Writings about Music

Invisible Living Clay

If I happen to inadvertently break any rules and conventions of past European classical, jazz, Indian classical, avant-garde, computer and electronic music this is secondary to how my heart and mind feel and envision the invisible living clay of sound I shape into new forms of composition and performance with their own unique properties.

I never intentionally attempt to be different, go outside of convention, or break rules. I'm only being true to myself because that's what is real. Glad that my teacher, Lee Konitz, also taught me this is the best approach to music. 

When my father asked Lee in 1975 after a summer of private lessons what my future prospects for a life in music were, Konitz, known and even feared among jazz musicians for being brutally honest, replied bluntly and matter-of-factly: "He's going to make it."

- Michael Robinson, November 2019, Los Angeles

 

© 2019 Michael Robinson All rights reserved

 

Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based composer, programmer, jazz pianist and musicologist. His 170 albums include 150 albums for meruvina and 20 albums of piano improvisations. Robinson has been a lecturer at UCLA, Bard College and California State University.