Greg Osby - Public (2004)

Since recording his last live album, the proudly "lo-fi" Banned in New York (1998), Greg Osby has been a peripatetic stylist, ranging from an all-star session with his mentor Andrew Hill to one with a string quartet to 2003's exceptional set of re-harmonized standards. Recorded at New York's Jazz Standard, Public finds the vinegar-toned alto saxophonist again reveling in bandsmanship. Leading a quintet including the awe-inspiring trumpeter Nicholas Payton, he charges three covers and three bracing originals with a sometimes thrilling intensity. With their brisk, off-color unison statements and biting solos, the bop staples "Bernie's Tune" and "Shaw Nuff" leap from the grooves. Osby's "Equalatogram" is an ingeniously constructed vehicle for post-bop angles and spatial free-jazz squalls. The loping, Monk-influenced "Rising Sign" (a reworking of Osby's own "Ministrale"), shows off the formidable chops of the band's newest member, pianist Megumi Yonezawa. Only the closing "Lover Man" fails to sizzle as pop singer Joan Osborne doesn't leave much of an imprint. --Lloyd Sachs