Robinson began his professional career with the band Savanna in the late 1970s. During the mid- to late-1980s, he was a member of the
Jazz Warriors with
Courtney Pine, and worked with
Mica Paris and
Andy Sheppard. and
Robert Wyatt. For the UK celebration of the bicentenary of the
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 2007, Robinson was commissioned to write and perform pieces from his suite
Routes Through Roots in the
Houses of Parliament. He was commissioned by the Phoenix Dance company to write
42 Shades of Black. In June 2014, he was commissioned to write a suite for the combined Shivanova and Ignite ensembles for the 2014 Women's Festival at
Kings Place in the UK. He has written for
The Proms at the
Royal Albert Hall and for the Romanian violin virtuoso
Alexander Balanescu. During 2009, several albums featured Robinson as guest soloist, including
No Now Is So! by the
Alexander Hawkins ensemble,
Out of Office by the Burn Out Mama band from Finland, and albums by
Louis Moholo,
Leee John and
Beggar & Co. Since late 2009, Robinson has been a featured soloist on marimba and vibraphone with the violinist
Nigel Kennedy, performing an extensive repertoire including
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Antonio Vivaldi's
The Four Seasons,
Jimi Hendrix and
Duke Ellington. Robinson has performed as guest musician on three albums with Kennedy:
The Four Elements (2011),
Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons (2015) and
My World (2016). In the latter part of 2009, he was invited to become musical director of a large ensemble at
The Roundhouse with the drummer
Nick Mason of
Pink Floyd. The duo Black Top was formed in 2011 with the Free Improv pianist
Pat Thomas. An album entitled
#One was released internationally in July 2014 on the
Babel Label, with guest saxophonist
Steve Williamson. The second Black Top album,
#Two, had
Evan Parker as guest. Robinson started The Spontaneous Cosmic RawXtra ensemble at the Kings Place concert venue in October 2009. The ensemble was included in
Black British Jazz (2014), an
Open University book by Jason Toynbee. A DVD and recording were released in 2015. Robinson was instrumental in the formation of the band
Malik & the O.G's with band leader
Malik Al Nasir and also in his tribute to
Gil Scott-Heron at
St George's Hall, Liverpool, entitled
The Revolution Will Be Live! Robinson has worked with
Lester Bowie,
Don Cherry,
Neneh Cherry,
Junior Giscombe,
Kate Havnevik,
Imagination,
Lionel Loueke,
Wynton Marsalis,
Hugh Masekela,
Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick,
Joe McPhee,
Thurston Moore,
Butch Morris,
David Murray,
Sunny Murray,
Mica Paris,
Robert Plant,
Wadada Leo Smith,
Spring Heel Jack,
Joss Stone,
Jamaaladeen Tacuma,
John Tchicai,
Kenny Thomas and
Nana Vasconcelos.
Other work Robinson represented Great Britain at the
Olympic Games in
Atlanta, Georgia. He has worked in schools and on large-scale education projects, including at the
Hackney Empire, where he led the Music Education department for more than ten years. He has been on the board of
The Vortex jazz club, Warriors International, the
National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and the Participation and Learning Education advisory board at the Hackney Empire. Robinson is a founding member of Edge (The Shape of Things to Come), a group of artists, writers and promoters curating events pitched as a fringe to the
London Jazz Festival. Due to the success of their first programme, titled Edge 08, Robinson and the journalist
Paul Bradshaw continued to curate events internationally as well as all-year round events in the UK. Their project Love Supreme Reimagined, a homage to the 1965
John Coltrane album
A Love Supreme, a large-scale ensemble with Robinson in the role of musical director, received critical acclaim at the 2014
Southbank Centre's
Meltdown Festival curated by
James Lavelle. Robinson produced
Carleen Anderson's album
Cage Street Memorial (2016). In 2017, Anderson was nominated as Best Jazz Vocalist at the
Jazz FM Jazz Awards. In 2018, the album was nominated in the Jazz Innovation category at the same awards. ==Awards and honours==