Jazz Articles about Pete Robbins

Pete Robbins: siLENT Z Live

by Mark F. Turner
July 13, 2010

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 ...

siLENT Z: siLENTZ

by Elliott Simon
May 10, 2010

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 ...

Pete Robbins: Do The Hate Laugh Shimmy

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 23, 2008

Prendete undici musicisti dell’area newyorchese suddivisi tra qualche fuoriclasse (Ben Monder, Dan Weiss, Craig Taborn) e giovani speranze, combinateli più o meno casualmente lungo dieci tracce di media lunghezza e avrete una fotografia piuttosto nitida, una sorta di brochure illustrata di ciò che sta succedendo, musicalmente parlando, da quelle parti del mondo. Nonostante la presenza fissa di due fiati in ogni formazione, il sax contralto del leader e, a turno, tenore e tromba, potremo affermare che Do the Hate Laugh ...

Pete Robbins: Do The Hate Laugh Shimmy

by Wilbur MacKenzie
May 8, 2008

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 ...

Pete Robbins: Waits & Measures

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
February 28, 2007

Although it's been over 35 years since Miles recorded Bitches Brew, music purists still experience seismic spasms whenever a musician releases an album that aggressively and successfully fuses jazz with rock. Waits & Measures is not so much a fusion album as it is a remarkable commandeering of sometimes conflicting harmonies into a smooth, cleverly voltaic record. Pete Robbins' music demands that the listener allow the music to unfold layer by layer, which it does, with dizzying speed.

Pete Robbins: Waits & Measures

by Glenn Astarita
October 5, 2006

To coincide with an extensive tour of the northeastern US, Brooklyn-based alto saxophonist Pete Robbins has issued his second effort as a leader. And it offers a rock-solid glimpse of his artistry, chops and interesting methodology, all steeped within copious jazz-related genres. Simply stated, Robbins is a style master who sets himself apart from many of his peers.

Spanning hip, jazz-funk motifs and multidirectional currents, Robbins orchestrates a dense, tight-knit and capacious sequence of overtures on Waits & ...

Pete Robbins: Waits & Measures

by Nic Jones
July 22, 2006

If Waits & Measures is anything to go by, Pete Robbins likes to subvert form. In a lot of hands this disc might have turned out as no more than a light fusion date, long on melody but so short on character as to be emaciated. In the hands of Robbins and his band, however, this programme doesn't readily give up its secrets, thanks to its subtleties. The listener is thus forced to concentrate, and it's always beneficial to indulge ...