James Robinson

James Robinson possesses a silky voice whose precision might serve to calibrate pitch-correction software. His work connects to the gentler musical currents spanning the 1980s and 1990s, encompassing fusion jazz alongside soul. Yet his vocal approach echoes the powerful yet understated singers once employed by Duke Ellington in his orchestras.

The projects involving Robinson that continue to attract notice over time are chiefly those undertaken with pianist Lonnie Liston Smith. Having participated in the fiery small-group free jazz ensembles led by tenor saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Gato Barbieri, Liston Smith launched a solo career during the middle of the 1970s. He cultivated a musical approach exemplified by one of his better-known album titles, Cosmic Funk.

Robinson did not participate in that particular album. Instead, he contributed to two subsequent Liston Smith releases dating from 1979 and 1980, among them the project titled Love Is the Answer, which may not accurately reflect its content. In these efforts, he supplemented the arrangements through occasional guitar and bass performances in addition to his singing.

The musical path pursued by Liston Smith soon fell out of favor among audiences as the 1980s advanced, a period marked by relatively cautious developments in music. Nevertheless, enthusiasts of acid jazz and hip hop unearthed these sessions roughly twenty years afterward, thereby bringing renewed focus to Robinson's abilities both as a singer and as an arranger of vocals.

His voice also appears across multiple largely overlooked and inconsistent albums credited to bandleader and composer Bob Baldwin. A number of these also include keyboard work from Anaje Allan Gumbs, a follower of Liston Smith.