Renaissance man

Jeff Robinson is a player for all stages

by John Purin

Although it's a Sunday night, there's a decent crowd at the Lizard Lounge (underneath the Common Ground restaurant on Mass Ave, between Harvard and Porter Squares). In recognition of the Cocktail Nation trend, many in the audience are drinking drinks from martini glasses that are definitely not martinis. It's the premiere of the club's new Jazz & Poetry open-mike series, which has relocated from the Corner at the Middle East. The throng includes an entourage from MTV, on hand to tape a recitation by Jason Cornwell, The Real World's resident bard. Yet the true hipsters in the house know that the vibe comes courtesy of Jeff Robinson, saxophone-wielding leader of the trio improvising grooves behind the readers.

Robinson is pleased but hardly dazzled by the presence of the camera crew. It's just another flavor in the aesthetic stew, and he's used to cooking with a variety of ingredients. This 36-year-old St. Louis native came to Boston in the early '80s, "to get out of the Midwest" and to study composition at the Berklee College of Music. Finishing his studies, he blew horn for a few years with a string of reggae acts, from local outfits to international stars like Sugar Minott. While on a European tour with the legendary Mikey Dread, he happened across a copy of Sidney Poitier's autobiography; thus inspired, he decided to try his hand at acting. He has since played roles as diverse as Martin Luther King and Jack Kerouac's mythic Dr. Sax. He has also performed his own one-man theatrical tribute to Charlie Parker, Live Bird.

These days, Robinson divides his time among his many muses. "There are times when I'll be in a play at eight o'clock. It gets over at around 10, and then I'll have to rush off to a gig."

He doesn't restrict his theatrics to the dramatic stage. At Toad recently, he was playing with Amphibian, a blues-based quintet he fronts as saxophonist and singer (he has an appealingly growly delivery). Going into a solo, he wandered into the crowd. Hardly unusual: Toad, after all, is an intimate venue, and the distance between patrons and performers is often a matter of inches. But taking things a step farther, Robinson soon was out the front door, spinning and squawking in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue.

Amphibian's repertoire includes standards and chestnuts by the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. But thanks, in part, to Paul Wolstencraft's creative work on the keyboards, there's a textural depth and emotional richness more formulaic acts seldom attain. "People put so much effort into sounding `authentic,' " Robinson points out, "sounding like they're from Chicago or New Orleans. But the essence of the music is playing what you feel."

The sound of the Jeff Robinson Trio, on the other hand, is rooted in the jazz of the post-swing era. He speaks with awe about the "spirituality" of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, and about the Beat writers who were their contemporaries. But he also admires the grittier poetics of old-school rap. "Even before Grandmaster Flash broke out, folks were rapping in St. Louis, they were rapping everywhere. People might not want to admit it, but rap had a lot to do with the resurgence of performance poetry."

The trio have proved adept at accompanying a range of local voices, from the powerful cadence of Diana Saenz to the politically charged verse of Gary Hicks. Most recently they have gone into the studio to record a CD based on the work of local scribe Mark Goldfinger. Robinson is negotiating with local indie labels now to get that album out sometime next fall. Although he describes the project as "a concept album," initial tracks seem a far cry from the pompous escapism that term calls up. "The Great Equalizer" and "Where's My Cigarette?" paint a harshly realistic portrait of heroin addiction. The narrative (performed by Robinson) is linked to music that inhabits a realm somewhere between Tom Waits and Digable Planets. It's an impressive balancing act, and Robinson credits drummer Dwight Hart and acoustic bassist Blake Newman. "They have the right ears, and the right kind of temperaments. I have a good band for this sort of thing."

In the meantime, area literati are welcome to join that band in the Lizard Lounge's lush ambiance. Robinson feels that the locale is an improvement over the Corner, with its through traffic and sonic distractions. Describing the new digs, he concludes, "It's a perfect room for poetry, and a perfect room for jazz. It's a very good marriage."

Amphibian play the Plough & Stars next Thursday, April 10. Call 441-3455. The Jeff Robinson Trio plays with featured poets and open-mike poets every Sunday at the Lizard Lounge starting at 9. Call 547-0759. The trio also accompanies services at University Lutheran Church, 66 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, on April 20 and the third Sunday of every month.