Greg Osby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greg Osby | |
|---|---|
 Osby performing in 2008 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | August 3, 1960 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Genres | Free jazz, free funk, M-Base |
| Occupations | Musician, record label owner |
| Instrument | Saxophone |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | JMT, Blue Note, Inner Circle Music |
| Website | www |
Greg Osby (born August 3, 1960)[1] is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, then at the Berklee College of Music.[1] He moved to New York City in 1982, where he played with Jaki Byard, Jim Hall, Muhal Richard Abrams, Andrew Hill, Jack DeJohnette, Dizzy Gillespie, and Herbie Hancock.[2][3] In 1985, he joined DeJohnette's group Special Edition.[2] With Steve Coleman, Geri Allen, and Cassandra Wilson, he was a founding member of the M-Base Collective.[4]
Osby began recording albums under his own name for JMT Records in the mid-1980s, then signed with Blue Note in 1989.[2] In 2007, he formed his own label, Inner Circle Music.[2] He gave exposure to young pianist Jason Moran,[5] who appeared on most of Osby's 1990s albums, including Further Ado, Zero, Banned in New York and Symbols of Light, a double quartet featuring the addition of a string quartet to the band.[6]
He has also played with Phil Lesh and Friends, and he has toured with the Dead, a reincarnation of the Grateful Dead.[7] He received the Playboy Magazine Jazz Artist of the Year award for 2004 and 2009.[8]
Nate Chinen, writing for The New York Times, called Osby "a mentor and a pacesetter, one of the sturdier bridges between jazz generations," and stated that he has "a keen, focused tone on alto saxophone and a hummingbird's phrasing, an equilibrium of hover and flutter."[9]
