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Pete Robbins
Awards
For his compositional achievements, Chamber Music America recently awarded Robbins with their prestigious “New Works: Creation and Presentation” grant as well as their "New Works: Encore" award on behalf of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Robbins has also been a guest adjudicator for the Brooklyn Arts Council, acts as Managing Director at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and works with various organizations in a music education capacity.
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Pete Robbins Quartet: Pyramid
by Stefano Merighi
Avevamo lasciato Pete Robbins come protagonista del notevole album con il Transatlantic Quartet (Live in Basel) ed eccolo di nuovo, nel frattempo impegnato in diversi progetti, con un quartetto newyorkese da sogno, composto da Vijay Iyer, Eivind Opsvik e Tyshawn Sorey. Pyramid è un album un po' particolare, che assembla materiale originale a riletture di classici pop, con un montaggio piuttosto leggero, che non lascia trapelare speciali disegni espressivi. Si percepisce un'atmosfera rilassata e amicale, sorridente, legata ...
read morePete Robbins: Pyramid
by Glenn Astarita
New York-based saxophonist, composer Pete Robbins has been on a fast- track, surging to the upper echelon of global jazz talent. And Pyramid rekindles impressions of drummer, composer John Hollenbeck's early 2013 release Songs I Like A Lot, where specific pop and rock songs from yesteryear, inspire the artists to execute a personal reinterpretation or refresh via the essence of modern jazz frameworks. Moreover, Robbins reaps the positive benefits of a superstar-like supporting band, including the recent recipient of a ...
read morePete Robbins Transatlantic Quartet: Live In Basel
by Mark Corroto
Like most modern jazz players, alto saxophonist Pete Robbins works in multiple bands, playing varying styles and disciplines of this thing called jazz. Sounds reasonable, yes? But, thirty years ago this wasn't possible. Musicians, listeners, and jazz critics (let's not leave them out) had to take sides, choose categories and labels to classify and compartmentalize their music. You were either a traditionalist, a fusion advocate, or an avant-garde specialist. Neither the twain shall meet. Sound like politics in America today?
read morePete Robbins: Balance Dream
by Gordon Marshall
Pete Robbins is all about balance, in temperament and as an artist. He produces a polished sound on his alto saxophone, with a light tone betraying corners of darkness and complexity. Already an accomplished leader at 31, he grafts his sound onto ensembles of varying sizes with aplomb and equanimity. His style as a leader is distinctive. Just as distinctive are the contributions of his disciplined band members, heeding Robbins' swift directives but always sustaining a fine weave of individual ...
read morePete Robbins: siLENT Z Live
by Mark F. Turner
Since his 2002 debut, Centric (Telepathy Records), saxophonist Pete Robbins has charted a centrifugal trajectory, moving outward from traditional boundaries. His previous releases--Waits & Measures (Playscape, 2006) and Do The Laugh Hate Shimmy (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2008)--incorporated elements of jazz, rock and electronics with thought-provoking writing and improvisation. Incessantly stirring the creative juices in any number of projects/ensembles, this release documents Robbins' siLENT Z band, at New York's Cornelia Street Cafe and would prompt the question of how his ...
read moresiLENT Z: siLENTZ
by Elliott Simon
Downstairs at the Cornelia Street Café in the Village is one of the more intimate places to see live jazz in the city. The program there is intentionally eclectic and siLENT Z Live, from altoist Pete Robbins, captures his angular group in those comfortable environs. All other things being equal, the make or break for a live recording is the extent to which the performances thus immortalized remain fresh enough to endure repeated listening. Is the spontaneity ...
read morePete Robbins: Do The Hate Laugh Shimmy
by Wilbur MacKenzie
Altoist Pete Robbins' Do The Hate Laugh Shimmy functions like a treatise on synthesis, where disparate influences are not so much juxtaposed as woven together with style and grace. This CD makes a clear statement that these are times that celebrate a storied history of musical innovation. What felt like a gradual exploration of evolving alternatives in the 20th Century is now reaching a level of refinement, where today's innovators are synthesizing the work of predecessors who had done the ...
read moreEnter the "Pete Robbins - Pyramid" Giveaway at All About Jazz!
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All About Jazz
All About Jazz members are invited to enter the “Pete Robbins - Pyramid“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on June 16th. Click here to enter the contest (Tracking Pete Robbins at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Pete Robbins on Pyramid Pyramid represents a flourishing of my long-standing musical relationships with bassist Eivind Opsvik and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, as well as my long-hoped-for collaboration with MacArthur Fellow and ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Pete Robbins
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Pete Robbins' birthday today!
