Greg Osby - Inner Circle (2002)

Cerebral without being pretentious, and full of life and passion, Inner Circle is a fine showcase for saxophonist Osby and his frequent collaborators Jason Moran and Stefon Harris. The original tunes sizzle, while the covers demonstrate these young lions are comfortable playing Mingus and Bjork.

Greg Osby (sax alto)
Jason Moran (piano)
Steffon Harris (vib)
Tarus Mateen (bass)
Eric Harland (drums)

Inner Circle
The standout alto saxophonist Greg Osby attracts the best young musicians like a magnet. And, like a classic bandleader (though he is hardly gray in the beard), he gets them on the same creative page. Inner Circle is loaded with tricky music–staggered stop-and-start rhythms, stretched harmonies, turn-on-a-dime transitions, close-shaved unison lines–but it comes through the speakers fully formed and in full flight, thanks to the inspired interplay of his quintet. Osby, pianist Jason Moran, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, and bassist Taurus Mateen previously banded together in Blue Note's New Directions sextet and have grown only more cohesive. Behind some of Osby's most pointed playing, Harris shows off his ability to provide just the right accent or hue at just the right time, while Moran reveals the strong-armed intensity that he sometimes sells short on his own projects. The drummer is Eric Harland, who never sells any of his deft strokes short. –

Track Listing:

* Entruption
* Stride Logic
* Diary Of The Same Dream
* Equalatogram
* All Neon Like
* Fragmatic Decoding
* Inner Circle Principle, The
* Sons Of The Confidential
* Self-Portrait In Three Colors