The recording for the most part is very sharp and focused on Osborne and Skidmore allowing the listener to appreciate their sounds and choices. The complexity and beauty of Osborne’s tone is caught.
British Progressive Jazz [2023]
Mike Osborne – alto sax; Alan Skidmore – tenor sax; Harry Miller – double bass; Louis Moholo – drums
If you are new to jazz you might not have heard of Mike Osborne. If you have been around for a while, you might have started to forget him. He died in 2007 but he played his last gig in 1982. In his playing life he worked almost obsessively and appeared with Mike Westbrook, Mike Gibbs, Humphrey Lyttelton, Kenny Wheeler, John Surman, Stan Tracey in a duo called Tandem and with Harry Miller’s Isipingo. In the beginning Osborne had many influences but he outgrew them until the only sound that came out of his alto was pure uncompromising Osborne. One major contribution was with the Brotherhood of Breath, the group founded by Chris McGregor around South African expatriates. He lived to play intensely and his searing, soaring alto sound had a raw serrated edge that became sharper as he grew older. The places that heard some of the best of Osborne were the 100 Club and particularly the Peanuts Club in Bishopsgate, London. Now those sessions seem like a fantasy. The Osborne sessions are tattooed into people’s memories. This was before clubs became plush, filled with people ticking off bucket lists. On many occasions he played with Harry Miller and Louis Moholo, as he does here. They formed a formidable trio.
The bass player at the 100 Club was Harry Miller who came to London from South Africa, initially to work with Manfred Mann but his ambition took him away from that. His bass playing was fierce and unfortunately on this session because of the recording some of the ferocity is muted. Eventually, Harry with Louis Moholo powered the Brotherhood of Breath.
Louis Moholo has a unique style. He came to London with the musicians who eventually coalesced around Chris McGregor. The drums of Moholo are different. The drummingness of drums is emphasised. He plays drums not cymbals, his cymbals are for colour. His music is a mixture of Cape Town, New Orleans, New York and London.
Alan Skidmore saw John Coltrane in Walthamstow in November 1961 and never forgot it. The event still marks his playing. Eventually, he worked with John Surman and Mike Osborne in a group called SOS (Surman Osborne Skidmore). Skidmore has a rich discography. He has played with his own groups and with Mike Westbrook, Graham Collier, Georgie Fame, Harry Beckett and Alexis Korner.
‘Parallel ‘starts well with a chirpy riff over Moholo and Miller. Alan Skidmore has a beautiful tone that is a grounded sound while Osborne’s inventions begin to spill out ideas, cutting through, not prettily but urgently. Osborne’s joy of playing lifts the spirits. Melodic fragments are seized and the others take their lead from Osborne and interpret them in their own way. This is Mike Osborne at his freeest, most inventive, most lyrical. This is torrid, pure bare bones, no holds barred jazz. Osborne’s tone can move from the coarsest rasps to the pure cool creamy and icy. There is a section towards the end of the piece where the two horns duet that has a kind of majesty. Then the track finishes and I longed to hear the applause that was richly deserved. Someone stopped the tape!
‘Starting Fires’ has more than hints of ‘Body and Soul’. Osborne and Skidmore show their compatibility. Changes of tempo are acted on immediately. The duet just before the end of the track has a coruscating counterpoint.
The recording for the most part is very sharp and focused on Osborne and Skidmore allowing the listener to appreciate their sounds and choices. The complexity and beauty of Osborne’s tone is caught.
This is a remarkable session and Osborne’s passionate voice from the past, calls out with a poignant reminder of what jazz lost when illness stopped him.
