ROBERT IRVING
Robert Irving III, is an interdisciplinary artist who completes a distinguished lineage of post-bop pianists/composers who collaborated with the legendary Miles Davis. In 1979, at age 26, Irving’s composition, Space led to the 1981 comeback of Davis and their prolific nine-year collaboration. In 1983, at age 30, Irving became the musical director of the Miles Davis band (through 1988) and produced two award winning Columbia Record albums for Davis, Decoy and You’re Under Arrest, while adding to his arranging/orchestration credentials by studying with Gil Evans, who decades earlier had famously arranged some of Miles Davis’ most celebrated recordings including Sketches of Spain.
Irving has created several film scores, most notably Alfred Hitchcock Presents The Prisoner’s starring Yaphet Kotto and Cristina Raines, Street Smart (the last film of Christopher Reeve and the first film of Morgan Freeman) and Scenes For the Soul, the debut film of Director, George Tillman (Soul Food). Irving has produced five Grammy Award nominated projects while working closely with Terri Lyne Carrington, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Patrice Rushen, Diane Reeves, Grover Washington Jr, Nancy Wilson, Branford Marsalis, Regina Carter, and many other greats; also serving as Musical Director for Sister Sledge on their jazz club tour in 1982 and for legendary trumpeter/educator, Dr. Donald Byrd in 2008-2010.
Irving Co-founded the Sonic Portraits Entertainment label in 2007, rebranded in 2017 as Sonic Portraits Jazz. In 2009 the Jazz Institute/Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs commissioned Irving to create the orchestral suite, Sketches of Brazil in homage to Miles Davis and Gil Evans, prompting the formation of his 34-member Sonic Portraits Orchestra. The suite premiered August 13, 2009 with 12,500 fans in attendance at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Chicago Tribune music critic, Howard Reich wrote about the piece, “Extraordinarily ambitious… a tour de force of orchestral writing.” On October 27, 2019, Irving presented his commissioned composition featuring his Sonic Portraits Orchestra Youth Division in the performance of Sound Pictures of A Century the Living Legacy of Timuel D. Black. Professor Black, who mentored Harold Washington and Barack Obama, also brought Martin Luther King to Chicago for the first time. This youth orchestra featured many alums of the Jazz Institute mentoring program of which Irving is a mentor. In August 2021 produced and released, Art Of Protest, a Various Artists compilation CD project that has remained in the top five of the Roots Music Report top 50 Contemporary Jazz Chart for over five months while migrating to the Number One position —a record— three times.
Irving recently formed Ri3 Reels Corporation NFP and Chi Worldview Studio LLC towards the development and production of Documentary films with the initial focus being seminal Chicago born and/or based musicians. He has produced and edited music videos and film shorts for over a decade.
Irving is currently the Musical Director of the Miles Electric Band featuring Miles Davis alums. Irving states, “This band does not pay tribute to Miles, but rather, it extends his legacy.”
Irving, who has worked as an art director and columnist for an internationally distributed magazine magazine and exhibited globally as a visual artist, garnered the Cover Story/Interview Nov/Dec 2016 Issue Chicago Jazz Magazine. He is the recipient of two Lifetime Achievement Awards; from Chicago Music Awards 2015 and from the Jazz Institute Chicago (JIC) at their gala on October 26, 2018. He has served as a professional mentor for the JIC for over 15-years.
Irving’s memoir Harmonic Possibilities is finally near completion. Excerpts were published by New York University’s Black Renaissance Noire Magazine in 2013.
Websites: https://RobertIrvingiii.com https://SonicPortraitsJazz.com https://SonicPortraitsOrchestra.org
ROBERT IRVING III- Biography
Robert Irving III, is an interdisciplinary artist who completes a distinguished lineage of post-bop pianists/composers who collaborated with the legendary Miles Davis. In 1979, at age 26, Irving’s composition, Space led to the 1981 comeback of Davis and their prolific nine-year collaboration. In 1983, at age 30, Irving became the musical director of the Miles Davis band (through 1988) and produced two award winning Columbia Record albums for Davis, Decoy and You’re Under Arrest, while adding to his arranging/orchestration credentials by studying with Gil Evans, who decades earlier had famously arranged some of Miles Davis’ most celebrated recordings including Sketches of Spain.
Irving has created several film scores, most notably Alfred Hitchcock Presents The Prisoner’s starring Yaphet Kotto and Cristina Raines, Street Smart (the last film of Christopher Reeve and the first film of Morgan Freeman) and Scenes For the Soul, the debut film of Director, George Tillman (Soul Food). Irving has produced five Grammy Award nominated projects while working closely with Terri Lyne Carrington, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Patrice Rushen, Diane Reeves, Grover Washington Jr, Nancy Wilson, Branford Marsalis, Regina Carter, and many other greats; also serving as Musical Director for Sister Sledge on their jazz club tour in 1982 and for legendary trumpeter/educator, Dr. Donald Byrd in 2008-2010.
Irving Co-founded the Sonic Portraits Entertainment label in 2007, rebranded in 2017 as Sonic Portraits Jazz. In 2009 the Jazz Institute/Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs commissioned Irving to create the orchestral suite, Sketches of Brazil in homage to Miles Davis and Gil Evans, prompting the formation of his 34-member Sonic Portraits Orchestra. The suite premiered August 13, 2009 with 12,500 fans in attendance at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Chicago Tribune music critic, Howard Reich wrote about the piece, “Extraordinarily ambitious… a tour de force of orchestral writing.” On October 27, 2019, Irving presented his commissioned composition featuring his Sonic Portraits Orchestra Youth Division in the performance of Sound Pictures of A Century the Living Legacy of Timuel D. Black. Professor Black, who mentored Harold Washington and Barack Obama, also brought Martin Luther King to Chicago for the first time. This youth orchestra featured many alums of the Jazz Institute mentoring program of which Irving is a mentor. In August 2021 produced and released, Art Of Protest, a Various Artists compilation CD project that has remained in the top five of the Roots Music Report top 50 Contemporary Jazz Chart for over five months while migrating to the Number One position —a record— three times.
Irving recently formed Ri3 Reels Corporation NFP and Chi Worldview Studio LLC towards the development and production of Documentary films with the initial focus being seminal Chicago born and/or based musicians. He has produced and edited music videos and film shorts for over a decade.
Irving is currently the Musical Director of the Miles Electric Band featuring Miles Davis alums. Irving states, “This band does not pay tribute to Miles, but rather, it extends his legacy.”
Irving, who has worked as an art director and columnist for an internationally distributed magazine magazine and exhibited globally as a visual artist, garnered the Cover Story/Interview Nov/Dec 2016 Issue Chicago Jazz Magazine. He is the recipient of two Lifetime Achievement Awards; from Chicago Music Awards 2015 and from the Jazz Institute Chicago (JIC) at their gala on October 26, 2018. He has served as a professional mentor for the JIC for over 15-years.
Irving’s memoir Harmonic Possibilities is finally near completion. Excerpts were published by New York University’s Black Renaissance Noire Magazine in 2013.
Websites: https://RobertIrvingiii.com https://SonicPortraitsJazz.com https://SonicPortraitsOrchestra.org
