Perry Robinson

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Perry Morris Robinson (born September 17, 1938) is an American free jazz and klezmer clarinettist, an author, and the son of composer and folk singer Earl Robinson.

Robinson was born in New York City. After college he went to the Lenox School of Music in 1959. He did some of his early work with Henry Grimes on his first record, Funk Dumpling (with Grimes, Paul Motian and Kenny Barron), and Grimes' The Call (an association revived since Grimes's re-emergence). His uniquely effervescent tone is the result of his unusual double embouchure. Since 1973 he has been working with Jeanne Lee and Gunter Hampel's Galaxy Dream Band. More recently, he has worked with William Parker on Bob's Pink Cadillac and several discs on the CIMP label. From 1975 until 1977 he was member of a band called Clarinet Contrast around German clarinet player Theo Jörgensmann. He contributed to Dave Brubeck' s Two Generations of Brubeck and Burton Greene' s Dutch klezmer band Klezmokum. Robinson has been on record with Lou Grassi as a member of his PoBand since the late Nineties. also w/ Lou Grassi, Wayne Lopes and Luke Faust in 'The Jug Jam' an improvisational Jug band. He plays in a free jazz and world music trio along with tabla player Badal Roy and bassist Ed Schuller, son of the composer and musicologist Gunther Schuller. This group can be heard on their CD Raga Roni. He also plays with Muruga Booker and in the Global Village Ceremonial Band, and has played with them at the Starwood Festival, SpiritDrum Festival, and RhythmFest with Sikiru Adepoju, Halim El-Dabh, Jeff Rosenbaum and Badal Roy [1]. His autobiography, Perry Robinson: The Traveler, was published in 2002. Perry also played an integral part in the formation of 'Cosmic Legends' an improvisational music/performance group led by composer/pianist Sylvie Degiez which included musicians Rashied Ali, Wayne Lopes, Hayes Greenfield, and Michael Hashim among others. In 2005 he was featured on his cousin Jeffrey Lewis' album "City and Eastern Songs" on Rough Trade Records, produced by Kramer.