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Jazz Ensemble

  1. Whitworth University
  2. Jazz Ensemble
  3. Guest Artists
  4. Robin Eubanks

Robin Eubanks in a checkered shirt playing trombone into a microphone, under lights.Robin Eubanks

Grammy Award-winning jazz trombonist Robin Eubanks has collaborated with an array of musicians including The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Art Blakey and Barbra Streisand. Most recently, he has performed with the Grammy-winning jazz group the Dave Holland Big Band.   

"As a trombone player, Eubanks is known for his unparalleled technique and his ability to play anything he hears – the highest notes, the lowest notes, fast, slow, pretty, angry," says Dan Keberle, professor of music and director of the Whitworth Jazz Ensemble. "He is a virtuoso on the trombone."

Eubanks' describes his musical style as a "combination of math and magic," in which he incorporates jazz, swing, funk and Latin, as well as innovative and striking improvisation.

A native of Philadelphia, Eubanks hails from a musical family: His brother, Kevin Eubanks, is music director for The Tonight Show, and another brother, Duane, plays trumpet in New York. Their mother, Vera Eubanks, holds a doctorate in music and has been a music educator for more than 30 years; their uncle, Ray Bryant, is a prominent jazz pianist.

Eubanks' musical studies began when he was eight years old. Later, he graduated cum laude from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied trombone and musical composition and theory. He went on to perform on Broadway as well as in film and television. Some of his notable appearances include Saturday Night Live and performances at the 1992, 1994 and 1997 Grammy Awards shows.

Eubanks won Grammy Awards for his performances on Michael Brecker's Wide Angles and Dave Holland's What Goes Around. He has recorded seven albums and performs regularly with his groups EB3 and Mental Images, and with the critically acclaimed Dave Holland Quintet and Big Band, of which Eubanks was an original member.

Eubanks serves as a tenured professor of jazz trombone at the Oberlin College Conservatory. He has received several grants to finance his work, including a compositional grant from Chamber Music America in 2002, and an ASCAP composer's grant in 2003.