Michael Evans Osborne (28 September 1941 – 19 September 2007) was an English

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

alto saxophonist, pianist, and clarinetist who was a member of the band

Brotherhood of Breath The Brotherhood of Breath was an English-South African big band established in the late-1960s by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor, an extension of McGregor's previous band, The Blue Notes. History The Brotherhood of Breath i ...

in the 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

Mike Osborne was born in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester, England, Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. ...

, England, and attended

Wycliffe College Wycliffe College () is an evangelical graduate school of theology at the University of Toronto. Founded in 1877 as an evangelical seminary in the Anglican tradition, Wycliffe College today attracts students from many Christian denominations from ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

and the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and ja ...

. Steve Voce
"Mike Osborne"
(obituary), ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 24 September 2007.Jason Ankeny
Mike Osborne biography
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

. From 1962 to 1972, Osborne belonged to the Mike Westbrook band. During this period the artist also worked with musicians such as Michael Gibbs,

Mike Cooper Mike Cooper may refer to: *Mike Cooper (musician) Michael Cooper (born 24 August 1942) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Initially coming to attention as a country blues performer, his later work also straddles jazz, Polynesian, a ...

Stan Tracey Stanley William Tracey (30 December 1926 – 6 December 2013) was a British jazz pianist and composer, whose most important influences were Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Tracey's best known recording is the 1965 album '' Jazz Suite Inspi ...

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active i ...

Humphrey Lyttelton Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family. Having taught himself the trumpet at school, Lyttelton became a professional ...

Alan Skidmore Alan Richard James Skidmore (born 21 April 1942) is an English jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore. Career He was born in London, England. Skidmore began his professional career in his teens, and early in his caree ...

John Surman John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for dance performanc ...

, Harry Miller, Alan Jackson (drums), John Mumford (trombone) and Lionel Grigson. During 1974–75, Osborne was part of the saxophone trio S.O.S. with John Surman and Alan Skidmore. They recorded an LP plus BBC radio and television sessions and toured extensively in Europe. Health issues hastened the end of his career in 1982, and he returned to Hereford, where he was living under care at the time of his death in 2007, aged 65.

Select discography

* Mike Osborne Quintet: ''Outback'' (Turtle); with

Chris McGregor Christopher McGregor (24 December 1936 – 26 May 1990) was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa. Early influences McGregor grew up in the then Transkei (now part of the Eastern Cape Provin ...

(piano), Harry Miller (bass), and Louis Moholo (drums)Richard Williams
"Mike Osborne"
(obituary), ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', 21 September 2007. * Mike Osborne Trio: ''Border Crossing'' ( Ogun) * Mike Osborne Trio: ''All Night Long (Live at Willisau)'' (Ogun) * Mike Osborne &

: ''Original'' (Cadillac) * Mike Osborne ''Force of Nature'' (REEL) * ''Mike Osborne/Stan Tracey Duo'' (Cadillac) * ''Tandem: Mike Osborne/Stan Tracey Live at the Bracknell Festival'' (Ogun) * Mike Osborne Quintet: ''Marcel's Muse'' (Ogun) * ''Shapes'' (Future Music) With

* ''Bremen to Bridgwater'' (

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge- ...

) * ''Eclipse at Dawn'' (Cuneiform) With

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras ...

/London Jazz Composers' Orchestra * '' Ode'' ( Incus, 1972) With

* ''John Surman'' ( Deram) * ''How Many Clouds Can You See?'' (Deram) With

and Alan Skidmore * ''SOS'' (1975) ( Ogun) With Mike Westbrook * ''The Mike Westbrook Concert Band: Marching Song Vols. 1 & 2'' (Deram) * ''The Mike Westbrook Concert Band: Release'' (Deram) With Michael Gibbs * ''Michael Gibbs'' (Deram) With Mike Cooper * ''Too Late Now'' (

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ...

) * ''Your Lovely Ways'' (Dawn) * ''Life and Death in Paradise'' (Fresh Air) With

* ''Alan Skidmore Quintet: T.C.B.'' (

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

) With

* ''

Song for Someone "Song for Someone" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the fourth track from their thirteenth studio album, ''Songs of Innocence'', and was released as its third single on 11 May 2015. It was produced by Ryan Tedder and Flood. Lyrically, "So ...

'' (Incus, 1973) With Harry Miller's Isipingo * ''Which Way Now: Live in Bremen 1975'' (Cuneiform) * ''Family Affair'' (Ogun) With Norma Winstone * ''Edge of Time'' (Algo)

Select bibliography

*'' Ian Carr: Music Outside: Contemporary Jazz in Britain, 2nd edition'' (London:

Northway Publications Northway Books ( Northway Publications) is a publishing company based in London, UK. Northway specialises in biographies of musicians, and British social and cultural history. Its focus has been particularly on documenting jazz history in Britain ...

, 2007)

References

External links

Obituary in ''The Times'', 2 October 2007
*Jason Ankeny
Mike Osborne biography
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Mike 1941 births 2007 deaths English jazz alto saxophonists British male saxophonists English jazz pianists People educated at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire Deaths from lung cancer 20th-century pianists 20th-century English musicians 20th-century saxophonists British male pianists 20th-century British male musicians British male jazz musicians FMR Records artists