Episode 16: Henry Robinett - Jazz in the Joint

<h2><a href="https://www.umass.edu/aes/course-overview" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Here is the link to the Arts Extension Service: Creative Community Leadership Course Info.</a></h2><h2><br></h2><h2><strong>Episode 16: Henry Robinett - Jazz in the Joint</strong></h2><p>Jazz musician, composer, educator Henry Robinett has the kind of calm, purposeful trajectory that allows him to ignore the detritus, and collect the sublime and the quirk, all in service to making and recording extraordinary award-winning music and helping heal heads and hearts in the largest prison system in the world. </p><h2><u>Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes:</u></h2><p><strong>How are jazz legend Charles Mingus, the world famous Manhattan Plaza artist residence, and Henry Robinett connected? </strong></p><blockquote>"I had a very famous cousin of mine, a jazz musician by the name of Charles Mingus. &nbsp;Well in 1977, I lived with him in New York. We lived in these condos, it was a condo full of artists called Manhattan Plaza and it was subsidized housing for artists. It was great, cause you had some very famous musicians who lived there, and once a week, twice a week or something, they used to have a big band, like in the basement of the people who live there. And so, I'd go down there and play.&nbsp;He came down to watch and listen. And that was a big deal because he was the greatest of all the musicians who lived there. So even these famous musicians would go off. And so right afterwards, he came up to his place on the 43rd floor. And there I was it, so he said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Rehearsal and stuff", he said, "You're supposed to hang.&nbsp;You're "supposed to hang with all the men."&nbsp;I go, "I'm hanging with the greatest musician right now. Why would I want to hang with those guys when I can to hang with you?""</blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><p><strong>How does a jazz guitar virtuoso and composer end up working at Folsom Prison?</strong></p><blockquote> "So, Bill Peterson, who was the art