Saxophonist/Composer Greg Osby To Perform With Students At Berklee Performance Center

Berklee celebrates Black History Month and the college's new Africana Studies curriculum with influential post-bop jazz saxophonist and composer Greg Osby, Thursday, February 8, 8:15 p.m., at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston. Osby and Berklee student musicians he will rehearse and shape throughout the preceding week will perform music associated with his career. General admission $5/seniors $2. Tickets are available at the Berklee box office. Please call 617-747-2261 or visit www.berkleebpc.com.

Osby, a Berklee alumnus, will be in residence as a Herb Alpert Visiting Professor, giving a series of master classes and clinics, Jan. 29 - Feb. 8. The Alpert Professorship, established in 2000 with the support of the Herb Alpert Foundation — the philanthropic organization launched by A&M Records cofounder and multi-Grammy-winning recording artist Herb Alpert — brings to Berklee a steady stream of world-class performance and music industry leaders. Past Alpert Professors have included jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, pianists Alan Broadbent and Michel Camilo, bassist Abe Laboriel Sr., producer/engineer George Massenburg and members of the jazz-fusion band the Yellowjackets.

Greg Osby has made an indelible mark on contemporary jazz as a bandleader and as a guest artist with other acclaimed musicians over the past 20 years. Born in St. Louis, Osby played in a series of r&b, funk, and blues bands before enrolling at Howard University and then Berklee. Upon relocating to New York, Osby quickly became an in-demand sideman for such artists as Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Jack DeJohnette and Andrew Hill. Releasing his solo recording debut with Sound Theater in 1987, Osby went on to make acclaimed contributions to Hill's Eternal Spirit and But Not Farewell; and pioneer the fusion of hip-hop and jazz with 1990's Man-Talk for Moderns, Vol. X — the first of many sessions for Blue Note. In 2003 Osby crossed over into rock music, touring with The Dead, a reincarnation of The Grateful Dead. Channel Three, Osby's most recent album, was released on Blue Note in 2005.