St. Louis born and grown on August 3, 1960, Osby's gritty musical persona took shape amidst the harsh reality of life in the inner city, where boys had to be men way before their time and life was lived on comprimising terms. It is from these surroundings that Osby draws most of the inspiration for his music.

A chance opportunity in 1972 while still a junior high school student, brought Osby to the attention of the school music teacher, who gave the youth a clarinet as his first instrument to study. A year later, Osby requested and was granted an alto saxophone as, even then, he recognized that it would be more applicable in contemporary music situations.

During his high school years from 1974 to 1978, Osby found himself a member of various Soul, Funk and Blues bands that performed in and around the St. Louis area in addition to some of the neighboring states and towns. In these groups, he was able to develop (on the job training, as he puts it) valuable perfomance skills for a demanding, if not sometimes irate and menacing, public.

In 1978 Osby enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C. There, he met and established friendships with fellow students Geri Allen, Gary Thomas and Wallace Roney. Two years later he transfered to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was, as he states, "an atmosphere charged with comraderie and healthy competitivness". His classmates read as a literal who's who of today's Jazz scene: Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks,Terri Lyne Carrington, Donald Harrison, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Wallace Roney, Cindy Blackman, to name only a few.

In early 1983, Osby moved to New York, eager to establish himself and further his personal musical development. During this period, as a newcomer to the city, Osby was fortunate enough to have been able to work with several noteable Jazz and creative music veterans. Some of the more outstanding of the lot were Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, Lester Bowie, The World Saxophone Quartet, Muhal Richard Abrams as well as some lesser-known elders around the New York area. This was what he now recognizes as his "apprenticeship period". Says Osby, "In addition to cutting my teeth with several persons that I admired and respected a great deal, in order to suppliment my income I moonlighted on off weekends uptown and in Brooklyn performing with a host of ethnic ensembles. These groups opened me up to unlimited possibilities that weren't normally represented in the music that I was accustomed to hearing. In these groups, which consisted of Reggae, Salsa, Soka, Calypso, and other ethnic presentations, I, being the only so-called "Jazz guy" was forced to conform and deal with their music respectfully and on it's own terms. Those experiences dramatically influenced my universal views concerning beat and rhythm".

In 1984 Osby and fellow saxophonist Steve Coleman assembled a group of musicians for the purposes of informational interchange, discussion, and business reinforcement. This group, known as the M-BASE Collective functioned as a floating ensemble with many participants. The primary musicians were Geri Allen, piano; Cassandra Wilson, vocals; Graham Haynes, trumpet and cornet, Osby and Coleman; alto saxophones; Robin Eubanks; trombone, Vernon Reid; guitar, Kevin Bruce Harris, bass, Terri Lyne Carrington and Marvin "Smitty" Smith on drums. Other collaborators included Gary Thomas; tenor saxophone, Dave Holland, Lonnie Plaxico and Robert Hurst; bass, and many others. "This was an incredibly fruitfull time", quotes Osby, "as we were led to discovery on a daily basis - benefitting from each other's knowledge and experiences. Our personal and unified growth progressed by leaps and bounds".

Also, during this period, Osby was invited to become a member of Jack DeJohnette's innovative group, Special Edition. It was as a member of this ensemble Osby was able to fine tune the more challenging aspects of his conception in an open ended, no holds barred musical situation. Says Osby, " My musical thinking for performance and composition advanced by light years as Jack was open to my input and was very encouraging in pushing me to to maintain a steady flow of experimentation." In 1987, Osby signed his first recording deal with an obscure German label , JMT (Jazz Music Today). With this situation, he felt that he was finally able to document life as he saw it through music. He had free creative reign to do whatever he liked. He recorded four CD titles for that label. Osby signed with Blue Note Records in 1990. Since then, he has recorded eleven recordings for that label as a leader. From the pulse of the streets and the language of a generation, Osby has sketched numerous musical essays set to a contemporary score using the improvisational nature of Jazz as the connecting thread.

Large portions of Osby's wit and intellegence, that affection for the past and an intuitive feel for the moment, are evident on "The Invisible Hand", his latest offering on the Blue Note label. For the most part, this project is an example of Osby's quest for ever expanding vistas and new directions. Against a rather melodic ostinato with Osby's saxophone forging the way, a hypnotic voice eases into a lyrical transition on Andrew Hill's introspective "Ashes."

On Quincy Jones' "Who Needs Forever," a similar mood and mixture is evoked, where verbal magic combines with sonic surges to produce a density of tonal images. Some of the patterns have a hypnotic, trance-like quality reminiscent of Moroccan religious music.

Perhaps the most realized tune is Jim Hall's "Sanctus," which unfolds like a praise song buffeted along by a smooth, lilting rhythm. Osby's improvisation grabs with rapid fire and verbal gymnastics, which gels inside a throbbing mix of mesmerisizing rhythm section ensemble work and the sounds of Osby's ever present saxophone. Andrew Hill's "tough Love" is abound with the pianist's signature unstable compositional dynamics.

Osby displays an uncanny use if intervals, tonal shadings and dynamics on his ballad "The Watcher" and some of these ideas are reprised on "The Watcher 2," only here there is a clever overlapping of lines topped by the lively interplay between saxophone and piano. Andrew Hill's influence on Osby is most noted on the saxophonist's poignant musical essay, "With Son".

"What we wanted to do," says Osby, "was to reach folks at the grassroots level, regardless of hue, without loosing our musical edge. At the heart of these poignant essays, what I refer to as aural holograms, is a solid beat that everyone should be able to relate to." These ideas are put to test on the group's adventurous renditions of "Indiana" and "Nature Boy".

Against a variety of tempos, Osby offers vivid smears and clever patterns of texture on the alto saxophone with swift multinoted runs that are tastefully embellished with a sense of urgency and intensity. Lovers of intricate riffs will relish easy, yet savvy no-nonsense attitude evoked on Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz."

Osby, who studied music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and Howard University in Washington, D.C., is equally at ease speaking with authority about the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes and the importance of the lost art of the Griots as he is with getting down with the fellas and the poetry of the streets. "One of my main objectives, with all of my music, is the documentation of sound and complete ideas that share a binding thread that is exhibited from the beginning throughout to the end of each project," he says of his constant experimentation. "What I envision is a concept that will allow these 'germs of ideas' to prosper and grow within a challenging musical context."

All of the Osby protean musical gifts flow easily on "The Invisible Hand" Here the passion is neatly glazed with a bright serenity which gives the album an almost perfect balance. On this latest release the saxophonist has found a complementary context for his complex ideas and leads his charges on a scintillating tour of modern sonorities and compelling rhythms. Osby's voice is a distinct one, and there are few saxophonists endowed with the unique articulation and imagery, his quicksilver facility and seamless modulation of tones on current display on "The Invisible Hand".

Courtesy from
Greg Osby

http://www.gregosby.com