OUT THERE – FLORIAN ARBENZ & GREG OSBY

Swiss drummer Florian Arbenz cooperated with Kirk Lightsey, Bennie Maupin, Dave Liebman, Bruno Rousselet, among others. Rooted in classical percussion and fascinated by world rhythm, Arbenz is part of VEIN Trio and Convergence, the latter a band that grew out of interest in Cuban, Brazilian and West-African rhythm and was founded twenty-years ago by saxophonist Greg Osby.

Osby and Arbenz enjoy a special rapport and have cooperated for more than two decades. (Upon visiting New York and seeing performances of Osby in the early ‘90s, Arbenz is stated as saying, “From that moment on I wanted to play ‘Osby ‘s sort of music’”) However, they never found the time to record until this year. The result is Reflections Of The Eternal Line, bringing to life the art work of Stephen Spicher, who contributed the enticing visual art of the album and moreover opened up his work shop as studio.

At the core of the styles of Arbenz and Osby, one on a variety of percussion beside the kit as kalimba and gong, the other on alto and soprano sax, is a clever, continuing suggestion of harmonic texture. Suggestion, melodiousness and mystique pervade obliquely groove-oriented passages but most of all spheric pieces as Truth, Chant and The Passion Of Light, which benefit from a sense of stillness and introversion. Please Stand By features Osby as a modern-day successor to Yusef Lateef.

Challenging duo music seems to be a resurgent phenomenon. You could arrange an interesting evening schedule with albums such as Han Bennink/Joris Roelofs’ Icarus, Marcel Serierse/Tim Langedijk’s Telegrams and Florian Arbenz/Greg Osby’s Reflections Of The Eternal Line. Good company.

Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma (who co-incidentally toured with Osby pré-Corona and performed with VEIN including Osby) is the European partner of the Arbenz duo project. Keep up to date on the website of Florian Arbenz here.

Find Convergence here.

Find Reflections Of The Eternal Line here.