Trumpeter and flugelhorn player Herb Robertson has distinguished himself in avant-garde jazz. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, on February 21, 1951, he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1969 to 1972, and began his career as a musician in various jazz and rock bands. After accompanying Tim Berne and Mark Helias, he began recording as a leader in the quintet format with the album Transparency (1985), followed by X-Cerpts - Live at Willsau (1987) and Shades of Bud Powell (1988), from the perspective of The Herb Robertson Brass Ensemble. His collaboration with the JMT label continued with Certified (1991), before signing with Cadence Jazz and CIMP, notably for his collaborations with Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen. Between numerous sessions, the trumpeter recorded the albums Brooklyn-Berlin and Ritual with Phil Haynes in 2000, and brought together a host of musicians on Knudstock 2000 and The Legend of the Missing Link (2002). In 2004, he collaborated with the Interzone trio on the album Shining of the Abyss, then formed the NY Downtown Allstars for Elaboration (2005) and Real Aberration (2007). In 2006, he founded his own label, Ruby Flower Records, under which Parallelisms (2007) was released, then began a partnership with Danish guitarist Mark Solborg on Nod (2009), The Trees (2013) and Tuesday Prayers (2016). In addition to such institutions as The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, the New York Composers Orchestra and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, Herb Robertson has performed with the ensembles All Ears, The Bang, Nexus, The F.I. Quartet, The Fonda/Stevens Group, the Klaus König Orchestra, The MacroQuarktet, Mokuto, Quartet + 1 and the Nieuw Artis Orchestra. He then founded The Brooklyn Express with the album No Time Left! (2016) and joins forces with the Barry Guy New Orchestra for Oort-Entropy and Inscape - Tableaux (2014). On December 10, 2024, Herb Robertson died at the age of 73.
