Home » Jazz Musicians » Robin Holcomb

Robin Holcomb

Pianist, composer, singer and songwriter Robin Holcomb has performed extensively in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia as a solo artist and the leader of various ensembles. Living in the Lower East Side of New York in the 1980s, she was a founder of Studio Henry, a venue for maverick composers, and the New York Composers Orchestra. Living in Seattle since 1989, she continues to compose and record songs and music for solo piano, chamber ensembles, dance, theatre and film.

Her most recent recording is John Brown’s Body (Tzadik), a collection of solo piano compositions, a string quartet and duets and trios with Eyvind Kang, Steve Moore and Dave Carter. Solos (Songlines) features solo piano music by Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz, performed by the composers. On the Nonesuch label, The Big Time (2002) is a collection of original songs and arrangements of songs from the Anthology of American Folk Music. Also on Nonesuch, Little Three (1996) is a solo recording of piano music and songs, preceded by Rockabye (1992) and Robin Holcomb (1990). Earlier recordings of instrumental music include Larks, They Crazy and Todos Santos, both on the German Sound Aspects label. Other recording projects include appearances on Bill Frisell’s landmark Nashville recording and contributions to Burt Bacharach, Serge Gainsbourg and Mississippi Sheiks tribute compilations. Ms. Holcomb is frequently invited to perform in the multi-artist tribute concerts produced by Hal Willner and Janine Nichols, including Came So Far For Beauty: The Music of Leonard Cohen, Shock and Awe: The Music of Randy Newman, The Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited and The Doc Pomus Project.

Her work has been called "remarkable" (CMJ), "stunning" (Option), "entrancing" (Billboard) and "sensitive, descriptive, adventuresome and full of soul" (Washington Post). "Hers is an unsettling, utterly original vision." (Entertainment Weekly) According to The New York Times: "Ms. Holcomb has done something remarkable here: she has created a new American regionalism, spun from many threads —country, rock, minimalism, Civil War songs, Baptist hymns, Appalachian folk tunes, even the polytonal music of Charles Ives. The music that results is as elegantly simple as a Shaker Quilt, and no less beautiful."

Tags

3
Radio & Podcasts

Beth Orton, Robin Holcomb, New Mastersounds, Harlem Gospel Travelers & More New Releases

Read "Beth Orton, Robin Holcomb, New Mastersounds, Harlem Gospel Travelers & More New Releases" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


Unbridled fun, the long tail of Hal Willner's work, an all-star band that celebrates 40 years of the Jazz sous les pommiers Festival, and jazz inspired by Maurice Ravel, soul, funk, gospel blues and folk are at the heart of this week's edition of Mondo Jazz. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 The New Mastersounds “Could've Been So Good" The Deplar Effect (Color Red) 0:16 Host talks ...

1
Album Review

Robin Holcomb: One Way or Another - Volume 1

Read "One Way or Another - Volume 1" reviewed by Vic Albani


"Ascoltate attentamente. Abbiamo bisogno di cose come questa." (Bill Frisell) In poco più di trentotto minuti Robin Holcomb distribuisce ancora una volta sapienza e bellezza. Conosco poche persone che comprendono sino in fondo la grandezza di Robin. Alcuni profondi amanti del movimento jazzistico che ha scolpito quello che si potrebbe chiamare il “new jazz" dagli anni Ottanta in avanti, la ricordano quale artefice di meravigliose avventure accanto al suo compagno di vita e d'arte Wayne Horvitz e ...

12
Album Review

Sara Schoenbeck: Sara Schoenbeck

Read "Sara Schoenbeck" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Sara Schoenbeck is cast against type in the world of bassoonists. The versatile double reed, broad-ranged instrument dates to the Renaissance and is commonly found in wind ensembles and chamber orchestras. But Schoenbeck has brought her classical-leaning instrument to creative music in an electrifying body of work. Her self-titled leader debut is the first such project of her career. A series of nine duets allows Schoenbeck to fully explore the scope of the bassoon in close settings. Not ...

656
Interview

Robin Holcomb: Distinctive Mysteries

Read "Robin Holcomb: Distinctive Mysteries" reviewed by Gordon Marshall


Robin Holcomb's songs are knotty like tumbleweeds, braided like roads on maps along which tumbleweeds roll. She lays her songs down like baskets that have the rustic grace of birds' nests, always on the verge of promising a truth, but brimming with natural mysteries. Mysteries accrue, creating a keen urge to get at the kernel of their solution, but the singer, poet and pianist keeps pushing it back, shuttling her audience back and forth between the search for that meaning, ...

