The Music of George Robert

George Robert belongs to a very select group of young European jazz musicians who have had a successful career worldwide. He has performed and recorded with many of the jazz giants and is in great demand as a saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, arranger and educator. His discography is very impressive and his biography appears in the Jazz Encyclopedia written by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler. He studies jazz composition and arranging at the Berklee College of Music where teachers like Phil Wilson, Jimmy Mosher and Ed Tomassi notice his writing talents. He earns a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging Magna cum Laude in 1984. That same year he forms the George Robert Quartet which receives the 1984 Down Beat Outstanding Performance Award and is invited to perform on the main stage of the Montreux International Jazz Festival. In 1987 he meets Tom Harrell and both men hit it off right from the beginning, musically and personally! In 1997 the critics of the American magazine Jazz Times select the duo CD “Youngbloods” (George Robert and Dado Moroni, Mons Records, 1994) as one of the top five jazz albums of the year. That same year he records his first album with Kenny Barron. In 1998 Phil Woods hires George to play lead alto in his big band which tours Europe for three weeks and performs at all the major jazz festivals on the Continent. In 2002 he is invited as featured soloist with the Chick Corea Trio and the UBS Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra, conducted by Bobby McFerrin. In 2003 George receives the prestigious prize of the Suisa Fondation for Music for his career achievements. As this long list of great jazz musicians can attest, George Robert’s career is unique for such a young artist and he continues to tour, record and write extensively. (From the Foreword by Dan Morgenstern Director, Institute of Jazz Studies Rutgers University, Newark, New York, July 2003)