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Mark Robinson
As Dan McClenaghan from All About Jazz put it, "Like the very best in this game -- Sinatra or Tony Bennett -- Robinson makes it all sound so effortless on this truly superb vocal jazz outing."
Given such praise, Robinson's appeal to live audiences isn't hard to understand. His style is elegant and refined, but always swinging. And as he works his way through the jazz standards of composers like Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart, and new classics from writers like Elvis Costello and Dave Frishberg, Robinson's delivery is both emotionally direct and musically sophisticated. He's cool, all right, but his music, at the same time, is fun and alive.
Robinson is dedicated now to the wonders of jazz, but he began his career at 16 as a classical singer, studying voice and music theory with a San Francisco Opera baritone. He went on to perform in London, Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston. "I always figured that in my next life, I’d be a crooner," he says. "I'm glad I didn't have to wait that long."
With a Bay Area performance schedule that has been steadily expanding over the last 18 months, Robinson's cadre of fans has been growing, as well. Local musicians have also taken notice, and Robinson's recent collaborators have included some of the best artists on the scene.
Don't miss this great new voice interpreting a new chapter in the Great American Songbook. Classic and fresh, all at once.
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Mark Robinson: Some Small Dive
by Dan McClenaghan
If you're going to go after the Great American Songbook--that is, music by Gershwin, Strayhorn, Mancini, and the like--you'd better bring some style and distinction to the table. San Francisco-based vocalist Mark Robinson does just that, indeed he does, with Some Small Dive, serving up his personal interpretations of a bunch of time-tested classics.He's got it all: emotional depth, distinctive phrasing--occasionally a tad off-kilter, but never distractingly so--and a pure and unaffected straightforward zest of delivery. He's a ...
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