Search - Greg Osby :: Banned In New York

Direct from the club to you

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 08/07/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There's a certain amount of affectation in the packaging here. The CD is deliberately packaged crudely (minimal information, grainy black & white graphics, scrawled lettering) & titled as if it were a bootleg. Fair enough: consumers are warned that sound quality is acceptable but far from audiophile. The drums are rather crackly & Jason Moran's piano is very distant. The CD is the result of a deliberately lopsided & abrupt soldering together of two continuous extracts from different sets: a nearly hour-long medleyed sequence of four tunes (Osby's own "13th Floor", & the standards "Pent up House", "I Didn't Know about You" & "Big Foot"), followed by a fade-up midway through another version of "Big Foot" & a quick setclosing reading of "52nd St Theme".The readings of the bop themes are in some ways the most ambitious & far-ranging things here, in which the musicians only touch base with the themes & chords at their discretion. In general, as is typical for Osby albums, the leader claims the vast majority of the solo space, & so things are a bit lopsided, but there's no denying his fertility of invention. "Big Foot" is I think the best track, which gets into Dolphyish territory in its combination of bluesy bent tones & far-out harmonic thinking. It's extremely impressive. Oddly enough on the 2nd, truncated version of "Big Foot", Osby sounds very close to Anthony Braxton--not a musical influence I'd have usually suspected. -- Moran is to my taste not in his most interesting form, though I find it hard to make out what he's doing sometimes--he is very fond of repetitively seesawing over the same notes. He's perhaps most effective on the Ellington ballad (where one can also best make him out).A very good album, though I think the sound quality remains something of a caveat. It's an album that has something of a hardboiled vibe to it I'm not sure I quite like, but it's nonetheless very accomplished music."

Live Jazz at it's best!

N. Dorward | 03/26/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you love live jazz,uncut, raw,( not watered down)this C.D. is for you.Mr Osby comes out roaring and doesn't stop until the disc ends.This C.D. represents what I love about jazz.The freedom to play music from your heart and soul and evoke feelings in the listener that gives you chills!ART FOR YOUR EARS.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!"

A great performance

N. Dorward | 05/26/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of Osby's best recordings. It has power, variation, directnes, feeling, good communication, in short, almost everything which qualifies for a great performance. Osby seems to be more comfortable live than in a studio atmosphere. Unfortunately, the date (year) of recording is not given."