318
Album Review

Robin Holcomb and Talking Pictures with Wayne Horvitz: The Point of It All

Read "The Point of It All" reviewed by John Kelman


An unspoken rule amongst musicians is: don't date someone in the band, let alone marry them. Still, there are exceptions, one of the most notable being the husband/wife team of singer/songwriter Robin Holcomb and keyboardist Wayne Horvitz. Together for three decades, they've intersected when the time is right, while still maintaining absolute independence through their rich, individual discographies. Holcomb first came to attention with two records for Elektra/Nonesuch--Robin Holcomb (1990) and the especially fine Rockabye (1992), which married an affinity ...

103
Album Review

Robin Holcomb/Wayne Horvitz: Solos

Read "Solos" reviewed by AAJ Staff


You can unbuckle your seat belt with this one, because it's not going to hurt to lean forward and listen closely. Two pianists who share more than just overlapping interests in music, Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz are life partners as well. Their first co-billed collaboration on record (after multiple shared appearances) comes in the form of a collection of solo piano pieces, including eight originals, three covers, and three free improvisations. These pieces, which are mixed up in sequence ...

113
Album Review

Wayne Horvitz/Tucker Martine: Mylab

Read "Mylab" reviewed by Mark Corroto


For Wayne Horvitz and Tucker Martine, the pair known as Mylab, the saying “everything old is new again” should be restated as “Everything New is Old again!”

This studio experiment by the duo (with 17 of their closest friends) samples and loops folk recordings from the turn of the century to create song structures, then replaces those samples with guest musicians. They mash (part Zony) funk, blues, trip-hop, soul, folk, and African music into a roots music played ...

Read more articles
144

Interview

Singer/Songwriter Robin Holcomb Interviewed at All About Jazz

Singer/Songwriter Robin Holcomb Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: GoMedia PR

While she's been around since the early '80s, emerging in New York's Downtown Scene alongside husband Wayne Hortivtz, pianist/vocalist Robin Holcomb made her first major leap onto a broader radar with her eponymous 1990 debut, on Nonesuch Records. Her ability to combine left-leaning concerns with Americana traditionalism and historical concerns have made her a unique voice in the singer/songwriter arena, while still maintaining unshakable ties with avant concerns on albums like the largely instrumental Little Three (Nonesuch, 1996) and Solos, ...

301

Event

Robin Holcomb at the Stone (NYC) on April 15 - 18

Robin Holcomb at the Stone (NYC) on April 15 - 18

Source: Michael Ricci

ROBIN HOLCOMB AT THE STONE APRIL 15 - 18, 2010 The Stone Avenue C and 2nd Street, NYC $10 ROBIN HOLCOMB performs a variety of projects at The Stone ranging from a reunion of The 25 O'Clock Band, a first collaboration with noted experimental novelist Lynne Tillman, a set of songs with the remarkable songwriter Tony Scherr and Doug Wieselman and a performance of songs and instrumental compositions with Larks, They Crazy, ...

62

Recording

Robin Holcomb's The Big Time Set For Release On Nonesuch

Robin Holcomb's The Big Time Set For Release On Nonesuch

Source: All About Jazz

Marks First New Collection Of Songs Since Acclaimed 1992 Album Rockabye

Following in the style of her first two Nonesuch releases, the self-titled debut (1990) and Rockabye (1992), Robin Holcombs newest release The Big Time finds the acclaimed songwriter reunited with producer Wayne Horvitz in her first collection of new songs in a decade. The house band for The Big Time is Horvitz's Zony Mash-- Keith Lowe (Fiona Apple, David Sylvian, G-Love) on bass, Timothy Young (David Sylvian) on guitar, ...

Ms. Holcomb has done something remarkable here: she has created a new American regionalism, spun from many threads —country rock, minimalism, Civil War songs, Baptist hymns, Appalachian folk tunes, even the polytonal music of Charles Ives. The music that results is as elegantly simple as a Shaker quilt, and no less beautiful. —Mark Dery, The New York Times

...bringing together the disparate terrain of our American musical landscape, from folk tunes to free jazz, with a thin yet haunting voice that evokes the real spirit of country music - the oral tradition. —Kiki Mason, Vanity Fair

Read more

The Westerlies
band / ensemble / orchestra

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Sara Schoenbeck

Pyroclastic Records
2021

buy

The Point of It All

Songlines Recordings
2012

buy

The Point Of It All

Songlines Recordings
2010

buy

Joe Hill: 16 Actions...

New World Records
2009

buy

Solos

Songlines Recordings
2004

buy

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.