orn in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1953, Robinson first studied classical percussion at the New England Conservatory. During the early 1970's he served his musical apprenticeship in the jazz world of Paris, studying with Kenny Clarke and playing with Alan Silva, Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake and Bobby Few among many others. He first played with Spearman as a duet partner during this period in Paris, an association which continued through various configurations and many recordings until the saxophonist's death in 1998. He is a stalwart of the of San Francisco bay area avant-garde jazz scene, playing and recording with many of the area's improvisational players, from saxophonists John Tchicai, Marco Eneidi and Larry Ochs to koto player Miya Masaoka and pianist Matthew Goodheart, and with prominent visitors like Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, George Lewis, trumpeter Raphe Malik and Canadian pianist Paul Plimley. Much of this work has featured the combination of Robinson and bassist Lisle Ellis as rhythm section. The following transcript focuses on performance and communication bound together in a relationship which matches the entire body with active perception. Within this bind, both the listener and the artist can (or need to) summarize his/her whole persona either into a single meaning or into the total and peculiar of the available senses, all through an ongoing exchange of fragmentation and re-composition, separation and global reassumption.

Improvisation, as a kind of unverbal automatic writing, is a kind of scission between the consciouness and the outburst, leaving the ‘deep yourself’ free to speak…
Improvisation is a form of simultaneous composition (a form that poets and rap artist also use). With good composers and artists it is not so much a question of there existing a magical phenomenon where the composer has no conscious intention or control, but a conscious stream of relationships to expression and forms. Almost all artists see themes and make commentary about these themes.

The commentary and statements in improvisation can be expressed in many different forms not just through a musical instrument. I wouldn't say that there is a scission between the consciousness and “outburst.“ Sometimes the form of expression does come in the form of outburst. Some improvisation is very conscious.
The artist makes very conscious reactions and expressions to situations, and states and conditions of life. Improvisation is most interesting when we can focus on a real dilemma or plight and then talk about it, and give vision and speak to the emotions of ourselves and others. For example: John Coltrane when he plays North African themes and uses it as a direction for peaceful, warm, lyrical focus. Giving the listener a sense of calm, peace, strength and direction, and Béla Bartók, distilling a moment of thought and then taking this thought somewhere that has beauty.
Outbursts are part of a statement, although I’m not sure that improvisation is “about” outbursts, but I would say that there is a freedom and an unbound, unleashed license to express, that is, to go beyond conventional forms when it seems appropriate. This requires that you have the freedom to express yourself, certainly.
To some it may appear that improvisation is a world where we only pull a nerve in the brain and unload free association without meaning or direction but it doesn’t really work that way. The associations and the ways of expressing these associations are what makes simultaneous composition have meaning. Otherwise it’s just noise without meaning. (Some people do need to just, sort of, eject and discharge which can sometimes carry a statement. But can become boring if that is the only comment.) 
There is also noise without meaning, but that noise ultimately makes a statement. Some want only chaos but this, in the end, also carries a statement. (sometimes the chaos contains vision and sometimes not).
Ultimately we want our statements to have vision and meaning.