Invisible Hand

Description

.com On alto saxophonist Greg Osby's Invisible Hand, he embarks on a sonic excursion past the boundaries of time signatures, chord progressions, and prefigured tempos toward a universe of pure music--all the while joined by icons such as guitarist Jim Hall and pianist Andrew Hill. Bassist Scott Colley, saxophonist-flutist Gary Thomas and drummer Teri Lyne Carrington round out the band, demonstrating and helping define how solid Osby's own musical conception is. Osby shows the dual influence of Steve Coleman's M-BASE collective--where he made his creative home during the 1980s and '90s--and of Eric Dolphy, who worked with pianist Hill in the '60s. Hill's pointillism illuminates his enigmatic composition "Ashes," and his duets with Osby on both takes of "The Watcher" ring with a Debussy-like impressionism. Hall's hushed tones provide the right harmonic settings on "Sanctus" and the Latin-tinged "Who Needs Forever." Osby's sharp and flowing lines paint new algorithmic versions of Fats Waller's classic "Jitterbug Waltz" (a Dolphy favorite) and the standards "Indiana" and "Nature Boy." On those tracks Osby and company play the past and sound like the future. --Eugene Holley, Jr. Review Alto saxophonist Greg Osby's recent string of records for Blue Note - Art Forum, Further Ado, Zero, and Banned in New York - have got critics and fans championing him as traditional jazz's most envelope-pushing soloist and conceptualist. His new record, The Invisible Hand, finds Osby teaming up with two musicians who received similar praise back in the early 1960s, pianist Andrew Hill and guitarist Jim Hall. Osby has worked with both musicians in the past, recording on Hill's Eternal Spirit (Blue Note) and on Hall's By Arrangement (Telarc), among others. Several tunes, including "Sanctus," were written by Hall. "Jim wanted a Johnny Hodges-like interpretation," Osby says of "Sanctus," "but I couldn't go that far because I'm not into bending and scooping my notes like that. That's highly stylized and personalized. I think it would be patronizing for me to do it. I just tried to do justice to the song because it's so beautiful, a through-composed and arranged composition with a definite theme and development and motives. He wrote the melody based on the way he thinks I play - which flatters me. It's custom-made and I hope I satisfied him with my interpretation."--- JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc. -- From Jazziz