“I like Robbins’ playing,” wrote Cadence reviewer Jason Bivins. “He’s got vision in his writing and improvising and the focus to bring it out in the open.” Pete Robbins (born 11/28/78) moved to New York in September, 2002, and immediately became “a welcome presence on the creative music scene.” He leads his groups Centric, sILENT Z, and the Robbins/Pavone/Sorey Trio at New York venues such as the 55 Bar... Read more. ...
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Pete Robbins Transatlantic Quartet - Live in Basel (2012)
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Something Else!
Both Pete Robbins' band and music represents reaching across from one space to another. The aptly named Transatlantic Quartet consists of musicians on either side of the “pond," starting with the Massachusetts saxophonist Robbins joined by his Irish bassist Simon Jermyn living in NYC, Canadian drummer Kevin Brow living in Copenhagen and guitarist Mikkel Ploug who splits his time between his native Copenhagen and Berlin. The music does its own “reaching across," from advanced modern jazz to indie rock, but ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Pete Robbins
Source:
All About Jazz is celebrating Pete Robbins' birthday today!
“I like Robbins’ playing,” wrote Cadence reviewer Jason Bivins. “He’s got vision in his writing and improvising and the focus to bring it out in the open.” Pete Robbins (born 11/28/78) moved to New York in September, 2002, and immediately became “a welcome presence on the creative music scene.” He leads his groups Centric, sILENT Z, and the Robbins/Pavone/Sorey Trio at New York venues such as the 55 Bar...“I like Robbins’ ...
read more
Pete Robbins - Silent Z Live (2010)
Source:
Something Else!
By Pico Jazz that's hard to categorize is usually the kind of jazz that's also hard to describe adequately with words but also the kind of jazz I prefer. And if it swings and grooves, so much the better. Alto saxophonist Pete Robbins' music has all those qualities and then some. We delighted in the unpredictable, nearly uncategorizable funk-rock-avant-jazz of his Do The Hate Laugh Shimmy from 2008. To follow up Hate Laugh, Robbins wanted to capture the immediacy of ...
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Saxophonist Pete Robbins Interviewed at All About Jazz
Source:
John Kelman
Pete Robbins is all about balance, in temperament and as an artist. He produces a polished sound on his alto saxophone, with a light tone betraying corners of darkness and complexity. Already an accomplished leader at 31, he grafts his sound onto ensembles of varying sizes with aplomb and equanimity. His style as a leader is distinctive. Just as distinctive are the contributions of his disciplined band members, heeding Robbins' swift directives but always sustaining a fine weave of individual ...
read more
Pete Robbins - Silent Z Live (Hate Laugh Music)
Source:
Master of a Small House
Concert versus studio. That enduring dichotomy of setting is a driving factor in altoist Pete Robbins' fourth release. His third was a studio affair; one that while deemed an overall success by the altoist didn't quite muster the intensity of his live work. This set, pulled from a pair of dates at Brooklyn venues, has intensity to spare thanks in no small part to the colleagues convened for the occasions. The other obvious determinant is Robbins' songbook, an eclectic assemblage ...
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Pete Robbins' Silent Z Live to be Released May 25 on Hate Laugh Music
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Fully Altered Media
Pete Robbins' “siLENT Z Live" To Be Released May 25, 2010 On Saxophonist's Own Hate Laugh Music
Release Shows Scheduled For May 28 at Tea Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn May 29 at Cornelia Street Cafe in East Village Live recordings may be a cliche in rock music, but in jazz--as bandleader Pete Robbins notes--they are the very measure of the music. They reveal exactly what a group is made ...read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Pete Robbins
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Pete Robbins' birthday today!
JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Pete Robbins
“I like Robbins’ playing,” wrote Cadence reviewer Jason Bivins. “He’s got vision in his writing and improvising and the focus to bring it out in the open.” Pete Robbins (born 11/28/78) moved to New York in September, 2002... more
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Primary Instrument
Saxophone, alto
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Credentials/Background
Managing Director, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music (bqcm.org)
Clinic/Workshop Information
leads workshops across the US and Europe on contemporary improvisation and composition
Photos
Music
Waits and Measures
From: Waits & MeasuresBy Pete Robbins
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Pete Robbins
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
Born: November 28, 1978
