Robinson Ottoobre

His Japanese fans reverently dubbed Fenton Robinson "the mellow blues genius" because of his ultra-smooth vocals and jazz-inflected guitar work. But beneath the obvious subtlety resides a spark of constant regeneration – Robinson tirelessly strives to invent something fresh and vital whenever he's near a bandstand. The soft-spoken Mississippi native got his career going in Memphis, where he'd moved at age 16. First, Rosco Gordon used him on a 1956 session for Duke that produced "Keep on Doggin'." The next year, Fenton made his own debut as a leader for the Bihari Brothers' Meteor label with his first reading of "Tennessee Woman." His band, the Dukes, included mentor Charles McGowan on guitar. T-Bone Walker and B.B. King were Robinson's idols.

"A Pocket Full Of Miracles" (TS306) is a 1970 album by Motown Records R&B group The Miracles,(AKA "Smokey Robinson & The Miracles") issued on its Tamla subsidiary label, one of three albums the group released that year. This album charted at #56 on the Billboard pop albums chart, and reached the top ten of the magazine's R&B albums chart, peaking at #10. It was released on September 30 of that year.

Back in the late '70s, Smokey Robinson made a great comeback with his 1979 hit "Cruisin'." With his broadened lyrical style and more knowing in his voice, the aesthetic powered such album classics as Where There's Smoke and Warm Thoughts. 1981's Being With You, in effect, ended the ride, but the hits more than continued. The single "Being With You" is a deft update of Robinson's '60s naïveté and is certainly a great pop record. The same can't be said for most of the tracks here. Handing over the production reigns to George Tobin, some of Robinson's quirks and musical trademarks are lost to polished and radio-friendly production. The songs aren't great here, either. The didactic and reggae-tinged "Food for Thought" just comes off silly.

Multiple reed and brass player Scott Robinson journeyed to Prague in 2003 to reunite with his old Berklee classmate, Czech pianist Emil Viklicky, for this extraordinary record date. Though Robinson is well known for his work on baritone sax on dates by others, tenor sax is his favorite instrument and it is heard extensively on this date. With Viklicky's regular bassist (Frantisek Uhlir) and drummer Laco Tropp, they kick off with a striking rendition of "Summertime" that finds Robinson alternating between tenor sax and muted trumpet, with Viklicky darkening the mood by his compelling choice of chords…