Greg Osby - Channel Three (2005) 320kbps

"I refrained from doing a project like this for a long time," says Greg Osby of Channel Three, his 16th album for Blue Note since he signed with the label in 1990, and his first trio recital.

On Channel Three, Osby unveils his latest discovery, 21-year-old Matthew Brewer, his bassist of choice since 2002. On drums is Jeff "Tain" Watts, one of this era's most prominent drummers, and Osby's friend since both attended Berklee School of Music a quarter century ago. Osby opens the program with a soulful flight through Ornette Coleman's "Mob Job," and closes with a crisp soprano saxophone reading of Eric Dolphy's "Miss Ann." The bookends sandwich seven idiosyncratic Osby originals.

On Channel Three, Osby and his partners channel the spirit of wonderment and limitless possibility that characterized the '60s and '70s culture of radical improvising in which their role models flourished. Yet again, Osby makes it his business, as he once put it, "to affirm my foothold in the realm of unpredictability."