Jason Robinson - saxophone; Michael Dessen - trombone; Joshua White - piano; Drew Gress - bass; Ches Smith - drums

Jason Robinson's Janus Ensemble celebrates the double release of Ancestral Numbers I and Ancestral Numbers II, an expansive new project exploring the sound of ancestry through evocative imaginative compositions performed by a quintet version of Robinson's long-running group.

Jason Robinson’s Janus Ensemble is led by American composer, saxophonist, and flutist Jason Robinson. An acclaimed group written about in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Down Beat, Jazztimes, All About Jazz, and many other major news and music publications, Robinson’s Janus Ensemble ranges in size from quartet to full 11-piece ensemble featuring pianists Joshua White and Angelica Sanchez, guitarist Liberty Ellman, bassist Drew Gress, percussionists Ches Smith and George Schuller, trombonist Michael Dessen, trombonist and tubist Bill Lowe, tubist Marcus Rojas, and fellow reedists Marty Ehrlich, JD Parran, and Oscar Noriega. Members of the group reside across the United States, from California, to New York City, to small town New England.

A transplant from California, Robinson now lives and works in Massachusetts. The group's latest releases are the first two albums in Robinson's Ancestral Numbers composition series, Ancestral Numbers I and Ancestral Numbers II, the first released in May 2024 and the second on 8 October 2024, both on Playscape Recordings and featuring a quintet version of the ensemble with Robinson, trombonist Michael Dessen, pianist Joshua White, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Ches Smith. The Janus Ensemble has four previous albums: Harmonic Constituent (Playscape, 2020), Resonant Geographies (pfMENTUM), Tiresian Symmetry (Cuneiform), and The Two Face of Janus (Cuneiform).

Listen and information at jasonrobinson.bandcamp.com and www.jasonrobinson.com

Photo by Nick Lloyd