Michael Osborn & The Drivers - The Glamorous Life (2010)

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Michael Osborn & The Drivers - The Glamorous Life (2010)

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Michael Osborn was John Lee Hooker’s guitarist for 13 years (I do remember seeing him with The Boogie Man at London’s Hammersmith Odeon) and he has a respectable discography himself, with three albums for Blue Rock’It between 1988 and 1996, and now releases on his own Checkerboard label. It certainly shows on this release, which is definitely modern blues but without any of the vacant posturing that term sometimes implies. He began his blues career working with the Ford Brothers and in 1970 was a founding member of the famed Charles Ford Band (who recorded for Arhoolie).That he has got the chops is in no doubt from this straightforward blues set. There are echoes of Hooker’s spikey guitar style (most notably on ‘Needles And Pins’), but for the most part the playing recalls the likes of BB King and Alberts King and Collins, though usually with a little more down-home ambience, thanks to the stripped-down accompaniment of just bass, drums and harp. Lead vocals are shared between Dave Jackson on four songs, KG Jackson on three numbers, and Michael himself on just one, and the occasional use of harmonised lead vocals adds a fine individual sound. Most of the songs are originals but there are a couple of nice surprises. Whilst the opener is best-known from The Fabulous Thunderbirds and is a fine, slightly New Orleans-ish rocking piece, ‘Lollipop Mama’ is an excellent cover of Clarence Samuels’ 1947 Aristocrat recording.I enjoyed this CD a lot – it is pleasing and unpretentious. Mike recalls in his notes that Hooker told him: “You can play a lot of notes and think you’re dazzling them… give them melody and feeling…” On this evidence Mike took note.– by Norman Darwen

1. Why Get Up 4:18
2. Here She Comes 4:26
3. The Glamorous Life 3:48
4. Needles And Pins 5:13
5. Lollipop Mama 4:28
6. Bright Lights Big City 4:24
7. Little Suzanne 4:12

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Michael Osborn & The Drivers - The Glamorous Life (2010)

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Michael Osborn & The Drivers - The Glamorous Life (2010)

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BIO: b. 28 September 1941, Hereford, Herefordshire, England, d. 19 September 2007, Hereford, Hertfordshire, England. Osborne played violin in the school orchestra, but when he went to the Guildhall School of Music in London it was to study clarinet. He could play piano too, but after turning professional his main instrument was the alto saxophone. Osborne listed his favourite players as Phil Woods, Joe Henderson and Jackie McLean, with whom he shared a sharp-edged, slightly distressed-sounding tone, but he was often compared with Ornette Coleman for the urgency of his sound and his ability to create long, intense, graceful skeins of free melody.Osborne first came to notice with the Mike Westbrook Concert Band when it re-formed after Westbrook’s move to London from Plymouth. ‘Ossie’ sat in for a couple of gigs and was asked to join permanently in early 1963, when he was one of only two professional musicians in the orchestra. Over the next few years Osborne was an important constituent of several fine bands, including the Michael Gibbs Band, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, Harry Miller’s Isipingo and the group, ranging from a quartet to an octet, that he co-led with John Surman during 1968 and 1969. He also worked with John Warren, Alan Skidmore, Kenneth Terroade, Rik Colbeck, and Humphrey Lyttelton. In 1969, he established his own exceptionally exciting trio with Harry Miller and Louis Moholo, which, apart from many fine public gigs, recorded several superb sessions for BBC Radio’s Jazz Club. In the early 70s he began a fruitful association with Stan Tracey in wholly improvised duets, which brought Tracey back from the brink of retirement through disillusion with the music business. In 1973, Osborne co-founded S.O.S., probably the first regular all-saxophone band, with Skidmore and Surman. He was voted best alto saxophonist in the Melody Maker poll every year from 1969-73.During the late 70s Osborne became increasingly ill and was unable to play in public from 1980 onwards. His relatively small recorded oeuvre does show the range of his playing, from deeply moving but unsentimental ballad interpretations with Westbrook to scorching, intense free explorations with Isipingo or the trio. He died from lung cancer in 2007.– by Rovi