Robert Irving III

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.

Conspicuously absent as a leader since serving as Miles Davis’ fusion-oriented musical director in the ‘80s, 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 ‘60s 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.

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.

As a member of Miles Davis’ 1981 comeback band and later Davis’ music director, Irving rode a post-fusion wave when it was being supplanted by the Marsalis-led revival of hard-bop. Here he resurrects an alternative strategy that Wayne Shorter proposed in albums like Atlantis and High Life: tightly knit, complex charts for small ensembles that are flexible enough to couch striking personal statements but catchy enough to comfort audiences with an identifiable thread.

Irving writes close parallels for his three capable horn players and directs the rhythm section's approach, leaving openings for his deft, light-fingered pianism. “Poznan Dream’” evokes an airy wistfulness that recurs later in the ballad “Octobre”. Scott Hesse's guitar skitters through the saxophones on “Generations” and is generously featured on “Maat.” “Energy,” suggestive of McCoy Tyner, packs punches with Laurence d’Estival Irving's fervent saxophone wail.

Part of the anything-goes nature of the venture surely owes to the multigenerational staffing of Irving's band, aptly titled Generations. In effect, if Irving once was the up-and-coming player following trumpet icon Davis’ lead, now the pianist serves as the mentor, drawing as much energy and inspiration from his proteges as Davis surely did from him. Bringing Irving's vision to life are alto saxophonist Laurence d’Estival Irving (the pianist's wife), guitarist Scott Hesse, saxophonists Rajiv Halim and Irvin Pierce, bassist-vocalist Emma Dayhuff and drummer Charles “Rick” Heath.

Irving's poetic philosophizing on a few tracks may seem a bit loopy to some, but not to anyone who has traveled in the orbit of Sun Ra, the jazz visionary whose “space is the place” mantra clearly has cast a spell on Irving. And though it takes too many tracks before Irving and the Generations calm down a bit, when they finally do, on “Octobre,” they’ve arrived at one of Irving's mostly beautifully crafted ballads.

The Robert Irving III Quintet debuted at the historic, Joe Segal's The Jazz Showcase in Chicago in September 2017. The group includes on trumpet Wallace Roney Jr. the son of Geri Allen and Wallace Roney, along with Rajiv Halim on tenor, alto and soprano saxophones and flute, bassist Emma Dayhuff and 17-year drummer, Jeremiah Collier.

DownBeat Magazine- February 2016 by Howard Mandel (President of The Jazz Journalist Association)

Irving III, Robert, "in his own words" Chicago Jazz Magazine (December 2016)

Published Wednesday December 2, 2015 © Chicago Tribune

Robert Irving III is a recipient of the Chicago Music Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award for 2015

This is the third album released under the name Robert Irving III Generations as a special group co-founded by Irving's wife, Lolo Irving in 2014 that featuring young musicians whom Irving mentored. The CD that entered the CMJ Chart at 30 and rose to 63 on the top 100 Jazz Week Chart, consists of 10 original compositions of Irving, four of which came to him in dreams.

The band's response to the issues raised by its leader is to play together, in the moment. — Howard Mandel

The initial Miles Davis–Robert Irving III collaboration resulted in the album Decoy. Irving then joined Davis' touring band, where he remained for five years, holding the keyboard chair and the role of musical director.

Excerpts from Robert Irving III memoir, entitled, "Harmonic Possibilities were published by New York University's Institute of African-American Affairs publication Black Renaissance Noire Magazine in the Fall 2013 issue. The memoir is still being completed.

Robert Irving III conducted the debut performance of his “Sonic Portraits Orchestra” in the world premiere of “Sketches of Brazil to record crowd of 12,500 people receiving several standing ovations. The piece is his orchestral homage to his mentors, Miles Davis and Gil Evans, on the 50th anniversary of the recording of the pair’s classic, “Sketches of Spain.” The performance on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion stage at Millennium Park, in Chicago on Thursday August 13, 2009 featured trumpeter Wallace Roney as the principal soloist, and classical guitarist Fareed Haque as special guest, along with Brazilian percussionists Dede Sampaio and Felipe Fraga along with Miles Evans on trumpet in the orchestra (son of Gil Evans) in a blend of 33 classical and jazz musicians conducted by Irving at times from the piano. The Jazz Institute of Chicago sponsored a Symposium prior to the event with special guests from the families of Miles Davis and Gil Evans. Chicago Tribune Critic Howard Reich said of Irving's work, “Extraordinarily ambitious… a tour de force of orchestral writing.” This project although video taped with five cameras and with professional audio recording has not yet been released.

Reich, Howard, Sketches of Brazil Chicago Tribune (August 18, 2009)

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 Carrington.

An excerpt of a The Billboard Review article - April 7, 2007 (by Dan Ouellette):

Cole, George, The Last Miles (University of Michigan Press 2005)

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).

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) and More to Say (Real Life Story: NextGen.) (E1 Entertainment, 2009). 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).

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 resumed his career as a recording artist under his own name with the 2007 release of New Momentum and more recently with the release of "Our Space In Time" by Robert Irving III Generations (featuring students Irving mentored through the Jazz Institute of Chicago Jazz Links program).

Irving remained with the Davis band until 1989, remaining close to Davis until Davis’ death in 1991.

Irving released his first solo album in 1988, Midnight Dream, which featured John Scofield, Darryl Jones, Buddy Williams, André Lassalle and Phil Perry.

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.”

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.

Then, in 1983 Davis invited Irving to once again return to work with him as composer, arranger and co-producer.

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.

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.

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.

Robert Irving III explores radically different musical terrain in “Our Space in Time” (Sonic Portraits Jazz), his tenure as music director for Miles Davis from 1979 to 1988 reflected in the open-eared, open-minded, forward-looking nature of this venture. A heady, trippy foray into sonic experimentation, the album merges acoustic and electric instrumentation, avant-garde and pop-tinged idioms, splashes of color, hypnotic riffs, ethereal vocals and a great deal more.

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).

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.

Robert Irving III (born October 27, 1953) is an American pianist, composer, arranger and music educator.