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Greg Osby

Tribe Vibe

Posted about 5 years ago

Artist:
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Greg Osby

Here's a track produced for me by Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest a while ago. One of my favorites. It's just the right tempo and not too busy.

Comments (10)

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Cody B says Love the track. Is the piano part a sample? They way it floats around the speakers is very cool. Thanks

Permalink posted 03/11/2007
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Greg Osby says There is a piano loop in there taken from the piano solo, which was played live by pianist Geri Allen. She improvised for the entire length of the track, as I did on saxophone. The whole point of this recording was to have jazz artists join forces with creative hip hop artists and to meet each other in the middle, not to attempt to force folks into doing things that ran against their natural tendencies. I toured with this configuration for almost 2 years and it had evolved into something really special at that point but I was ready to change directions, as I often do. This was released in 1993, so we're going back a bit. Some of it worked and some of it fell short of the mark, as many experiments do but I'm still very proud of the efforts of all the participants.

Permalink posted 03/11/2007
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Cody B says I was always drawn to hip hop/jazz stuff, but to split it down the middle with out it being forced must be tough. There seemed to be a lot of stuff coming out of the "alternative rap" post De La Soul era (early- mid 90's) that was shooting for that balance, but usually from more of a hip hop perspective. I have some remedial listening to do, but are there other fusions you've heard that you feel have struck the balance? Hip Hop live seems to need so much structure, was that a problem when you played with this group? In terms of being restrictive of the freedom you might have in a straight jazz setting. I appreciate you taking the time and giving the jazz players thinking on this.

Permalink posted 03/11/2007
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Greg Osby says Most hip-hop/jazz collaborations were/are simply repetitive loops and beats with some jazz dude soloing over them and very little interaction or necessity to respond to anything. Even my recorded projects didn't reflect the energy and spontaneity of our live shows. Touring bands are able to evolve, experiment, take risks and extend the song forms far beyond the limitations that a studio recording present. My MC's got to the point where they were improvising along with the musicians and ultimately becoming more free with their sense of rhythm. I wouldn't allow them to repeat the same, tired verses every night. They had to freestyle, even if it meant spitting some nonsense from time to time. I was more concerned with how they interacted in a full band context (as opposed to a loops/beat driven one) than I was with the lyrics. My DJs also had to sync different and unusual breaks and records every night, which completely changed what the band would play. Many times it was a complete train wreck, because the tempo or the keys of the the records didn't match or compliment the groove of the band. However, that made things much more interesting and challenging because we never knew what the DJs would spin against the music. All that uncertainty kept everyone on their toes and prevented us all from getting lazy or too comfortable. Anyway, after almost 2 years it ran its course and I disbanded the group and moved on. By that time other jazz musicians had incorporated hip hop elements into their bands and I was no longer interested. Groups like Digable Planets, Guru's Jazzmatazz, US3, Buckshot LaFonque, Miles Davis' "Do'Wop", all had releases by then. I caught so much hell and resistance for putting myself out there first that work was scarce in the US, but plentiful in Europe and Japan. It was great for a while though. Right now, I think that the Roots exemplify the best that a true hip hop band can offer.I've known them all for a while. We even had some sessions at my house back in the mid "90's before they got signed. They were amazing even back then. Tariq blew my mind because I had never heard any MC that comfortable freestyling over such complex beats and also I remember Ahmir being a little frustrated because I didn't have any drums so he got a chair and played some amazing beats on some old books and phone books. I wish I would have recorded or videotaped that session. Anyway, look at them now. Doing their thing, as they hear it.

Permalink posted 03/13/2007
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kristiana says that is a hot track, and this a very interesting post. thanks. "They had to freestyle, even if it meant spitting some nonsense from time to time", amen! What a gift, what a talent, when it's done well. Capable of being our modern day prophets....

Permalink posted 04/08/2007
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Soulfunksticat says Greg, thanks for posting. One extension to Cody's first comment--very few jazz guys are willing to even ADMIT that hip hop is connected to jazz. While there have been a decent amount of hip hop artists with obvious jazz influence, the jazz police have flat out rejected hip hop as being a "worthy" component of jazz. Such a shame to have old school musicians (whom I respect) supposedly carrying a bebop torch lose sight of the spirit the music originally instilled in their own community and not see that same spirit in hip hop doing the same for this generation. At least moggers seem to know what's going on!

Permalink posted 04/13/2007
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MilesTrane says very tasty greg - come on back to Mog man

Permalink posted 08/18/2007
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Greg Osby says I just discovered a trunkload of live performance DATs from "93 - '95, when I was touring with my DJ and MCs. I'll have a listen, do some editing and hopefully will be able to post some of the files on here or elsewhere. Some of it was pretty happening and it would be cool to share some of it.

Permalink posted 09/01/2007
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Greg Osby says Cody B., Sorry for the late reply. I approached that group for what it was instead of trying to make it fit a genre based category, which was practically impossible since it really didn't have a real "home". No one had done it yet. I certainly wasn't coming at it with Jazz ears and I didn't expect the MCs to immediately adapt to what the musicians were doing. Basically speaking, the more we toured, the more refined it got and everyone was able to realize each other's comfort zones.The musicians employed more freedom in the way they addressed the "beats" and the rappers eventually began to rap in keys with pitches, almost like scat.Even the mistakes were cool because they usually led to more discoveries. As far as other groups who expanded the whole concept, perfected it and took it further, I would have to say obviously the Roots of course but also the Freestyle Fellowship. Mikah 9 was amazingly creative, original and rhymed/sang/freestyled perfectly in tune. I have some tapes of a session we did at my house in "94. Killing. Guru's Jazzmatazz, although tight as far as the beats were concerned, was still basically a hip hop record - with some jazz guys riffing sparingly in the background. It was still all about him. The improvisational element was minimal. There were other Jazz artists who did their versions of collaborations with varying degrees of success, but I'm not here to hype them! - GO

Permalink posted 09/01/2007
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Greg Osby says
Well actually, there were a few admirable contributions by notable jazz artists. However, there was so much resistance from both sides (the jazz AND hip-hop camps) that things never gained much momentum. I remember the blank stares that we used to get when people didn't know what to make of us - musicians working in tandem with hip hop artists. There were highs and lows but it wasn't until the Roots came along that someone actually got it right.

Permalink posted 11/20/2009