Perry Robinson is a living legend. He has been sited as the precursor who opened up the way for such players as Don Byron. Perry Robinson's musical direction may be clearer when you know that for more than fifty years he has been sharing the stage with the likes of Archie Shepp, Dave Brubeck, and Charlie Haden.
Robinson's musical world is filled with unusual arrangements and rare compositions combined with a lot of blues and swing. The quartet - with Ed Schuller on bass and Ernst Bier on drums - has existed since 1984. Pianist and singer Christoph Adams, who took over Simon Nabatov's seat, has been with the band since 1998.
What the press has to say:
His breath flows through the clarinet …. the musicians achieve an extremely transparent group sound which at times boarders on chamber music. Drummer Ernst Bier's discreet playing is effective. The poetic pianist and sometime-singer Christoph Adams gives the music room in which virtuoso bassist Ed Schuller can continually move. Perry Robinson's clarinet playing lends the music a completely original character. After listening to such a beautiful concert one wonders why the clarinet meets out such a shadowy existence in modern jazz?
Göttinger Tageblatt
A listening experience for gourmets - perfect interaction ….. the quartet moved freely in and out of styles, never allowing themselves to be confined by any ideological straightjacket. Open-ended atonality mingled in between blues and bebop. Schuller sometimes would bow the bass in a "classical" style - through his duo interplay with the clarinet or piano he would come up with surprising and original sound-effects. This concert was a mixture of knowledgeable interaction and high-level intuition, of intelligence and feeling. Experiencing the fervent earthiness of their masterful improvisations was a pure listening pleasure. There were no low points, no let-downs; the concert was simply a delight of a very special and unusual sort.
Pforzheimer Zeitung