The 2019 JazzTimes Readers’ Poll named Scott Robinson’s 2019 Arbors Records release, Tenormore, as Best New Release of the Year. In its June 2019 issue, Allen Morrison had described the album as “a mix of playful, absorbing originals and innovative interpretations of standards . . . a showcase for his imagination and range on the instrument.”
Robinson is accompanied on Tenormore by keyboardist Helen Sung, bassist Martin Wind, and drummer Dennis Mackrel. “This quartet,” wrote AllAboutJazz‘s Dan Bilawsky, “bumps and grinds its way through an 11-bar blues aptly named ‘Tenor Eleven’, turns ‘Put On A Happy Face’ into a ballad that balances the scales of emotions with rueful revisionism, sets a cool-headed take on ‘The Good Life’ into motion with some free improvisation, and visits church on Wind’s soulful organ-enhanced ‘Rainy River’.” DownBeat gave it four stars, saying that, “Robinson kicks it all off in daring fashion . . . He swings effortlessly and delivers a singing quality . . . while also incorporating some unconventional twists.”
Other highlights of the JazzTimes poll were: Artist of the Year, Wynton Marsalis; Best New Artist, Veronica Swift; Best Vocal Release, Veronica Swift’s Confessions (Mack Avenue); and Best Big Band/Large Ensemble, Christian McBride’s Big Band.
In the March-April issue of Jersey Jazz, due out March 1, 2020, Robinson is featured in “Jazz Nights in Princeton”, an article about house concerts presented by Mary Wisnovsky and Maitland (Mait) Jones.