GREG OSBY
St. Louis Shoes

Blue Note

Read the Jazzitude review of Greg Osby/Public

From 1987 until about 1996, Greg Osby investigated ways to fuse jazz with hip-hop music and rap poetry. The results were generally always at least interesting, but the fusion of the two styles was never completely satisfactory. Still, Osby demonstrated that he was not only a capable jazz musician, but that he had put a good deal more thought into his hip-hop and funk-based experiments than most of his contemporaries. His search for a meaningful joining of these styles made a lot of sense, since Osby began primarily as an R&B musician, gravitating towards jazz during his time at Howard University and cementing that move by taking classes at Berklee College of Music. Moving to New York, he honed his chops playing with jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie, Jack DeJohnette, and Woody Shaw.

Since the release of 1987’s Art Forum, Osby has increasingly concentrated on playing more mainstream jazz, but giving it a contemporary twist. He has done this, not primarily by utilizing electronic instruments or funk grooves, but by truly moving the musical basis bequeathed him by previous generations forward harmonically and rhythmically while not abandoning a sense of melodicism. Because of his success in this area Osby, along with Jason Moran, has become one of the great hopes of jazz listeners for moving the music forward without losing its identity.

On his latest release, St. Louis Shoes, Osby forgoes his usual sharp compositions in favor of interpretations of the compositions of others. In keeping with the thematic element, the opening and closing tracks are both associated with St. Louis—Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” and W.C. Handy’s famous “St. Louis Blues.” Both are performed with the utmost respect, yet are given (pardon the extension of the metaphor here) a new pair of shoes that changes their context so that they become not just tributes to the past, but signposts to the future. Osby’s arrangement on the Ellington classic is very sharp, particularly the ensemble passage that follows the initial thematic statement and solo. Trumpet player Nicholas Payton offers a statement of the theme that recalls his Crescent City heritage, but forgoes the wah-wah mute in favor of his own sound. Bassist Robert Hurst turns in a performance, playing part of the melody with his bow. By the time Osby comes in with his solo, the piece is starting to sound like a bebop classic, and by the end of the piece it sounds more modern still. The kudos belong both to Ellington, whose best music is, after all, timeless, and to Osby, who not only hears the modern elements suggested by Ellington, but is able to bring them to the fore without destroying the charm of the original composition. The closing “St. Louis Blues” operates in similar fashion, with the melody played by Payton in such a way that it manages to encompass every trumpet great from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis, while always sounding fresh.

Along the way, there are performances of classic bop and post-bop tunes (Gillespie & Parker’s “Shaw Nuff,” Monk’s “Light Blue”) iconic tunes (“Summertime,” “Bernie’s Tune”), and modern material (Cassandra Wilson’s “Whirlwind Soldier,” Jack DeJohnette’s “Milton on Ebony,” the late period Ellington classic “The Single Petal of a Rose”), all given treatment that is respectful without putting the music under glass. Much of the beauty of this concept is in its superb execution by an outstanding group of musicians. Payton, out from the shadow of Wynton Marsalis’s politically correct interpretation of jazz history, is proving to be a more versatile and interesting soloist than Marsalis ever was. 21 year-old pianist Harold O’Neal acquits himself very well—check out his solo work on both “Shaw Nuff” and Monk’s “Light Blue”—as do bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Rodney Green, both of whom have worked, on and off, with Osby for some time. Then there is Osby himself, whose clear, ringing alto tone at times recalls Cannonball Adderley (though he also invokes such masters as Parker, Johnny Hodges, and Lester Young on this CD), and who is equally at home running bebop changes or playing blues. This band recalls Miles Davis’s auspicious mid-sixties quintet, and it would certainly be something to have them work together for a few years and see what develops. Of course, Payton has his own career to consider (a career that is becoming more interesting by the minute), but he and Osby could do much worse than to hang together for a while.