Jamey Robinson's Path Through Music

Talking Writing

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Jamey Robinson's Path Through Music

A Lifelong Musician Lays out His Path

Talking Writing

Oct 23, 2022

Transcript

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Episode Notes

By John Vogel

As part of my Perfect Recognition project, I interviewed Philadelphia musician Jamey Robinson about his development as an artist. Jamey has toured the world playing in bands like the avant garde collective Need New Body and the junkyard experimental band Man Man, and works on his own music under the name Buffalo Stance. I was lucky enough to join Man Man on tour in 2011 playing in the Philadelphia orchestral pop band Grandchildren, as well as playing guest trumpet onstage for a couple of Man Man's songs.

Jamey and I also played together in a performance of drummer Chris Powell's Adventuredrum in 2012. Chris and Jamey have played in several bands together over the years, including Bent Leg Fatima, Need New Body, and Man Man. Adventuredrum gathers a large ensemble of drummers to perform free improvisational pieces loosely structured on a single simple drum pattern. In the performance I joined, there were about 20 drummers, keyboards, bass, and a small horn section.

I interviewed Chris and Jamey together in late 2011 for my Weird Music project, where they explained how they and their bandmates succumbed to the siren songs of Sun Ra Arkestra in the late 1990s:

Chris: That was one of the main things that sold me on moving here; I remember seeing the Sun Ra Arkestra in Rittenhouse Square and it totally changed my life. I saw it, I was like, “Oh wow, okay. If this is what’s going on in Philly I want to be here, because that’s killer.”
Jamey: Come to find out it’s not what’s going on but then we make something going on.
Chris: Yeah, but then we ended up moving here and we worked here and next thing you know, a few years later we’re recording with guys from the Arkestra.

For this interview, I talked to Jamey in his West Philadelphia apartment. The musical accompaniment is taken from the 2009 album Sugar Glider by Buffalo Stance, used with Jamey's permission in this podcast episode.