Remembering Wes Robinson

[Guest guest]

Local Jazz and Punk Promoter Dies

By Durelle Ali, Special to the Planet (01-09-07)

 

Wesley K. Robinson died on Dec. 27 at the age of 80. Wes was a key

figure in the East Bay arts scene over the past 35 years for his

promotion of music and theater events. Wes was renowned for focusing

on the freshness and originality of the music and passion of its

artists rather than the commercial appeal.

 

Wes was born in Port Arthur Texas, and came with his mother to Alameda

at the beginning of the Depression. He was a star basketball player at

Alameda High, and went on to play for UCLA under the Wooden era, where

he was the sole black player on an otherwise all-white basketball team.

 

Wes will be most remembered for his contribution to the Bay Area music

scene, promoting events and musicians in the jazz, punk and metal

music genres. He started promoting music after returning from New

York, where he was involved in a jazz cafe and met many influential

jazz musicians. Wes often told stories about being in New York and

starting a coffee house there. This was when John Coltrane had broken

through but was going through a big transition, playing a free style

that was very controversial. Pharoah Saunders was playing with `Trane,

and Wes suggested that he call himself Pharoah, as his real name was

Farrell, and people pronounced it like that anyway.

 

Returning home from New York, Wes started a " speakeasy " in a loft in

downtown Oakland that, like its New York counterparts quickly ran

afoul of the city officials. Wes then went on to host jazz events in

many venues, including the Jazz Symposium, which ran for several years

and featured well-known musicians such as Sonny Simmons and Alice

Coltrane. As jazz's popularity grew during the '70s, Wes managed a

popular band, the Hoodoo, and produced the UC Berkeley Jazz Festival

for two years, while studying for a master's degree there.

 

In the early '70s, Wes produced and directed plays in the East Bay,

including Slaveship by Leroi Jones, Edward Albee's Death of Bessie

Smith, and What Have You Done for Me Lately.

 

Frustrated by the increasing commerciality of jazz, in 1977 Wes'

interests moved on to the punk music scene which was just starting in

the Bay Area. Searching for a venue to produce regular shows, Wes

happened upon Ruthie's Inn, a small club in Berkeley, that became

instrumental in supporting the East Bay punk scene and eventually

spawned a thriving thrash/metal scene from 1983-1987. Many bands

played their first gigs at this club, which helped pave the way and

supported an incredibly vibrant community of social misfits and

serious musicians who had something to say—a great venue that has

established itself in the annals of punk and metal history.

 

Wes was responsible for providing this venerable niteclub to the

second wave of new and established punk bands from Bad Brains, Dead

Kennedy's, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Flipper, MDC and DOA to

Code of Honor, Verbal Abuse, Fang, Special Forces, DRI and many

others. Later on, this eventually segued into a weekly ritual that

showcased such seminal thrash/metal bands as Metallica, Slayer, and

Exodus. At the time of his death, Wes was working on a documentary

called " Remembering Ruthie's Inn " (to be completed by a dedicated

and

devoted group of volunteers).

 

Wes was preceded in death by his parents, Wesley Sr. and Effie

Robinson, sister Durell, and great-grandson Julian Donnelly. Wes

leaves to cherish his memory his four children, Durelle Ali (Stan) of

Berkeley, Michael Robinson (Reggie) and Amiri Robinson (Anita) of New

York, and Naima Robinson (Armon) of Richmond; grandchildren Amanda

Donnelly, Tariq Ali (Lisa), and Talia and Amira Brown;

great-grandchildren Pilar Donnelly and Lauren Donnelly-Board; former

wives Mira Talbott-Pope and Maj-Britt Mobrand; cousins Donald Julian,

and Gregory, Dennis and Geoffrey Pete; friends; and his huge family in

the East Bay and San Francisco punk and metal music community.

 

Wes will be cremated at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. A

memorial service, to which all are invited, will be held on Saturday,

Jan. 13, 3 p.m., at Geoffrey's Inner Circle, 410 14th St. in Oakland.

For more information, please call 384-4988.

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain