Mary Osborne
Appearances
One of the up-and-comers of the bebop era, Allen Eager emerged before Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Al Cohn as a Lester Young-inspired tenor saxophonist who had a slightly harder tone and the [more]
- List Price: $20.98
- Member Price: $18.88
For those who aren't feeling sufficiently limbered up to drop a hundred bucks for Bear Family's 122-track The Doctor Is In!, the best way to get acquainted with and possibly permanently dazzled [more]
- List Price: $32.98
- Member Price: $29.68
Biography
- Born Jul 17th 1921 in Minot, ND
- Died Mar 4th 1992 in Bakersfield, CA
Mary Osborne was a whiz of an electric guitarist and a forthright, madly swinging, inventive player in whom one can hear her original musical inspiration, Charlie Christian, as well as the grace notes and humor of Les Paul. In addition, she was one of only a handful of women in her day who were able to make a dent in jazz's gender barrier, although she did not achieve the recognition that ought to have been her due. Osborne was a versatile musician as a child, playing the violin in a school orchestra and performing on violin, guitar, bass, as well as singing and dancing, in a trio at age 15. Having heard Charlie Christian play with Al Trent's band in Bismarck, she decided to focus upon the electric guitar, on which she became one of jazz's earliest exponents. She toured with a laundry list full of bands -- Buddy Rogers, Dick Stabile, Terry Shand, Joe Venuti, and Russ Morgan among them -- and with the encouragement of producer/critic Leonard Feather, she recorded with Mary Lou Williams, the Beryl Booker Trio, Coleman Hawkins, Mercer Ellington, Ethel Waters, and Wynonie Harris. She was also featured on Jack Sterling's daily CBS radio program from 1952 to 1960. Sometime later, Osborne settled with her husband in Bakersfield, CA, where she continued to play gigs now and then. Yet she remained a formidable guitarist late in life; in an appearance with Lionel Hampton at the 1990 Playboy Jazz Festival, she virtually stole the show. She can be heard to good advantage on the Williams and Booker tracks of Bluebird's The Women: Classic Female Jazz Artists CD. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
The Source for Discounted Rare & Essential Jazz Music CDs!
©2010 Jazz Heritage Society. All Rights Reserved.
Jazz Heritage Society - 1710 Highway 35 - Oakhurst, NJ 07755