I make music in a variety of contexts. In addition to the items listed below, I also frequently collaborate with improvisers in ad-hoc groupings.
electro-acoustic performance
For several years I've been developing various approaches to using electronics to manipulate the sound of my saxophone and flute during live performance. I began by using various hardware ("stomp-boxes") designed for guitar, bass, and vocal signal processing; this was spawned in part having grown up listening to guitarists, like Hendrix, who developed huge sound vocabularies on their instruments (sometimes using these stompboxes). I now primarily use software-based signal processing and incorporate a variety of midi-controllers. At the moment I use Max/msp and Ableton Live in tandem.
led groups
Although I am very active as a project leader, to say that there is a "Jason Robinson group" would be inaccurate. I develop kindred groupings of musicians for very specific projects. Sometimes this takes the form of more conventional jazz trios or quartets, but this often entails unorthodox instrumentation designed to accomplish certain compositional, improvisational, or theoretical goals (such as the extended wind ensemble on my recent Fingerprint recording). Many of my choices are driven by the desire to bring together my diverse musical experiences--in jazz, reggae, experimental music--into a hybrid whole. Indeed, I prefer to avoid using the term "jazz" to describe my music because it is loaded with various kinds of historic, social, and political tensions that make it a rather poor signifier for the music that is most interesting to me.
At the moment, a major part of my focus is performing the music from my Fingerprint album and the portion of my compositional repertoire that it represents.
current collaborative groups
Cosmologic - critically-acclaimed quartet founded in 1999 and currently celebrating the release of their fourth album, Eyes in the Back of My Head (2008), on Cuneiform Records. Links: cosmologic.org | myspace.com/cosmologic
Duo with pianist Anthony Davis - a collaboration begun in 2002 that features strong focuses on improvisation and composition. The duo first recorded on Robinson's 2002 Accretions release Tandem. Davis also appeared on Robinson's 2008 release Fingerprint. Look for an album by the duo to be released in Summer 2009.
Cross Border Trio - a transnational jazz group with members from the U.S. and Mexico. Links: crossbordertrio.com | myspace.com/crossbordertriomusic
frequent appearances as a sideperson with:
Groundation
Elijah Emanuel and the Revelations
Nathan Hubbard
And many others...