SFJAZZ Festival kicks off Today!!

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African American, Avishai Cohen, David Sanchez, Edward Simon, Greg Osby, Jazz, Matt Penman, Robin Eubanks

SFJAZZ FESTIVAL

San Francisco, CA (PRWE May 05, 2011) In a fitting tribute, nearly 100 years after the birth of the African American music tradition known as “jazz” – a West Coast slang term first used to refer to music in Chicago – SFJAZZ will build the nation’s first free-standing center solely dedicated to the presentation, education and preservation of the art form. On May 6, 2011, SFJAZZ, the largest nonprofit presenter of jazz and world music in America, kicks off the construction of the new SFJAZZ Center with a ceremonial groundbreaking event in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. The SFJAZZ Board of Trustees, donors, musicians and jazz fans alike have already raised over $46 million of the $60 million budgeted to create this state-of-the-art cultural center. Scheduled for completion in 2012 The SFJAZZ Center, designed by renowned architect Mark Cavagnero of Mark Cavagnero Associates, will be a transparent, 35,000-square-foot, freestanding LEED®-compliant structure that will provide artistic and education programs for the community.

Marc Copland -][- CROSSTALK [Pirouet Records]

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Doug Weiss, Greg Osby, Jazz, Marc Copland, Piano, Victor Lewis

Marc Copland - CROSSTALK

Marc Copland -][- CROSSTALK – [Pirouet Records, 2011]

Fascinatingly original – a good description of this quartet’s multifaceted musical world throughout this CD. This quartet presides over music of great depth and intensity and at the same time makes it all seem breathtakingly easy and clear. The four musicians partake in a subtle sort of duel, a refined musical “crosstalk” – a masterpiece of mutual inspiration.

(BIO) Marc Copland was born in Philadelphia in 1948. Up until the mid-1970’s he played the alto saxophone. Copland was a master on the instrument. Throughout this period he worked with such already-established colleagues as Ralph Towner, Chico Hamilton, and John Abercrombie. Yet at a certain stage he felt that something wasn’t right. “The music that I was playing was not the music I was hearing in my head.” From one day to the next he laid his horn down, completely left the scene, and began to probe the mysteries of the ivories. He was out of the picture for ten years, practiced incessantly, and studied the styles of other pianists. In 1985 he finally felt he was ready to start another career. How strange – how absurd that someone transforms himself from one extreme to another! A virile top dog is transposed into a quiet spiritualist. ”Yet I always had the feel that I was doing the right thing.” And with Pirouet he found the label that fit, that allowed the necessary freedom that a free spirit like himself needed.

… “the weekend spin” … features modern jazz saxophonist Greg Osby

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African American, Greg Osby, Jazz, Saxophonist

... the weekend spin

Greetings jazz aficionados, it’s great to be among the living once again and afforded the opportunity to share with you music that I occasionally delve into especially on the weekends. As you know, the voice of jazz is infinite by design from beginning to the ending note it transforms those who allow themselves to surpass their ordinary soundscape and seek the prolific journey that awaits us. With that said, during my personal quest I often see and even hear these artists I’d love to partake in but for obvious reasons I’m not always able to cease the moment.

On today, I’m delighted to say I’ve been ushered into the world of music by a gentleman (you might already know) that I’ve grown to appreciate the voice and compositional palette of saxophonist Greg Osby. As I hear it, the St. Louis, MO native is undoubtedly a true innovator, progressive thinker, musician, songwriter and arranger with two exceptional albums featured from his vast body of work.

Greg Osby - Inner Circle

Greg Osby -//- Inner Circle – [Inner Circle, 2002]

I became interested in this CD primarily because I was looking for dates on which Stefon Harris appeared. I’m a huge fan of Harris’s extremely intelligent composition and playing, so anybody with whom he shared company had to be remarkable. Well, here he is, working with Greg Osby and fellow sideman (and ingenious solo artist in his own right) Jason Moran. I was delighted to hear how well these artists complement each other, when any one of them could have easily overpowered the other.

This is still Greg Osby’s date, of course, which is why he composed almost all of the songs, except for one by Björk and Mingus’s classic “Self Portrait in Three Colors.” The opening “Entruption” is a wonderfully frustrating performance, using space to give a stop-start feel, without sacrificing an implied groove. It’s my favorite on the disk, rivaled only by the Mingus cover and “Fragmatic Decoding,” the kind of song you’d imagine a String Theory mathematician would compose. As a non-musician, I’m simply amazed that anybody could play the dense thing.

If you are into progressive/avant-garde, yet accessible contemporary jazz, this is your disk. You will not be disappointed. —Darryl Dickson Carr/Amazon.com

INNER CIRCLE MUSIC PRESENTS SNOW OWL & ANDRE MATOS

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ANDRÉ MATOS, Bass, Greg Osby, Guitar, Jazz, Juan Garcia-Herreros, SNOW OWL

2010 Starts Strong for Greg Osby’s INNER CIRCLE MUSIC Label With Distinctive Releases by Two Innovative Young Musicians

Inner Circle Music

Juan Garcia-Herreros aka SNOW OWL Melds Chops and Compositions on Auspicious Stateside Debut Art of Contrabass Guitar

In-Demand Guitarist/Composer/Bandleader ANDRÉ MATOS’ Acclaimed Label Debut QUARÉ

Greg Osby’s INNER CIRCLE MUSIC label has been making waves in the jazz world since 2008, spotlighting a roster of some of the most exciting new names on the scene today. Earlier this year eclectic guitarist ANDRÉ MATOS released his first CD for the label, Quaré. Following that acclaimed release is the label debut of SNOW OWL, a performer an the rarely heard instrument, the contrabass guitar.