Blame it on a bugle in the woods. Joe Robinson was a fifth-grader, busting through the woods in Winston-Salem with his friends, when they found a bugle partially buried by leaves. That’s all it took.

Joe took it home, cleaned off the mouthpiece and started blowing. Soon, he took the mouthpiece to school for show-and-tell, and his teacher encouraged him to play. That was the first time anyone had made a fuss over Joe.

Soon, he found himself standing in front of Camel Pawn Shop, staring at a trumpet in the window. Someone eventually bought it. But Empire Loan, next door, had one, too. Of course, all he did was stare.

His grandmother found out, and she told his dad, “Go get that boy the horn.’’ So, for $69, Joe got himself a trumpet.

And five decades later, after studying at Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music, playing with jazz greats and acting as musical director at the National Black Theatre Festival, Joe has become one of the region’s most talented jazz musicians.

He’s considered a musical pioneer, a man who has kept jazz vibrant in the Twin City.

All with the help of his discovery in the woods.

“It must’ve been intuitive,’’ says Joe, now 64. “I was watching the film ‘The Secret,’ and I saw this kid visualize getting a bicycle, and hell, I did the same thing. Once I learned how to play, it was so exciting. And now, at my age, I’m playing better that I ever played it.’’

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