Robert Irving III
Encyclopedia
Robert Irving III is an American pianist, composer, arranger and music educator.
A native of Chicago, Irving was one of a group of young Chicago
musicians that in the late '70s and early '80s formed the nucleus of Miles Davis
' recording and touring bands. Irving left the Davis band in 1989, and has gone on to a prolific career as touring musician, composer, arranger, producer, educator and interdisciplinary artist. Irving has recently (with the 2007 release of New Momentum) resumed his career as a recording artist under his own name.
, followed by a range of brass instruments including cornet
, French horn, and valve trombone. While he was a brass player, Irving also studied piano to further his knowledge of musical theory.
Irving's family moved to North Carolina
in 1969 and remained there until 1978. While in North Carolina, Irving continued his studies in musical theory, played trombone in concert bands, keyboards for pop/funk and fusion bands, and organ and piano for gospel groups. Hammond organ and keyboards became his primary instruments.
After returning to Chicago in 1978, Irving connected with a number of young musicians, including Vince Wilburn Jr. and Darryl Jones
who would later join him in the Miles Davis band. These musicians formed a series of bands, including Data and AL7. In 1979, AL7 was invited by arranger/producer Tom Tom 84 to record some demo tapes for Maurice White
(of Earth, Wind, & Fire).
The fruits of these sessions were included on the 1981 album, The Man with the Horn
, the first recording Davis had released in six years. The title track, The Man With the Horn, was co-written and arranged by Irving, who also co-wrote and arranged another track titled Shout.
Returning to Chicago, Irving continued his composing, arranging, and producing; notably, working on albums for Ramsey Lewis
(1981 and 1982), Randy Hall, and others.
Also, in 1982 Irving became musical director and pianist for the Kuumba Theater production of The Little Dreamer… a Nite in the Life of Bessie Smith and studied stride-piano with the legendary Little Brother Montgomery
, who had composed music for the show.
Then, in 1983 Davis invited Irving to once again return to work with him as composer, arranger and co-producer.
. Irving then joined Davis' touring band, where he remained for five years, holding the keyboard chair and the role of musical director.
Notably, in the role of musical director, Irving was responsible for musical arrangements, rehearsals (which Davis never attended), and musical liaison between Davis and group members that included some of the leading musicians of the era, such as John Scofield, Bill Evans, Mike Stern, Kenny Garrett and Darryl Jones. In those roles, Irving listened to recordings of each night’s performance with Davis to cull what were spontaneous creative ideas … that then became a permanent part of the group’s musical arrangements. Some of that work is finely exhibited on The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux
collection.
Irving also collaborated with Davis (as composer, producer and arranger) on the 1985 recording, You're Under Arrest. The album included Grammy-nominated covers of “Time After Time
” and “Human Nature
.”
While working on the material for You're Under Arrest, Irving added to his arranging credentials by studying with Gil Evans
, who decades earlier had famously arranged some of Miles Davis’ most celebrated recordings.
Later, Irving extended this musical direction on projects such as his film score for the feature film Street Smart also with André Lassalle on guitar (1985), starring Morgan Freeman
and Christopher Reeve
-- with Miles Davis as featured instrumentalist.
Irving remained with the Davis band until 1989, remaining close to Davis until Davis’ death in 1991.
, Wallace Roney
, Eddie Henderson, Lenny White
, and fellow Miles Davis alumni Darryl Jones, Vince Wilburn Jr., and Al Foster
. He has contributed to these settings as composer and arranger and pianist.
Irving released his first solo album in 1988, Midnight Dream, which featured John Scofield, Darryl Jones, Buddy Williams, André Lassalle and Phil Perry.
In addition, Irving recorded as leader and music director of the Davis alumni bands ESP and ESP2, on a number of David Murray albums, as a member of Khalil El Zabar's Juba Collective, and with Wallace Roney. He has produced albums for, among others, Terri Lyne Carrington
(Real Life Story, 1990). In the Chicago community, Irving has taught and lectured at numerous schools, workshops and community events, and he founded Chicago's African Arts Ensemble (an 18-piece pan-African jazz group commissioned by the African Festival of the Arts).
Irving also composed the score for the George Tillman, Jr.
's 1995 feature film, Scenes for the Soul, and, composed for the Miami Chamber Symphony (Mademoiselle Mandarin, a concerto for jazz harp and orchestra, featuring Swiss harpist, Markus Klinko).
.
The CD is a Billboard Magazine "critics' choice" (highly recommended for musical merit).
An excerpt of a The Billboard Review article - April 7, 2007 (by Dan Ouellette):
Irving is also a painter. When he was a member of Miles Davis’ band, Davis encouraged him to take up painting. Irving actually began painting regularly in 1997, and has seen his work exhibited in a number of galleries.
A native of Chicago, Irving was one of a group of young Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
musicians that in the late '70s and early '80s formed the nucleus of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
' recording and touring bands. Irving left the Davis band in 1989, and has gone on to a prolific career as touring musician, composer, arranger, producer, educator and interdisciplinary artist. Irving has recently (with the 2007 release of New Momentum) resumed his career as a recording artist under his own name.
