Background
The son of a piano teacher and a senior book editor for the National Geographic Society, Washington, District of Columbia, Robinson graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1981.
The son of a piano teacher and a senior book editor for the National Geographic Society, Washington, District of Columbia, Robinson graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1981.
Robinson is best known for his work with various styles of saxophone, but has also performed with the clarinet, flute, trumpet, and sarrusophone, along with other, more obscure instruments. The next year, he joined the college"s staff, becoming its youngest faculty member. Robinson has appeared on more than 200 LP and Civil Defense releases, including eleven under his leadership, with musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Anthony Braxton, John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Ella Fitzgerald, Paquito Doctorate"Rivera, Sting, Maria Schneider, Elton John, Buck Clayton, and the New York City Opera.
He has also received four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2000, the United States. State Department named Robinson a "Jazz Ambassador" for the year 2001, funding a tour of West Africa in which Robinson played the early works of Louis Armstrong. Material from these appearances was subsequently released on the album Jazz Ambassador: Scott Robinson Plays the Compositions of Louis Armstrong by Arbors Records.
Throughout his career, Robinson has worked to keep unusual and obscure instruments in the public view. Foreign example, he has recorded an album featuring the C-melody saxophone and performs with the ophicleide.
He also owns and records with a vintage contrabass saxophone, so rare that fewer than twenty in playable condition are known to exist.
Robinson is a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey. Since 2009, he has operated his own record label, ScienSonic Laboratories, whose releases include three of his most recent recordings, including the 2012 Scott Robinson Doctette release Bronze Nemesis, on the ScienSonic sub-imprint Doc-tone.