an active member of the improvised and popular music scene(s) of the West Coast - leading his own "jazz" groups, collaborating in a variety of improvised and experimental contexts, and touring as a sideman with a number of groups. In 1998, Robinson founded Circumvention Music, an artist-run independent record label dedicated to the support and distribution of improvised musics. Robinson has performed/recorded with Peter Kowald, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Lisle Ellis, Paul Plimley, Mei Han, 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. His compositions are featured on Trummerflora Collective Rubble 1 (Accretions/Circumvention) (Cosmologic Syntaxis (Circumvention), Jason Robinson Tandem (Accretions), Cosmologic Staring at the Sun (Circumvention), and Jason Robinson From the Sun (Circumvention). Robinson's 2002 release Tandem, which showcases collaborations with of number of influential musicians, including Peter Kowald, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, and others, was selected as a "top 10" critic's pick in JazzTimes Magazine.

Robinson has performed and presented his work in Europe, Canada, Mexico, and throughout the United States at prominent venues and festivals. He is a founding member of the Trummerflora Collective, a musicians organization dedicated to the support of creative music. Robinson is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Music in the diverse and challenging Critical Studies and Experimental Practices program at the University of California, San Diego. His areas of focus include improvised musics, African-American music, popular music, and the relationship between musical expression and identity. Robinson teaches at Southwestern College in San Diego, and has taught in Music and African-American studies at the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Irvine. He was Director of Education for the Creative Music Workshop at Spring Reverb 2003, sponsored by the Trummerflora Collective and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. He is also the current Curriculum Director for the UCSD Jazz Camp "Inside Out," which strives to emphasize the full spectrum of creative expression embodied in the jazz tradition.

Artist (photo by Photographer)