Dave Robbins

Career Highlights

After his university studies and terms with the United States Marine Corps and with dance and symphony orchestras, Dave Robbins moved in 1951 to Vancouver. There he was a guiding figure to two generations of jazz musicians, teaching in turn at a city high school, at Vancouver Community College, and 1959–66 at the University of British Columbia. He taught again from 1974 to 1980 at the Vancouver Community College, establishing a jazz and commercial music department, and from 1980 to 1986 at the University of British Columbia. His pupils have included the trombonists Herb Besson, John Capon, Hugh Fraser, Bob Hamper, Sharman King, Rob McKenzie, and Dave McMurdo. Robbins became a naturalized Canadian in 1965.

From 1955 to 1970, Robbins was principal trombone with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He played for 10 years with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and for more than 30 with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. He worked in many Vancouver studio, pit, and jazz orchestras, and led showbands at the Cave and Bayshore Hotel. Having played for the American trumpeter Harry James (1948–54), he returned to the James orchestra for European tours in the early 1970s.

The Dave Robbins Big Band

Dave Robbins' own big band, pre-eminent in Vancouver during the 1950s and 1960s, was heard nationally (1960–66) on CBC Jazz Workshop (alternating weekly with Phil Nimmons), performed on other CBC programs, and appeared at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. For the band, the CBC commissioned works by the Vancouver composers Al Macmillan, Ian McDougall, Doug Parker, Paul Ruhland, Ray Sikora, Robert Turner (Robbins' Round), and others, and by the American composers Dick Grove and Lalo Schifrin. Repertoire included both conventional and third-stream works. Ruhland, for example, the band's bassist, completed Contrasts, Passacaglia, Brass Fantasia for Large Jazz Orchestra, and Twelve Tone Suite for Twelve Piece Jazz Orchestra. Robbins, Parker, and Dave Pepper were among the band's arrangers. With the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, it gave the North American premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett's Piece for Jazz Band and Orchestra (around 1965) and the Canadian premiere of John Dankworth and Matyas Seiber's Improvisations for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra (on 25 February 1966) and also performed Rolf Liebermann's Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra.

Compositions

Dave Robbins' own compositions include film and radio scores and, inspired by his experiences on one of several trips for the CBC to United Nations peacekeeping installations, the four-movement Jazz Impressions of the Middle East (1967). He has arranged music for such CBC programs as Parade (TV), Sound of the Sixties (TV), Music-Canada (radio and TV), and Variety Showcase (radio). His recordings include several albums for the CBC's RM and LM broadcast series (listed in the Canadian Jazz Discography) and the privately released Everywhere (1973) by the American tenor saxophonist Corky Corcoran, a fellow Harry James alumnus for whom Robbins composed and conducted the big-band accompaniment.