Orphy Robinson


Orphy Robinson MBE is a British jazz multi-instrumentalist who plays vibraphone, keyboards, saxophone, trumpet, piano, marimba, steelpans and drums. He has written music for television, film and theatre.
WWW Official Site

Career

Robinson began his professional career with the band Savanna in the late 1970s. During the mid- to late-1980s, he was a member of the Jazz Warriors with Courtney Pine, and worked with Mica Paris and Andy Sheppard.
In the 1990s, Robinson released two critically acclaimed solo albums: When Tomorrow Comes and The Vibes Describes. He has recorded as a guest musician and has toured with Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt.
For the UK celebration of the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 2007, Robinson was commissioned to write and perform pieces from his suite Routes Through Roots in the Houses of Parliament. He was commissioned by the Phoenix Dance company to write 42 Shades of Black. In June 2014, he was commissioned to write a suite for the combined Shivanova and Ignite ensembles for the 2014 Women's Festival at Kings Place in the UK. He has written for The Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and for the Romanian violin virtuoso Alexander Balanescu.
During 2009, several albums featured Robinson as guest soloist, including No Now Is So! by the Alexander Hawkins ensemble, Out of Office by the Burn Out Mama band from Finland, and albums by Louis Moholo, Leee John and Beggar & Co. Since late 2009, Robinson has been a featured soloist on marimba and vibraphone with the violinist Nigel Kennedy, performing an extensive repertoire including Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Jimi Hendrix and Duke Ellington. Robinson has performed as guest musician on three albums with Kennedy: The Four Elements, Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons and My World.
In the latter part of 2009, he was invited to become musical director of a large ensemble at The Roundhouse with the drummer Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. The duo Black Top was formed in 2011 with the Free Improv pianist Pat Thomas. An album entitled #One was released internationally in July 2014 on the Babel Label, with guest saxophonist Steve Williamson. The second Black Top album, #Two, had Evan Parker as guest.
Robinson started The Spontaneous Cosmic RawXtra ensemble at the Kings Place concert venue in October 2009. The ensemble was included in Black British Jazz, an Open University book by Jason Toynbee. A DVD and recording were released in 2015.
Robinson was instrumental in the formation of the band Malik & the O.G's with band leader Malik Al Nasir and also in his tribute to Gil Scott-Heron at St George's Hall, Liverpool, entitled The Revolution Will Be Live!
Robinson has worked with Lester Bowie, Don Cherry, Neneh Cherry, Junior Giscombe, Kate Havnevik, Imagination, Lionel Loueke, Wynton Marsalis, Hugh Masekela, Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick, Joe McPhee, Thurston Moore, Butch Morris, David Murray, Sunny Murray, Mica Paris, Robert Plant, Wadada Leo Smith, Spring Heel Jack, Joss Stone, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, John Tchicai, Kenny Thomas and Nana Vasconcelos.

Other work

Robinson represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. He has worked in schools and on large-scale education projects, including at the Hackney Empire, where he led the Music Education department for more than ten years. He has been on the board of The Vortex jazz club, Warriors International, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and the Participation and Learning Education advisory board at the Hackney Empire.
Robinson is a founding member of Edge, a group of artists, writers and promoters curating events pitched as a fringe to the London Jazz Festival. Due to the success of their first programme, titled Edge 08, Robinson and the journalist Paul Bradshaw continued to curate events internationally as well as all-year round events in the UK. Their project Love Supreme Reimagined, a homage to the 1965 John Coltrane album A Love Supreme, a large-scale ensemble with Robinson in the role of musical director, received critical acclaim at the 2014 Southbank Centre's Meltdown Festival curated by James Lavelle.
Robinson produced Carleen Anderson's album Cage Street Memorial. In 2017, Anderson was nominated as Best Jazz Vocalist at the Jazz FM Jazz Awards. In 2018, the album was nominated in the Jazz Innovation category at the same awards.

Awards and honours

Discography

As leader

When Tomorrow Comes Pyrotechnics The Vibes Describes The Funky End of Things Life
With SavannahI Can't Turn Away Never Let You Go
With Black Top#One with Steve Williamson #Two with Evan Parker Number 3 with William Parker and Hamid Drake
OtherOrpheum Theatre with Sun Araw & Orphy Robinson Otoruku Download Releases 21.09.15Priming the Population Thru Subversive Experimental Sonic Gestures, Jamal Moss, Mark Sanders & Orphy Robinson Otoruku Download Releases 01.01.16Corsano / Mcphee / Prévost / Robinson Otoruku Download Releases - 15.2.16Pat Thomas & Orphy Robinson Otoruku Download Releases 18.4.17

As guest

With Beggar & CoBrass, Strings n Tings The Legacy
With Tony BevanBruised Bruise with Derek Bailey We Packed Are Bags
With Alexander HawkinsNo Now Is So All There, Ever Out
With Jazz WarriorsOut of Many, One People Chameleon
With Nigel KennedyThe Four Elements, The New Four Seasons, My World,
With the London Improvisors OrchestraThe Hearing Continues Freedom of the City Proceedings Responses, Reproduction & Reality
With Mica ParisI'd Hate to Love You Like Dreamers Do
With Courtney PineTraditions Beckoning Journey to the Urge Within
With Andy SheppardAndy Sheppard Introductions in the Dark Soft on the Inside
With others

Film and television

Blood Rights, BBC Drama, episodes 1, 2 and 3, composerEagle Star, 3 commercials, composer/performerMen of the Month, BBC Films Screen Two, composerBollywood Queen, Arclight films, performerThe Republic of Love, Dan Films, performer