MCAD Presents: Larry Ochs & Donald Robinson Duo Concert

Ochs and Robinson first performed together from 1991 to 1998 in The Glenn Spearman Double Trio. From 1994 to 2002, they worked with bassist Lisle Ellis in the trio What We Live, a band that recorded many CDs and added incredible guests for special concerts/recordings including Dave Douglas, Wadada Leo Smith, Miya Masaoka, Nels Cline, John Zorn, Saadet Turkoz and Chris Brown, among others. From 2000 until 2010 Robinson was part of the Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core featuring drummer Scott Amendola, as well as Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura from 2007 – 2010.

Donald Robinson honed his physical technique and musical concept in the 1970’s in Paris, studying with bebop pioneer Kenny Clarke and various notable avant-garde players.  A long-time student of Chuck Brown, Robinson added to his mental acuity performing with the likes of Cecil Taylor, Glenn Spearman, Lisle Ellis, and Rova Sax Quartet. He is a stalwart of the San Francisco Bay Area avant-garde jazz scene, playing and recording with many of the Bay Area’s improvisational players, from saxophonists John Tchicai, Marco Eneidi and Larry Ochs to koto player Miya Masaoka and pianist Matthew Goodheart. He has also been Bay Area drummer of choice for prominent visitors like Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Joe McPhee, George Lewis, Dave Douglas, and Paul Plimley.

In his forty-plus years in ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Larry Ochs has created roughly two dozen compositions for saxophone quartet as well as other pieces for ROVA in extended ensembles, many of which are recorded, and some of which were commissioned by Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation and Meet the Composer. He has been acting executive director of Rova:Arts since 1987. In addition Ochs currently composes for and leads The Fictive Five (with Nate Wooley, Harris Eisenstadt, Ken Filiano and Pascal Niggenkemper). He is performing in collective bands: Jones Jones (with Mark Dresser and Vladimir Tarasov), Every Winter Trio (with Nels Cline and Gerald Cleaver), Spectral (with Darren Johnston and Dave Rempis), Larry Ochs-Aram Shelton Quartet (with Aram Shelton, Kjell Nordeson and Scott Walton) and Maybe Monday (with Miya Masaoka and Fred Frith).