| First, to declare an interest: I heard the British alto saxophonist Mike Osborne in his spine-tingling prime, and it may be that the lava-flow of his music as caught on these 1974 and 1977 recordings is more compelling in rekindling precious memories than in converting newcomers who don't know Mike Osborne from Ozzy Osbourne.
The saxophonist's pungent, sweet-and-sour, occasionally anguished tone might twinge some teeth, and almost all the material here represents a spiky, free-jazz exploration of idiosyncratic originals.
Yet much of the playing, both collectively and individually is scaldingly brilliant, and the trio tracks reveal not only what a tumultuous force Osborne was, but also that the South African bass and drums team of Harry Miller and Louis Moholo was entitled to be up there with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins.
Osborne's own phrasing, carried on a strangely guttural, quacky tone sometimes smoothing into pure, soaring flights, often suggests ideas split between alternative paths and somehow splicing both, and the Ornette Coleman influence is very strong. Bassist Miller is firm yet mercurial; Moholo is frequently quiet and brooding but periodically erupts into fierce snare-bursts, and his straight-time playing is electrifying. The quintet on Marcel's Muse, including guitarist Jeff Green and trumpeter Marc Charig, sounds like a storm-tossed, rather inchoate 1970s jazz-band, but I Wished I Knew is the closest thing to a straightahead standard here, and Osborne is magnificent on it. |