Concert: Hymn for Her/Doug Robinson [] Bellas Artes

Doug Robinson grew up in San Diego, where he played with other young jazz artists such as Nathan East and Carl Evans Jr.  He subsequently had a fifteen-year apprenticeship with bebop trombone legend Frank Rehak, whose own musical collaborators included Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Robinson has released more than a dozen CDs of his own eclectic compositions.  Jazz historian Chris Albertson, author of the definitive biography of Bessie Smith, gave an uncharacteristic rave for Robinson’s Jazziz Holiday Album in Stereo Review, calling it “the most prepossessing holiday jazz album I’ve ever heard.”

Robinson’s newest album, Hymn for Her, was recently released by Blue Coast Music, the prestigious jazz label, which touts the CD as “modern jazz at its finest…cool, introspective music with great harmonic richness.”

In a one-night-only concert at Bellas Artes, Robinson, on piano, teams up with two of Mexico’s most esteemed jazz musicians, bassist Benjamín García (“a great musician” – Bloomberg News) and drummer Hernán Hecht (winner, Latin Grammy Award) to recreate the tracks on the album.  Jazz singer Jenny Beaujean appears as a special guest.

The concert is this year’s second installment of the Steinway Series, piano-based benefit concerts for Libros para Todos at Bellas Artes – a series that has maintained a standard for excellence.