Biography
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, and then at the Berklee College of Music, with Andy McGhee. He played on Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition, and has recorded with Steve Coleman, Jim Hall and Andrew Hill (setting the stage for Hill and Hall's later appearance on Osby's The Invisible Hand).
He began recording albums under his own name for JMT Records in the 1980s, but his most celebrated work has been a run of records for Blue Note. Like Coleman, Osby likes to discover fresh talent and give players a chance to grow within his own band: he was responsible for giving exposure to the young pianist Jason Moran, who appeared on most of Osby's 1990s albums (including the live album Banned in New York and an experiment with adding a string quartet to the band, Symbols of Light).
Osby has contributed to the homages to Miles Davis's 1970s electric jazz performed by Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith's "Yo Miles" group. The Village Voice critic Francis Davis wrote of his contribution to their double album Upriver, "Greg Osby superimposes his own brand of rhythmic complexity (one fully worthy of Wayne Shorter) on the rhythm section's static vamps every time he steps forward."
In 2003 Osby toured with The Dead, which was a reincarnation of The Grateful Dead for a full North American tour. He also has contributed in various lineups with Phil Lesh and Friends.
Since 2007, Greg has been an active endorser of P. Mauriat Saxophones, playing a 67R DK alto and a System 76 DK soprano . He was featured in a series of magazine ads in Down Beat, JazzTimes and Saxophone Journal in early 2009. He is currently on faculty in the Ensemble Department at Berklee College of Music.
Greg was named Playboy Magazine's "Jazz Artist of the Year" in the March 2009 issue.
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