Orphy Robinson


Orphy Robinson M.B.E 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 theater.

Career

He 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 and 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, he 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. He was commissioned in June 2014 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 English 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 he has been a featured soloist on marimba/vibraphone with violinist Nigel Kennedy, performing an extensive repertoire including Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Jimi Hendrix, and Duke Ellington. He 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 drummer Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. The duo Black Top was formed in 2011 with 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.
He started the ensemble The Spontaneous Cosmic RawXtra at 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.
He 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, National Youth Jazz Orchestra, British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and the Participation and Learning Education advisory board at the Hackney Empire.
Robinson is 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 program, titled Edge 08, Robinson and 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, featuring a large-scale ensemble with Robinson in the role of Musical Director, received critical acclaim at the 2014 South Bank Meltdown Festival curated by James Lavelle.
He produced Carleen Anderson's album Cage Street Memorial. In 2017 Anderson was nominated 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 honors

As leader

With Savannah
With Black Top
Other
With Beggar & Co
With Tony Bevan
With Alexander Hawkins
With Jazz Warriors
With Nigel Kennedy
With the London Improvisors Orchestra
With Mica Paris
With Courtney Pine
With Andy Sheppard
With others