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Tamar Osborn
I work in a wide range of fields including pop/soul (Kelis UK & Europe tour 2014), theatre/dance (such as Akram Khan’s XENOS worldwide tour and the acclaimed production of FELA! at Sadler’s Wells and the National Theatre, London), TV (Jools Holland, Chris Moyles Quiz night house band, X Factor Big Band Special), world music (Afrobeat and related genres in particular, taking part in Africa Express in 2012 and 2013), improvisation with djs (using tenor sax and occasionally flute), jazz and classical groups, session recording, arranging, teaching, functions… and to keep the creative side of things fresh I’m involved in a number of on-going projects:
– COLLOCUTOR (my own project – instrumental modal music with jazz and global influences) -DELE SOSIMI AFROBEAT ORCHESTRA (check out the Afrobeat Vibration nights for one of the best live music experiences in London!) -SARATHY KORWAR (jazz with Indian and electronic influences) -THE FONTANELLES (an afrobeat-ethio-funk-dub offshoot from the Fela! production) -EMANATIVE (space jazz) -JESSICA LAUREN (jazz groove) -1201_ALARM (science-inspired!) -ELIA & THE LOW TEARS (soulful funky pop)
Other guest, occasional and past projects include Hackney Colliery Band, Yuriy Galkin Nonet, The Soothsayers, Lokkhi Terra (Cuba meets Bangladesh), the John Bennett Band (jazz funk big band), Oddjob (afro-latin-funk), Mezzowave (electronica-soul), Kita Steuer’s Samba Soul Transatlantico (Brazilian Samba-Rock), Stadtpark (folk-jazz), Lisa Lore (nu-blues and spoken word), Chagall Illuminated (animation and live & electronic music collaboration with Max Reinhardt and Sophie Solomon) and Vent Saxophone Quartet (contemporary classical).
I have been lucky enough to travel all over the world thanks to music, including performing with the fantastic German/Indian group Taal Tantra with table maestro Tanmoy Bose in Kolkata in 2005, playing at Cheick Tidiane Seck’s Jam’Sahel 2007 (www.jamsahel.org) in Paris (thanks to Roy with Chameleoneye), and improvising with fire-dancers in Bangladesh.
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Flock: Flock
by Chris May
One of the strengths of the alternative jazz scene which has grown in London since around 2016 is the interconnectivity of its players. Everyone knows each other and ad hoc bands constantly come together. Flock is the latest such conclave and it is something of a supergroup. On this its first album--others are promised--the lineup is reeds player Tamar Osborn, keyboard player Danalogue, pianist Al MacSween, vibraphonist Bex Burch and percussionist Sarathy Korwar (check Additional Personnel below ...
read moreSarathy Korwar & Upaj Collective: Night Dreamer Direct-To-Disc Sessions
by Chris May
In her October 2020 interview with All About Jazz, baritone saxophonist, Collocutor bandleader, Afrobeat shaman and Upaj Collective founder member Tamar Osborn was asked to name six of her all-time favourite albums. One of them was Shakti's Natural Elements (Columbia, 1970), on which John McLaughlin plays a guitar customised to sound like a sitar. To me, it's still one of the best meetings of two traditions you can listen to," said Osborn. You can hear the mutual respect, the communication ...
read moreTamar Osborn: From Kalakuta To Collocutor: New Directions In Jazz
by Chris May
She has been likened to Gil Evans, Fela Kuti, Pharoah Sanders, Bismillah Khan and Mulatu Astatke, and the traditions represented by those musicians are all to be heard in the music of baritone saxophonist and composer Tamar Osborn. Osborn's aesthetic, however, is her own, and her band, Collocutor, is among the most distinctive on the British jazz scene. Collocutor is three albums old. It began as a studio project with the album Instead in 2014 and then became ...
read moreCollocutor: Continuation
by Gareth Thompson
Viewing the CV of musician-composer Tamar Osborn is like watching a tapestry unfurl in bewildering detail. Having started out on clarinet and saxophone, performing mostly classical works, she later studied rhythms and ragas in India, then collaborated with a vast array of talents, often fusing Afrobeat and Ethio-funk into jazzy paradigms. She was part of the onstage band for Fela! The Musical during its 2010 / 2011 runs in London, and formed her own Afrobeat-informed band, The Fontanelles, in 2011. ...
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