The Seasons Fall Festival and Scott Robinson

Among the dozens of musicians either already here or headed toward my current home town for the eight days of The Seasons Fall Festival are Tom Harrell and his quintet, Bill Mays, Martin Wind, Matt Wilson, Scott Robinson, the African percussion expert Michael Wimberly, composer Daron Hagen and a raft of classical players, composers and conductors. Thursday evening I heard Harrell rehearsing his Wise Children suite with the Yakima Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Whew. It's something to look forward to. For the schedule and details of the festival, go here.

Robinson will appear with Wilson and singer-pianist Dee Daniels in Wind's group. Coincidentaly, Bill Kirchner is devoting his radio program this weekend to Robinson and his menagerie of every instrument known to man. That's only a slight exaggeration. Here's Kirchner's listening advisory:

Recently, I taped my next one-hour show for the “Jazz From The Archives" series. Presented by the Institute of Jazz Studies, the series runs every Sunday on WBGO-FM (88.3) in the New York-New Jersey area.

Jazz has had some remarkable multi-instrumentalists, but probably none with the scope of Scott Robinson (b. 1959). A short list of his instruments includes saxophones (from sopranino to contrabass), flutes, clarinets, trumpet, trombone and theremin—all played on a world-class level. And he is comfortable in jazz idioms ranging from the 1920s to the avant-garde.

We'll hear Robinson playing with the Bob Brookmeyer, Tom Pierson, and Maria Schneider orchestras, as well as with drummer Klaus Suonsaari and his own small groups.

The show will air this Sunday, October 10, from 11 p.m. to midnight, Eastern Daylight Time.

NOTE: If you live outside the New York City metropolitan area, WBGO also broadcasts on the Internet at wbgo.org.

If you are attending The Seasons Fall Festival, I'll be around. Please say hello. I may even take notes and post a report or two on Rifftides.