Greg Osby: The Invisible Hand (Blue Note Records – 2000)

Greg Osby has come a long way from his beginnings in St. Louis playing funk and R&B. His sound crossed our radar screens after moving to Brooklyn and joining forces with Steve Coleman in the mid-‘80s to form M-BASE, an urban-beat driven jazz. Osby had a very calculated, sometimes emotionless sound. It was if he was working equations in his head as he played. Where his older recordings suffered from a staid studio approach, his recent effort, Banned In New York, a live “bootleg” recording, displays Osby as an emotional quick-witted band leader. His last disc, Friendly Fire, a co-led affair with Joe Lovano proved Osby deserves to be considered as one of the top musicians working today.
The Invisible Hand is further proof that Osby treads comfortably between the past and, importantly, the future of jazz. Joining him are Gary Thomas and Teri Lynn Carrington from his early Brooklyn days and two of the professor emeriti of jazz, Jim Hall and Andrew Hill. Hall is a guitarist that favors a subtle touch; a peculiar feature for someone so associated with cutting edge jazz. He has recorded classic albums with Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, and Paul Desmond. Lately, his Telarc dates have featured his third stream thinking. Andrew Hill’s Blue Note dates of the sixties were cerebral efforts, not quite post-bop and not really free jazz affairs. Early in Osby’s career he was a sideman for the late-‘80s Blue Note comeback of Hill. Likewise, he has recorded on two recent Hall dates. The Invisible Hand trades mathematics for emotion. The slow to mid-tempos presented are fertile grounds for group interplay and interpretation. For instance, they take on Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” a tune forever associated with Eric Dolphy. Rather than compete with our collective memories, Osby deconstructs the composition choosing bug parts over the whole, reworking it as an intellectual exercise. Osby’s deference to his esteemed colleagues shows. A stately and exquisite affair.
(All About Jazz)

Tracklist:
1 Ashes
2 Who Needs Forever?
3 The Watcher Osby
4 Jitterbug Waltz
5 Sanctus Hall
6 (Back Home Again In) Indiana
7 Nature Boy
8 Touch Love
9 With Son Osby
10 The Watcher, No. 2

Personnel:
Greg Osby Clarinet, (Alto Sax )
Gary Thomas (Flute, Alto & Tenor Sax)
Jim Hall (Guitar)
Andrew Hill (Piano)
Scott Colley (Bass)
Terri Lyne Carrington (Drums)

Original Release Date: February 29, 2000 – Label: Blue Note Records

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Stefon Harris, Jason Moran, Greg Osby, Mark Shim: New Directions (2000 – Blue Note)

 Another modern mainstream sextet plays standards. Not exactly. It’s true that Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, Mark Shim and Jason Moran are four of the most exciting younger cats to come along in years. And it’s true that they’re playing classic tunes from the modern mainstream vocabulary. But this front line is made up of two saxophones, giving the ensemble a unique sound quite apart from a standard lineup. What’s more, their treatment of these familiar melodies is nothing at all like standard treatment. As evidenced by their individual albums of the past two years, each of these four artists has something new to say.
Besides a few originals, New Directions includes classic compositions by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Sam Rivers, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, and Duke Pearson. The absence of a trumpeter on “The Sidewinder” cries out for a return to the CD collection. Old favorites like that one will be around forever, and the sound of Lee Morgan’s horn will always be close at hand. However, with this session it’s clear that Osby, Harris, Shim and Moran aren’t trying to reproduce the past. Instead, this sextet pushes everything further ahead, stretching the limits in hard bop fashion and recreating familiar standards with a fresh approach. Each of the four has already established himself as a dynamic leader with something new to say. Here, they say it together. Osby and Shim function as front line horns while Harris and Moran color and shade. Harris has the added role of functioning on occasion as a third horn; both he and Moran stretch out when soloing. Highly recommended, New Directions offers fresh, acoustic straight-ahead jazz with a unique delivery.
Jim Santella  (All About Jazz)

Track List:
1. Theme from “Blow-Up” (Hancock)
2. The Sidewinder (Morgan)
3. Ping-Pong (Shorter)
4. Beatrice (Rivers)
5. No Room For Squares (Mobley)
6. Song For My Father (Silver)
7. Tom Thumb (Shorter)
8. Commentary On Electrical Switches (Osby)
9. Big Bertha (Pearson)
10. Recorda Me (Henderson)
11. Song Of The Whispering Banshee (Harris)
12. Twenty Questions [false start] (Osby)
13. Twenty Questions (Osby)

Personnel:
Greg Osby: (alto sax)
Mark Shim: (tenor sax)
Stefon Harris: (vibraphone)
Jason Moran: (piano)
Taurus Mateen: (bass)
Nasheet Waits: drums)

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on May 10-11, 1999. Produced by Greg Osby and Michael Cuscuna.

Original Release Date: January 25, 2000  –  Label: Blue Note Records

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