Public

Greg Osby | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 1, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note
• ASIN: B00022XODG
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,610 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Since recording his last live album, the proudly "lo-fi" Banned in New York (1998), Greg Osby has been a peripatetic stylist, ranging from an all-star session with his mentor Andrew Hill to one with a string quartet to 2003's exceptional set of re-harmonized standards. Recorded at New York's Jazz Standard, Public finds the vinegar-toned alto saxophonist again reveling in bandsmanship. Leading a quintet including the awe-inspiring trumpeter Nicholas Payton, he charges three covers and three bracing originals with a sometimes thrilling intensity. With their brisk, off-color unison statements and biting solos, the bop staples "Bernie's Tune" and "Shaw Nuff" leap from the grooves. Osby's "Equalatogram" is an ingeniously constructed vehicle for post-bop angles and spatial free-jazz squalls. The loping, Monk-influenced "Rising Sign" (a reworking of Osby's own "Ministrale"), shows off the formidable chops of the band's newest member, pianist Megumi Yonezawa. Only the closing "Lover Man" fails to sizzle as pop singer Joan Osborne doesn't leave much of an imprint. --Lloyd Sachs

Product Description

Public by Greg Osby

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back to the future, June 25, 2004

By 

bop reflections (Staunton, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Public (Audio CD)

This scintillating set finally presents Osby at his ensorcelling best. "Visitation" is sublime and "Summertime" (forever overdone) for once receives the modern reexamination that alone makes it listenable. But then the bop flag wavers offer that fly by the seat of the pants effect that one remembers from yesteryear when Bird and Diz et. al. reordered the musical paradigm; daring is beautiful. It will be argued that all original and beautiful music is daring but the point here is that Osby, like Bird or Monk or Trane, has a demanding muse that will brook no compromise of taste or fear of the indeterminate possibilities for song.

Listen to the young pianist Megumi Yonezawa who channels Andrew Hill and Cecil Taylor with his ear attuned to a time yet to come. His performance here is a revelation of lyrical dissonance bent to the imperative of swing.

I am only sorry I was not at the Jazz Standard the nights these recordings were made. My enthusiastic affirmation of these performances would have been clearly audible over the closeted din heard here.

"Lover Man"? I love Osby's ironic romanticism and Osborne's open voiced sincerity.

Should you buy it? What kind of question is that?

This is high performance art, utterly contemporary, muscular in its sophistication, and impervious to the effete nonsense that presently parades itself as jazz.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Live Set, November 8, 2004

By 

Saxophone Sam - See all my reviews

This review is from: Public (Audio CD)

Excellent live recording featuring some of the best young players in jazz today. One correction to the other reviews: Megumi Yonezawa is a she. Hope we hear more from her soon.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Megumi Yonezawa...wow!, June 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Public (Audio CD)

This live release is for the most part is in the straight-ahead jazz vein. Osby is in fine form, as well as trumpeter Nicholas Payton,and bassist Robert Hurst. Joan Osbourne's only appearance ( vocal ) on the last tune is an interesting addition to this fine production. As for Megumi, again...wow!!! What a wonderfully complex player he is. This guy is somewhat of a mix between Mathew Shipp and Cecil Taylor.Hopefully this talent will be heard of much more often in the near future. As for the drummer Rodney Green, he plays just fine..however, he seems to be the anachronistic one of the bunch, particularily against the contemporaneous delivery of Yonezawa. Very good sonics. Recommended.