Scott Robinson, Live at the Jazz Forum
“Flow States” (ScienSonic) 
“TenorMore” (Arbors)
“Trio SPACE” (ScienSonic) 

It somehow seems characteristic that Scott Robinson began his early Saturday set with a few distinct bleats of his tenor saxophone — loud and arresting upper-upper-register notes that aren’t actually on the horn but that expert players know how to produce via so-called false fingerings.

Repeating the pattern, this amorphous blob of sound gradually took the shape of a melody, and not just any tune, but one that the mostly 50- to 60-something crowd at the Jazz Forum knew very well: the distinctive intro and countermelody to “And I Love Her” by the Beatles, possibly played in anticipation of Paul McCartney’s 80th birthday next month. 

Mr. Robinson continued to play “And I Love Her” unaccompanied for one chorus, emphasizing that memorable vamp more than the actual melody itself, and then went into a very anxious-sounding bop original titled “Tenor Twelve.”  

The two numbers are also heard in the same sequence on one of his recent albums, “TenorMore,” though the juxtaposition of the two tunes sounded more radical live at the Jazz Forum than it does on the CD. That’s part of the excitement of Mr. Robinson’s playing: starting with a familiar melody that everybody knows and loves and then shifting into some of his most adventurous territory within less than a heartbeat.

When the New Jersey-born multi-instrumentalist first began popping up in Manhattan clubs in the 1980s, Mr. Robinson was quickly known as the rare player to excel equally at both brass and reeds. Not since Benny Carter could anyone switch so easily between trumpet and virtually all the saxes, including that lovely, lyrical, most misunderstood of horns, the c-melody, and the subatomic monster, the contrabass — with five of the latter we could probably save Kyiv.

More than his diversity of instruments, Mr. Robinson is perhaps the most truly postmodern of all jazzmen. A Robinson project could be anything from a set of New Orleans jazz — he trembles not at the word “Dixieland” — to some of the most far out avant-garde tunes that anyone is playing these days. You don’t know if you’re going to hear the music of Louis Armstrong or Sun Ra until he starts playing, but most likely it’s going to be a mix of all of the above.  

On one hand, he’s cut a stellar series of CDs for the swing-oriented label Arbors, of which “TenorMore” is the latest. One highlight is a stunning ballad reading of the classic French chanson “The Good Life” — aka, “La Belle Vie” — which begins with a completely free intro. It’s almost as if Ornette Coleman and Ben Webster were the same person.

At the same time, Mr. Robinson saves most of his more outside playing for his own label, ScienSonic Records, and the latest of these is “Flow States,” in which he joins forces with two veteran saxophonists known for their work in leading avant-garde ensembles, Roscoe Mitchell, of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Marshall Allen, of the Sun Ra Arkestra. As of press time, a new ScienSonic album titled “Trio SPACE,” teaming Messrs. Robinson and Allen with vocalist Thomas Bruckner, is about to be released.

Unlike most players on the free scene, Mr. Robinson avails himself of the perceived relationship between what was once regarded as futuristic jazz and science fiction culture, and frequently includes images of ’50s outer space novels on his albums.

As with the late Benny Carter, brass-to-reeds instrumental diversity isn’t just a parlor trick but a genuine musical statement, as he showed at the Jazz Forum with “We’ll Be Together Again.” He played the central melody on tenor and the bridge on trumpet, and then, following solos by his outstanding quartet partners — Dave Kikoski, piano; Martin Wind, bass; Dennis Mackrel, drums — reversed that polarity. 

That combination of sheer virtuosity and a musical imagination to match is in abundance throughout the “TenorMore” album with Helen Sung on hammond B3 organ, i.e., his original “Rainy River,” which is at once an anthem and an erotically charged love song. 

Mr. Robinson is all over the studios and the clubs most often as a sideman: I last spotted him at Birdland a few months ago in his usual chair as baritone saxophonist for Maria Schneider’s Orchestra, and he’s also a regular member of the Ear-Regulars, the zesty foursome that plays Sundays at the Ear Inn in the West Village. But his gigs as a leader are frustratingly rare, which is why we came to the Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, a room with excellent audio and sightlines, but still in Tarrytown. 

His extravagant music is mirrored in his flamboyant attire — such as a bright orange blazer festooned in musical notes — much of which is custom created for him by his wife Sharon. (Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.)  His personal masterpiece of millinery is a fedora of sorts, constructed entirely out of retired saxophone reeds. You’d expect nothing less from a maestro who can repurpose the Beatles into free jazz and then back again.