Reginald R. Robinson (born October 19, 1972) is an American jazz and ragtime pianist.Yanow, Scott. Reginald Robinsonat Allmusic''Contemporary Black Biography, Profiles from the international black community, Volume 53,'' Detroit:

Thomson Gale Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Gro ...

(2006) (biography contains portrait) In 2004, he received a MacArthur Genius Grant.''All Music Guide to Jazz. The experts' guide to the best jazz recordings. Second edition,'' edited by

Michael Erlewine John Michael Erlewine (; born July 18, 1941) is an American musician, astrologer, photographer, TV host, publisher and Internet entrepreneur who founded the music online database site AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide) in 1991. Car ...

, San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books (1996)''All Music Guide to Jazz. The definitive guide to jazz music, Fourth edition,'' edited by

Vladimir Bogdanov Vladimir Leonidovich Bogdanov (russian: Владимир Леонидович Богданов; born 28 May 1951) is a Russian businessman and oil tycoon. Biography and career In 1973 he graduated from Tyumen Industrial Institute with a degre ...

, Chris Woodstra, &

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...

, San Francisco:

Backbeat Books In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a pi ...

(2002)

Biography

Robinson was raised in Chicago. A self-taught musician, Robinson's love for

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

began in the 7th grade His mother purchased a piano and he spent the next three years submerged in the self study of music. In 1988 Robinson took lessons with Theodore Bargman at the

American Conservatory of Music The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservato ...

in downtown Chicago.''Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 30: September 2004 — August 2005,'' New York: H. W. Wilson Co. (2005) He also studied sight-reading and began to compose music in various styles including ragtime piano. In 1992 he was introduced to pianist Jon Weber; who helped him make a professional demo of his compositions and arranged for his first public performance at The Green Mill. In 2004 Robinson won the

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

"genius award". In December 1993, Robinson was a guest on "Piano Jazz" with

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...

."Reginald Robinson performs his "Sounds in Silhouette". "Piano Jazz" with Marian McPartland. December 1993.
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Discography

* ''Man Out of Time'' (self-released, 2007) * ''Reflections'' (self-released, 2010) * ''Euphonic Sounds'' (Delmark, 1998) * ''Sounds in Silhouette'' (Delmark, 1994) * ''The Strongman'' (Delmark, 1993)

References

External links

WMFT Radio: "Reginald R. Robinson, piano [Encore Broadcast] July 3, 2020""River Raisin Ragtime Review: Music of Reginald R. Robinson, Live in Concert" Scott Yanow. The Syncopated Times. December 1, 2017
* ttps://www.macfound.org/fellows/745/news/ MacArthur Foundation. "Reginald R. Robinson News" {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Reginald R. 1972 births African-American jazz musicians African-American jazz pianists Living people MacArthur Fellows Musicians from Chicago Ragtime composers Place of birth missing (living people) Jazz musicians from Illinois American male pianists American male jazz musicians 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people