Greg Osby

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Template otherTemplate:Main otherTemplate:Main other Greg Osby (born August 3, 1960) is an American saxophonist and composer.

Biography

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, then at the Berklee College of Music. 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. In 1985, he joined DeJohnette's group Special Edition. With Geri Allen, Steve Coleman, Gary Thomas, and Cassandra Wilson, he was a founding member of the M-Base Collective.

Osby began recording albums under his own name for JMT Records in the mid-1980s, then signed with Blue Note in 1989. In 2007, he formed his own label, Inner Circle Music. He gave exposure to young pianist Jason Moran, 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.

He has also played with Phil Lesh and Friends, and he has toured with the Dead, a reincarnation of the Grateful Dead. He received the Playboy Magazine Jazz Artist of the Year award for 2004 and 2009.

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."

Discography

As leader

Recording date	Title	Label	Year released	Notes
1987-05, 1987-06	Greg Osby and Sound Theatre	JMT	1987
1988-05	Mindgames	JMT	1988
1989-07	Season of Renewal	JMT	1989
1990-10, 1990-11	Man-Talk for Moderns Vol. X	Blue Note	1991
1993?	3-D Lifestyles	Blue Note	1993
1995?	Black Book	Blue Note	1995
1996?	Art Forum	Blue Note	1996
1997?	Further Ado	Blue Note	1997
1997-12	Banned in New York	Blue Note	1998	Live
1998-01	Zero	Blue Note	1998
1998-12	Friendly Fire	Blue Note	1999	with Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Cameron Brown, Idriss Muhammad
1999-04	Inner Circle	Blue Note	2002	with Stefon Harris, Jason Moran, Tarus Mateen, Eric Harland
1999-05	New Directions	Blue Note	2000	with Stefon Harris, Jason Moran, Mark Shim
1999-09	The Invisible Hand	Blue Note	2000	with Gary Thomas, Andrew Hill, Jim Hall, Scott Colley, Terri Lyne Carrington
2001-01	Symbols of Light (A Solution)	Blue Note	2001	with Jason Moran, Scott Colley, Marlon Browden, Nioka Workman, Judith Insell, Marlene Rice, Christian Howes
2003-01	St. Louis Shoes	Blue Note	2003
2004-01	Public	Blue Note	2004	Live
2005-02	Channel Three	Blue Note	2005	with Jeff "Tain" Watts, Matt Brewer
2008-08	9 Levels	Inner Circle Music	2008
2023-10	Minimalism	Inner Circle Music	2023	with Tal Cohen, João Barradas, Nimrod Speaks, Adam Arruda, Viktorija Pilatovic, Alessandra Diodati

As sideman

With Franco Ambrosetti

• Movies Too (Enja, 1988)
• Music for Symphony and Jazz Band (Enja, 1991) – rec. 1990

With Uri Caine

• Cipher Syntax (JMT, 1989) as Strata Institute
• The Goldberg Variations (Winter & Winter, 2000)

With Sam Rivers' Rivbea All-star Orchestra

• Inspiration (BMG France, 1999)
• Culmination (BMG France, 1999)

With Gary Thomas

• By Any Means Necessary (JMT, 1989)
• Pariah's Pariah (Winter & Winter, 1998) – rec. 1997

With Andrew Hill

• Eternal Spirit (Blue Note, 1989)
• But Not Farewell (Blue Note, 1991) – rec. 1990

With others

• Cecil Brooks III, The Collective (Muse, 1989)
• Terri Lyne Carrington, Structure (ACT Music, 2004) – rec. 2003
• Steve Coleman, Drop Kick (Novus, 1992)
• Andrew Cyrille, Low Blue Flame (Tum, 2006) – rec. 2005
• Robin Eubanks, Karma (JMT, 1991)
• Jimmy Herring, Lifeboat (Abstract Logix, 2008)
• Jason Moran, Soundtrack to Human Motion (Blue Note, 1999) – rec. 1998
• Tineke Postma, Sonic Halo (Challenge, 2014)
• Project Z, Lincoln Memorial (Abstract Logix, 2005) – rec. 2002

External links

• Template:Official website – official site