Early background
Irving's first musical instrument was the bugleBugle (instrument)
The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure, since the bugle has no other mechanism for controlling pitch. Consequently, the bugle is limited to notes within the harmonic series...
, followed by a range of brass instruments including cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
, French horn, and valve trombone. While he was a brass player, Irving also studied piano to further his knowledge of musical theory.
Irving's family moved to North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
in 1969 and remained there until 1978. While in North Carolina, Irving continued his studies in musical theory, played trombone in concert bands, keyboards for pop/funk and fusion bands, and organ and piano for gospel groups. Hammond organ and keyboards became his primary instruments.
After returning to Chicago in 1978, Irving connected with a number of young musicians, including Vince Wilburn Jr. and Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones , also known as "The Munch", is an American bass guitarist. Jones began his notable career as a session musician, where he gained the experience and confidence to play with some of the most highly regarded recording artists, in jazz, blues, and rock music...
who would later join him in the Miles Davis band. These musicians formed a series of bands, including Data and AL7. In 1979, AL7 was invited by arranger/producer Tom Tom 84 to record some demo tapes for Maurice White
Maurice White
Maurice White is a Grammy Award–winning American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger. He is the older brother of Verdine White and Fred White and the leader and founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire...
(of Earth, Wind, & Fire).
The Miles Davis connection
In 1980, an Irving composition entitled Space was played for Wilburn's uncle, Miles Davis. Space captured Davis' interest, and led to Irving, Wilburn and their band being invited to New York for Davis' first recording sessions in several years.The fruits of these sessions were included on the 1981 album, The Man with the Horn
The Man with the Horn
The Man with the Horn is an album released by Miles Davis in 1981, featuring drummer Al Foster, saxophonist Bill Evans, guitarists Mike Stern and Barry Finnerty, and others. It was Davis's first new release since 1975, following a six-year reclusive retirement.Rock-oriented in nature, the music...
, the first recording Davis had released in six years. The title track, The Man With the Horn, was co-written and arranged by Irving, who also co-wrote and arranged another track titled Shout.
Returning to Chicago, Irving continued his composing, arranging, and producing; notably, working on albums for Ramsey Lewis
Ramsey Lewis
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...
(1981 and 1982), Randy Hall, and others.
Also, in 1982 Irving became musical director and pianist for the Kuumba Theater production of The Little Dreamer… a Nite in the Life of Bessie Smith and studied stride-piano with the legendary Little Brother Montgomery
Little Brother Montgomery
Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist and singer....
, who had composed music for the show.
Then, in 1983 Davis invited Irving to once again return to work with him as composer, arranger and co-producer.
The Davis–Irving collaborations
The initial Miles Davis–Robert Irving III collaboration resulted in the album DecoyDecoy (album)
Decoy is a 1984 album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in 1983.It features keyboardist Robert Irving III and guitarist John Scofield contributing most of the compositions and the other solos...
. Irving then joined Davis' touring band, where he remained for five years, holding the keyboard chair and the role of musical director.
Notably, in the role of musical director, Irving was responsible for musical arrangements, rehearsals (which Davis never attended), and musical liaison between Davis and group members that included some of the leading musicians of the era, such as John Scofield, Bill Evans, Mike Stern, Kenny Garrett and Darryl Jones. In those roles, Irving listened to recordings of each night’s performance with Davis to cull what were spontaneous creative ideas … that then became a permanent part of the group’s musical arrangements. Some of that work is finely exhibited on The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux
The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux
The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux is a 2002 box set of 20 CDs comprising 11 appearances by Miles Davis at the Montreux Jazz Festival between 1973 and 1991.-Track listing:Disc 1...
collection.
Irving also collaborated with Davis (as composer, producer and arranger) on the 1985 recording, You're Under Arrest. The album included Grammy-nominated covers of “Time After Time
Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper song)
"Time After Time" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released as the second single from her album She's So Unusual. It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remained there for two weeks...
” and “Human Nature
Human Nature (Michael Jackson song)
"Human Nature" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written and composed by Steve Porcaro and John Bettis, and produced by Quincy Jones. It is the fifth single from the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller . Initially, Porcaro had recorded a rough demo of the song on a...
.”
While working on the material for You're Under Arrest, Irving added to his arranging credentials by studying with Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
, who decades earlier had famously arranged some of Miles Davis’ most celebrated recordings.
Later, Irving extended this musical direction on projects such as his film score for the feature film Street Smart also with André Lassalle on guitar (1985), starring Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
and Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
-- with Miles Davis as featured instrumentalist.
Irving remained with the Davis band until 1989, remaining close to Davis until Davis’ death in 1991.
Musician, bandleader, producer, composer, arranger
Since leaving the Davis band, Irving has been based in Chicago and has kept active on many musical fronts, continuing to develop as a pianist, arranger, composer and producer. He has performed, as leader and sideman, with a list of musicians that includes David MurrayDavid Murray (jazz musician)
David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...
, Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney is an American hard bop and post-bop trumpeter.Roney took lessons from Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie and studied with Miles Davis from 1985 until the latter's death in 1991...
, Eddie Henderson, Lenny White
Lenny White
Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...
, and fellow Miles Davis alumni Darryl Jones, Vince Wilburn Jr., and Al Foster
Al Foster
Al Foster is an American jazz drummer. Foster played with Miles Davis's large funk fusion group in the 70s, was one of the few people to have contact with Miles during his retirement, and was also part of his comeback album The Man With the Horn of 1981...
. He has contributed to these settings as composer and arranger and pianist.
Irving released his first solo album in 1988, Midnight Dream, which featured John Scofield, Darryl Jones, Buddy Williams, André Lassalle and Phil Perry.
In addition, Irving recorded as leader and music director of the Davis alumni bands ESP and ESP2, on a number of David Murray albums, as a member of Khalil El Zabar's Juba Collective, and with Wallace Roney. He has produced albums for, among others, Terri Lyne Carrington
Terri Lyne Carrington
Terri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many more...
(Real Life Story, 1990). In the Chicago community, Irving has taught and lectured at numerous schools, workshops and community events, and he founded Chicago's African Arts Ensemble (an 18-piece pan-African jazz group commissioned by the African Festival of the Arts).
Irving also composed the score for the George Tillman, Jr.
George Tillman, Jr.
George Tillman, Jr. is an American film director and producer. He attended John Marshall High School in Milwaukee, where he took Mass Communications magnet classes. He graduated from Columbia College in Chicago in 1991 with a major in Film and Video.Tillman is most notable for directing the films...
's 1995 feature film, Scenes for the Soul, and, composed for the Miami Chamber Symphony (Mademoiselle Mandarin, a concerto for jazz harp and orchestra, featuring Swiss harpist, Markus Klinko).
New Momentum
With the 2007 release of New Momentum on the Sonic Portraits Entertainment label, Irving has returned to recording under his own name. The CD was co-produced by Terri Lyne CarringtonTerri Lyne Carrington
Terri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many more...
.
The CD is a Billboard Magazine "critics' choice" (highly recommended for musical merit).
An excerpt of a The Billboard Review article - April 7, 2007 (by Dan Ouellette):
Conspicuously absent as a leader since serving as Miles Davis’ fusion-oriented musical director in the ‘80’s, Robert Irving III returns in dramatic fashion on “New Momentum,” the premiere release for indie Sonic Portraits.
The disc is largely an acoustic piano trio date, highlighted by Irving originals and two nods to his mentor’s ‘60’s repertoire: a buoyant cover of Davis’ “Seven Steps to Heaven” and a refined take on Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti”.
What’s so remarkable about Irving’s return from obscurity is the fresh, vital sound, spurred by his pianistic dynamism, and infused with an imaginative improvisational approach that encompasses dancing tempo shifts and harmonic curves.
Bassist Buster Williams costars, with arco support on the ballad “Primordial Waters”, low-end punch to the title track and a walking bass conversation with Irving on the midtempo groove tune “Always . . . Sometimes”.
Irving is also a painter. When he was a member of Miles Davis’ band, Davis encouraged him to take up painting. Irving actually began painting regularly in 1997, and has seen his work exhibited in a number of galleries.
Selected discography
- 2007—Robert Irving III, New Momentum (Sonic Portraits Entertainment) -- leader, composer, arranger and producer (with Terri Lyne Carrington)
- 2002—Juba Collective (Kahil El'ZabarKahil El'ZabarKahil EL'Zabar is a jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer. He regularly records for Delmark Records. He joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in the early 1970s, and became its chairman in 1975...
), Juba Collective -- piano, organ, keyboards - 2002—Miles Davis, The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux -- composer, arranger, keyboards
- 1997—Wallace Roney, Village -- keyboards
- 1997—David Murray, Fo Deuk Revue -- piano, composer
- 1996—David Murray, Dark Star (#1 on Billboard chart) -- organ, piano, synthesizers
- 1995—David Murray, Jug-a-Lug -- organ, synthesizers
- 1994—David Murray, The Tip -- organ, synthesizers
- 1992—ESP, ESP (Robert Irving III, Darryl Jones, Bobby Broom, Kirk Whalum, Toby Williams) -- composer, arranger, keyboards, producer
- 1991—Susan Osborne, Wabi (Nippon Music Award for Best Creative Concept) -- producer
- 1989—Terri Lyne Carrington, Real Life Story (Grammy Award Nominee) -- producer
- 1989—Robert Lee Irving, Midnight Dream -- composer, arranger, keyboards, producer
- 1985—Miles Davis, You're Under Arrest (Grammy Award Nominee) -- composer, arranger, keyboards, producer
- 1983—Miles Davis, Decoy (Downbeat Album of the Year) -- composer, arranger, keyboards, producer
- 1981—Miles Davis, The Man With the Horn -- composer, arranger, keyboards, producer