Product Description

''Tenormore, the vibrant new album by saxophonist Scott Robinson, is the story of a beautiful friendship between a man and his horn…''
Michael Roberts JAZZIZ MAGAZINE

Scott Robinson showcases his formidable jazz artistry on the tenor saxophone.

Tenormore, the album title that is also the name of the final tune, has a couple of meanings, according to Scott:

It continues the idea of ''Tenor Eleven'' and ''Tenor Twelve,'' but in a more complex way. The piece is structured in ten-bar sections, each followed by an indeterminate number of additional bars, (i.e., ten or more). The drums provide the extra, open, bars during the composed parts.

Featuring:

Scott Robinson: tenor saxophone
Helen Sung: piano/Hammond B3 organ (7, 9)
Dennis Mackrel: drums
Martin Wind: string bass/acoustic bass guitar (9, 10)
Special Guest on The Weaver (8): Sharon Robinson: flute

Review

As longstanding multi-reed specialist in the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Scott Robinson has been showcased on numerous instruments over the years, including such oddball axes as ophicleide and theremin. On Tenormore, his 20th outing as a leader, Robinson exclusively performs on the silver 1924 Conn tenor saxophone he's had since 1975. In the company of pianist Helen Sung and the veteran rhythm tandem of bassist Martin Wind and drummer Dennis Mackrel, he swings effortlessly and delivers a singing quality on several originals, while also incorporating some unconventional twists on three standards and one familiar pop tune. Robinson kicks it all off in daring fashion with an unaccompanied reading of The Beatles' 'And I Love Her,' which he opens in the altissimo range of his horn, before detouring into the Dolphy zone on one 'out' interlude during his unhurried reading of the ballad. 'Tenor Eleven,' a boppish 11-bar swinger, gives Sung plenty of room to stretch harmonically on her propulsive solo and also features a kinetic breakdown between tenor and drums. 'Tenor Twelve' is an angular tune that again turns Sung loose on her solo and features more fiery group interplay. A winning set by a copacetic crew.

Bill Milkowski --Downbeat Magazine

Quirky multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson returns to his first love, the tenor saxophone, on this powerful and creative ten-track recording which combines tunes from throughout his career with a top-class rhythm section.

Robinson is celebrating his 60th birthday this year, and is doing so in fine style with this CD focusing on his tenor sax playing. This in itself seems to be remarkable the man is noted for his collection and performances on unlikely instruments including contrabass banjo and bass marimba, and is prepared to be photographed in a hat made from sax reeds. True to form, the tenor sax in question is no ordinary instrument either; it s a silver 1924 Conn which Robinson purchased from a Maryland antique shop in 1975 and has been with him ever since.

It transpires that this is Robinson's first ever all-tenor release, and he has surrounded himself with an excellent band. Pianist and organist Helen Sung has been seen in London as part of the Mingus Big Band in recent years, drummer Dennis Mackrel is a key part of the Vanguard Orchestra which carries on the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis tradition every Monday night in Greenwich Village, and German-born bass player Martin Wind has a long track record, including duets with guitar maestro Philip Catherine.

The CD opens in startling style with a haunting solo rendition of the Beatles classic And I Love Her. Robinson bravely starts playing the four-note introduction high up in the altissimo register, showing huge levels of control and skill. He descends to a more normal altitude for the tune, beautifully played with expression and emotion a real tour de force which grabs our attention for what is to come. The mix of originals and standards which follows is always interesting and entertaining, sometimes familiar and occasionally off-the-wall.

Three of the originals are based on different extents of the blues. Tenor Twelve was first recorded in 1988 and presented here in a rewritten version showing a nicely paced sax solo and some great piano work from Sung. Going numerically down, Tenor Eleven is an 11-bar blues which somehow manages to get to the end a bar early without the listener quite being able to work out how, featuring Coltrane-ish changes, leading into a solo section featuring sax/drum duet space. The title track Tenormore takes things back yet another stage, being a 10-bar blues followed by an indeterminate number of bars from the soloists with plenty more drum action. (Ten-or-more, get it?)

The album also features some enjoyable standards The Good Life is given a polytonal introduction which does its best to disguise what's coming with Jaws-like bass surges before melting into the melody. The Nearness Of You is a funky number with bass guitar and organ backing and some impassioned playing from Robinson, always in control and yet stretching his sound and tone towards the edge of what s possible.

The album will be launched with concerts at Birdland in New York on 21/22 June 2019. If you enjoy the idea of an 11-bar blues, then get along there and get this album which is rich in new takes and unexpectedness. And if you re not sure, then give it a chance you might well be pleasantly surprised with how well it all works together.

Mark McKergow --London Jazz News

After decades of demonstrating his facility on virtually of the reed instruments, Scott Robinson decided to put together an album that makes a clear statement: ''I'm still a tenor player at the core.'' And that statement comes across loud and clear on this quartet date, though his eclecticism comes through in other ways, notably in his arrangements: the Beatles ballad ''And I Love Her'' performed as an unaccompanied sax solo; the Tin Pan Alley classic ''Put on a Happy Face'' arranged as a ballad; ''The Nearness of You'' cast as organ-driven quiet-storm bedroom funk; the deeply gospel-informed ''Rainy River'' (written by Robinson's drummer here, Martin Wind). Robinson's originals are interesting in their own ways: ''Tenor Eleven'' sounds like bebop as written by Hindemith, while the title track is funkier and more experimental, though never completely out. Overall, this is an album that would find a welcome home in any library's jazz collection.

Rick Anderson --CD HotList