Richie Robinson got his first guitar at the age of eight as a gift from a friend. It only had two strings on it, but he made the most of each of them - as he has done ever since.
Leaving home aged 13, Richie relied on working as a busker for his only income over the next couple of years - learning tricks of the trade from some of the country's top professional street performers.
In that time Richie used his income begin his life-long studies of jazz, blues, and song writing.
This era of his life helped Richie to shape a great attitude towards the entertainment and music business, and would later turn him into one of the most employed guitarists in the country....
Richie then worked as a studio session and live player with local artists until his late teens.
His full-time career was launched after a successful national TV appearance as a jazz guitarist on Bert Newton's New Faces.
Now, after almost three decades as a full-time performer, Richie's seasoned guitar mastery exudes sensitivity and substance.
More interested in mastering his craft than "being famous" Richie has most often worked namelessly in bands and alongside other performers.
As a result, millions of Australians have been entertained by Richie without ever knowing his name.
Richie's live presence and passion for the guitar continues to bring joy to many enthused fans around Australia and abroad.
His sheer love of the instrument has taken him to the core of many styles, approaching each with the emotion and flair for entertainment that has made him a truly respected player.
Those that have been lucky enough to have witnessed Richie's life-long passion as soloist and band leader, his open imagination, and his sense of adventure, say he is constantly walking exploratory ground - raising the bar on peoples' musical expectations thru his playing and productions.
This is one of the tracks from the Jazz Kats Duos series with Gavin Clarke on Trombone and Vocals. It was a buzz recording a batch of tunes with Gavin. To pull one song out of the bag, when he sings them all so brilliantly isn't easy.
If Gavin's warm vocal sound doesn't win you over, then his ability to make every song his own certainly will. His mastery of interpretation is an inspiration to work with. Further than that, he extends his abilities to the trombone with ease, and he is great for working up a really creative vibe.
On the guitar - I did a lot of walking the bass, and comping over the top. Here and there are some passages with the guitar doing bass, comping, and melody simultaneously.
We explored some other percussive ideas, such as slapping and thumping the guitar, "jazz beat boxing", foot stomping & playing various other percussion with our feet and hands.
- Richie Robinson -
This track is one I decided to do with just guitar and vocals. In order to step out of the ordinary thou, I set some rules; the vocals are to contain no singing or lyrics, and the guitar must make up for all other assumed instruments, without either picking or fretting notes.
So I took one of the older guitars hanging around the studio (not the Fenders!!), removed all the frets, and smoothed the board off with filler. I raised up the bridge a tad, and did all the playing with a violin bow.
The "rhythm section" was done by hitting the guitar in various ways, mostly with my right hand pressed over a pickup, and tapping the back of my right with my left.
"Vocals" were any sound that could be made orally, and included wind noises, clicking, teeth grinding, and the like. "wolves howling in the depths of the darkest forest" were made by scraping the violin bow sideways on the strings.
I very much enjoyed stepping out of the norm to create this little spark, I hope you enjoy it too.
Swinger was a band track I wrote for the Nitro Jazz Ensemble while exploring different rhythmic areas that I could associate with swing.
It's a very light mood, and mostly, it's pretty straight ahead jazz playing. The difference is that the tune builds swinging phrases from one beat, to two, then three, then any number of of beats in any given bar or passage. This is reflected in the tongue-in-cheek lyrics below:
I was single, had to mingle
Could only count on one, poor me.
Then I doubled, found some trouble,
And tho two was good, there was more that I could,
So I counted three, I was meeting a need,
I was happily free, and I was swinging,
Now I count on any number,
Won't you swing with me?
Hope you like it :-)
- Richie Robinson -
All blues was another rhythmic experiment. Pretty much the same in its amount of variation as "Swinger", but with the focus on creating new feels and tempos with ideas derived from poly rhythms.
Once those feels where established, the idea was to move to a new poly rhythm, until that became the focal point and feel, and then move on to a new one, etc, etc.
Harmonically, to keep it interesting, the melodic ideas where often played in 4ths. Improvising ideas included using a variety of minor keys a whole above the chords, and playing diminished sounds through key cycles using the poly rhythms to work the phrasing lengths.
I got a buzz out of this, I hope you do too.
- Richie Robinson -
- Track Recording Facts -
Guitar - Telecaster Squire Recorded in 1994
Fostex R8 1 close mic 'd SM58 One take - No overdubs
Guitar Rig - Fender Bass valve head & quad box
- From the "Nitro Jazz Ensemble" -
- Track Recording Facts -
Guitar - Telecaster Squire Recorded in 1994
Fostex R8 1 close mic 'd SM58 One take - No overdubs
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