Biography
This Southern clarinetist's head start in music opened doors to leading jazz groups of the period, where fellow musicians held him in high regard even as broader audiences overlooked his presence. Having taught himself the instrument, he began performing with nearby ensembles less than twelve months after taking up the clarinet at fourteen. He arrived in New York City in 1923 following several seasons on the regional circuit. Early employment there came with Lionel Howard's Musical Aces, after which he worked alongside Elmer Snowden, June Clark, and a still-developing Duke Ellington. Robinson appeared on the latter's recording dates, among them Okeh sides later reissued by labels such as Masters of Jazz. Numerous anthologies gather Ellington material from the mid- and late twenties, many spotlighting Robinson's playing.
He seized the chance in 1927 to travel through South America with Leon Abbey's band, then became a member of the classic hot-jazz ensemble McKinney's Cotton Pickers under reed player Don Redman. His featured solos with this outfit can be heard on pieces such as the Victor original "Four or Five Times." Roughly half a dozen collections preserve the McKinney group's recordings. The medium-sized unit, whose sound suggested a larger ensemble, proved an ideal setting for Robinson. One of his trademarks aligned closely with the band's penchant for inventive charts: he would deliver solos on both tenor saxophone and clarinet within a single selection. Only a handful of jazz reed players have followed this approach, among them Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy during his extended improvisations, and, in a more exploratory vein, the Chicago reed players Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, and Joseph Jarman, who revisited the practice during the sixties.
Throughout the late thirties Robinson performed with Blanche Calloway, Willie Bryant, and trumpeter Roy Eldridge; beginning in 1940 he joined jazz giant Louis Armstrong. He remained with "Satchmo" until 1942, covering an inventive and vigorous stretch of the trumpeter's career. Armstrong undertook numerous ambitious recording sessions for Decca in those years. The later merger of that label with MCA, together with posthumous commercial exploitation of the Satchmo legacy, produced a flood of compilations centered on or including the forties, many carrying Prince Robinson's name whenever the issuing company chose to credit the musicians.
Following his departure from the Armstrong band, Robinson worked with Lucky Millinder, Benny Morton, and, from 1944 through 1952, pianist Claude Hopkins. He also played in backup groups for singers Helen Humes and Billie Holiday, appearing on the latter's celebrated studio dates of the forties. In the fifties he performed and recorded with trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen and with Freddie Washington from 1955 through 1959. In 1953 he briefly led a group under his own name.
He seized the chance in 1927 to travel through South America with Leon Abbey's band, then became a member of the classic hot-jazz ensemble McKinney's Cotton Pickers under reed player Don Redman. His featured solos with this outfit can be heard on pieces such as the Victor original "Four or Five Times." Roughly half a dozen collections preserve the McKinney group's recordings. The medium-sized unit, whose sound suggested a larger ensemble, proved an ideal setting for Robinson. One of his trademarks aligned closely with the band's penchant for inventive charts: he would deliver solos on both tenor saxophone and clarinet within a single selection. Only a handful of jazz reed players have followed this approach, among them Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy during his extended improvisations, and, in a more exploratory vein, the Chicago reed players Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, and Joseph Jarman, who revisited the practice during the sixties.
Throughout the late thirties Robinson performed with Blanche Calloway, Willie Bryant, and trumpeter Roy Eldridge; beginning in 1940 he joined jazz giant Louis Armstrong. He remained with "Satchmo" until 1942, covering an inventive and vigorous stretch of the trumpeter's career. Armstrong undertook numerous ambitious recording sessions for Decca in those years. The later merger of that label with MCA, together with posthumous commercial exploitation of the Satchmo legacy, produced a flood of compilations centered on or including the forties, many carrying Prince Robinson's name whenever the issuing company chose to credit the musicians.
Following his departure from the Armstrong band, Robinson worked with Lucky Millinder, Benny Morton, and, from 1944 through 1952, pianist Claude Hopkins. He also played in backup groups for singers Helen Humes and Billie Holiday, appearing on the latter's celebrated studio dates of the forties. In the fifties he performed and recorded with trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen and with Freddie Washington from 1955 through 1959. In 1953 he briefly led a group under his own name.
Albums
