"A lot of people prefer me in this acoustic environment as opposed to my more experimental forays", says saxophonist Greg Osby of Art Forum, his fourth Blue Note release. "It was from constant goading that I just broke down and did it."
Though noticeably more spacious and introspective than his harsher hip hop and funk-flavored outings on Blue Note, Art Forum is no less provocative, continuing a long-standing Osby tradition. As he once put it, "I've always been one to speak my mind, and I've always been one to play my mind." On Art Forum, Osby plays it serene on the aptly-named "Mood of Thought" and positively dreamy on a hauntingly beautiful rendering of "Don't Explain", both featuring sensitive accompaniment by pianist James Williams, drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, vibist Bryan Carrott and longtime bassist Lonnie Plaxico. He goes for his signature slash and burn on the jaunty swinging groove of "Miss D'Meena", with Williams feeding him provocative harmonies as Watts plays melodically on the kit, and he engages in an explosive conversation with all the participants on the stop-time title track. The standard ballad "I Didn't Know About You" is delivered in a heartfelt, straightforward manner, as if to remind purists of his own beginnings. Osby strikes an intimate accord with acoustic guitarist Marvin Sewell up the brief interlude "2nd Born to Freedom". His quintet piece "Half Moon Step" is a laid-back groove that evokes a '60s Blue Note groove while the ambitious closer "Perpetuity" is an expanded piece that incorporates alto flute and bass clarinet alongside the quintet to add evocative colors and textures. All of these Osby originals are sequenced to create a seamless flow and convey and evocative mood.
"I wanted to really showcase my compositions on this project", says Osby. "I'm a frustrated composer because I'm only able to record once a year, and I have so much stuff that I want to document. John Coltrane was putting out four records a year with Prestige, and although they were largely standards, he was still able to chart his growth with those recordings. And I'm trying to do that right now, charting my growth as a composer."

Born in St. Louis in 1960, Osby began playing professionally at age 15. In 1978, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Howard University in Washington D.C.. It was there that Osby's renegade streak began to manifest itself. As he recalls, "I used to argue with some of the teachers and shout out in class. Why are we studying Bach and Mozart? This is supposed to be a Black school!" But he would learn to channel that aggressive spirit into the music. After enrolling at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1980, he met a whole crew of kindred spirits, including saxophonists Donald Harrison, and Branford Marsalis, bassist Victor Bailey, drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Terri Lyne Carrington and Cindy Blackman, trumpeter Wallace Roney and guitarist Kevin Eubanks.
He came to New York in April 1983 to take a gig with trumpeter Jon Faddis and began working on developing his own approach to the alto sax. An important breakthrough in his search for a new voice on his horn came after meeting fellow alto player and agent provocateur Steve Coleman. "I get a lot of my inspiration from Steve, just in terms of radical thinking", he said. After establishing his cutting edge rep in the '80s with the street-wise jazz collective M-BASE, co-led by Coleman, and an impressive body of work on Blue Note that artfully blends electric pocket groove, hip hop hardness and jazz improvisation. And now he's playing the other side of the coin on Art Forum.
"A lot of people don't recognize that I am comfortable in this acoustic jazz environment," says Osby. "I've only done this on record dates under other's names (notably Geri Allen, Cassandra Wilson and Andrew Hill). And not since my first album Sound Theater (1987) have been in this kind of acoustic environment. So it's a welcome return. And it's also kind of a return to my original influences. In college I think I wore the grooves off of Herbie Hancock's Speak Like a Child. Charles Mingus' Ah Um, Duke Ellington's Indigo and the Miles Davis-Gil Evans collaboration Milea Ahead. Those four albums played such a central part in my development."
While the overall mood of Art Forum may shock those who thought they had Greg Osby pegged, expect more of the unexpected from him on his next outing. "I shift a lot," he confides, "which is why the people haven't been able to grasp what I'm really about. 'Cause I'm about movement, I'm about direction and patterning myself after the people I like. They were always moving. There's a challenge in that... a sense of destiny. I don't want to play the same tunes and the same changes with the same group of guys for so long that we start anticipating each other's moves. I always want to be shocked, always be played into a corner where I have to fight myself out. I want to be challenged all the time." Osby accepts the challenge and rises to the occasion on Art Forum.

Biography courtesy of Manhattan Agency.

Latest Discography

* Further Ado - Blue Note 56543, 1997

* Zero - Blue Note 872011, 1998

* Banned In New York (Live) - Blue Note, Dec. 1998