Introducing the band SRT at Birdland this week, Hammond organ player Mitch Towne made special mention of his drummer’s credentials.
Mic in hand, he said, “It’s not every day that you’re able to say that you played with the guy that played with Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Ritchie, Steve Winwood, Quincy Jones, Chaka Khan, Daft Punk, and David Hasselhoff. The most recorded drummer of all time, John ‘J.R.’ Robinson.”
John "J.R." Robinson is in fact widely considered the most recorded drummer in history. He played on albums that have sold well over 500 million copies. He is the drummer on 20 number-one pop songs by artists including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie and Steve Winwood, and has been the drummer on more than 100 Grammy-winning tracks. He’s no stranger to jazz either. Rolling Stone Magazine featured J.R. in their list of The Top 100 Drummers of All Time.
He told me recently, “The 80s and part of the 90s were rocking and there were times when I would be on 20 percent of the Hot 100.”
But for those casual listeners who didn't check the credits of their favorite records, you might never have heard of him. John spent most of his career in LA recording studios rather than on live stages.
He said, “I was working so much out of Los Angeles mostly that I didn’t have to go on the road. But it was peaking and I knew it, and then sessions started becoming different. There was a squeezing of everything and it squeezed us all.”
Although the recording session scene in LA isn’t what it once was, Robinson is still in demand as a session player on records and film scores. But in recent years he has started to get out on the road a bit more as well.
One of J.R.’s contemporaries on the LA recording scene is the legendary saxophone player Tom Scott, who joins Robinson and SRT as a special guest this week at Birdland.
It's a rare treat to Scott on a New York jazz club stage. But he says it’s not because he’s avoiding the east coast.
Sitting at the bar after the show, he said, “You could say I haven’t been here. That’s certainly not for lack of desire. I first came to New York when Bob Thiele signed me to Impulse! Records in 1968. Ever since then every trip to New York has been a gas to me no matter how old we are. Especially [playing at] Birdland, if these walls could talk, it’s an honor. It goes back to our original love of jazz. [...] It hit me like a ton of bricks.”
After being hit by jazz, and then squeezed by the LA session scene, John “J.R”. Robinson and Tom Scott are grooving their way into Birdland this week through Saturday, along with organist Mitch Towne and guitarist Andrew Synowiec.
And if you’re wondering what that means exactly, don’t ask them for explanations. Robinson will tell you, “You can’t explain groove. Maybe just try to figure it out yourself.”
