From being a founding member of Sly and The Family Stone to working with George Clinton and Prince, Cynthia Margaret Robinson was a trailblazer who stood out during her career as the earliest Black woman to play trumpet in a mainstream music group.
Born in Sacramento, California on January 12, 1944, Robinson originally played flute from elementary school to middle school but she was assigned to play the clarinet in high school due to the lack of available flutes. However, after hearing a fellow bandmate playing the trumpet in a practice room, Robinson tried it and found her signature instrument.
Troubled experiences would affect her early career before being offered an invitation by acquaintance Sly Stone to join his band Sly & the Stoners in 1966, which would become Sly and the Family Stone later that same year through a merging with Freddie & the Stone Souls, a band fronted by Sly’s brother, Freddie.
In addition to being the band’s trumpet player, Robinson also performed as an occasional vocalist, with her most iconic vocal appearances being on “Dance to the Music” and “I Want to Take You Higher.” She would remain with the group through the 1980s after most of the original members, including her cousin Larry Graham, left in the ‘70s.
Robinson became the first female trumpet player inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when Sly & The Family Stone received that honor in 1993. Around 2005, she began touring with the Family Stone, which included original Sly & The Family Stone members Jerry Martini on sax and Greg Errico on drums. Robinson’s daughter with Sly Stone, Sylvyette Stewart, later joined the family business as Phunne Stone and was able to perform with her mother in the Family Stone before Robinson passed away from cancer on November 23, 2015 at the age of 71.
