Scott Robinson (jazz musician)


Scott Robinson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. Robinson is best known for his work on multiple saxophones, but he has also performed on clarinet, flute, trumpet, sarrusophone, and other, more obscure instruments.

Music career

The son of a piano teacher and National Geographic book editor, Robinson graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1981. The next year, he joined the college's staff, becoming its youngest faculty member.
Robinson has appeared on more than 275 LP and CD releases, including 20 under his leadership, with musicians Frank Wess, Roscoe Mitchell, Ruby Braff, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, Paquito D'Rivera, David Bowie, Maria Schneider, Rufus Reid, Buck Clayton, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Four of these recordings won a Grammy Award. He has received four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2000, the U.S. State Department named him a jazz ambassador for the year 2001, funding a tour of West Africa in which he played the early works of Louis Armstrong. Material from these appearances was released on the album Jazz Ambassador: Scott Robinson Plays the Compositions of Louis Armstrong by Arbors Records.
Throughout his career, Robinson has worked to keep unusual and obscure instruments in the public view. For example, he has recorded an album featuring the C-melody saxophone and performs with the ophicleide. He also owns and records with a vintage contrabass saxophone so rare that fewer than twenty in playable condition are known to exist.
Since 2009, he has operated his record label, ScienSonic Laboratories.

Select discography

As leader/co-leader

With Ruby Braff
With John Fedchock
With Marty Grosz
With Keith Ingham
With Frank Kimbrough
With Frank Mantooth
  • 1989 Suite Tooth
  • 1993 Dangerous Precedent
  • 1999 Miracle
With Bob Mintzer
  • 1990 The Art of the Big Band
  • 2000 Homage to Count Basie
  • 2006 Old School New Lessons
With John Pizzarelli
  • 1991 All of Me
  • 1993 Naturally
  • 1994 New Standards
  • 1997 Our Love Is Here to Stay
With the Joe Roccisano Orchestra
  • Leave Your Mind Behind
With Randy Sandke
  • 1990 Stampede
  • 1993 The Bix Beiderbecke Era
  • 1994 Chase
  • 1995 Calling All Cats
  • 2000 Re-Discovered Louis & Bix
  • 2002 Randy Sandke Meets Bix Beiderbecke
  • 2002 Inside Out
  • 2005 Outside In
With Maria Schneider
With John Sheridan
  • 2005 Easy as It Gets
  • 2007 Swing Is Still the King
  • 2010 Hooray for Christmas!
With others'