Robert Irving III - Musician, Bandleader, Producer, Composer, Arranger

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 Murray, 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).