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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

alto saxophonist, pianist, and clarinetist who was a member of the band Brotherhood of Breath in the 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

Mike Osborne was born in

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

, England, and attended Wycliffe College in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

and the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with dram ...

. 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 publis ...

'', 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 Mus ...

. 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, Stan Tracey,

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, Order of Canada, 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 w ...

, Humphrey Lyttelton, Alan Skidmore,

John Surman John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, Clarinet family, 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 danc ...

, 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 Prov ...

(piano), Harry Miller (bass), and

Louis Moholo Louis Tebogo Moholo (10 March 1940 – 13 June 2025) was a South African jazz drummer. He was a member of several notable bands, including The Blue Notes, the Brotherhood of Breath and Assagai. Biography Born in Cape Town, Moholo formed The ...

(drums)Richard Williams
"Mike Osborne"
(obituary), ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

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

Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath ''Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath'' is the debut album by South African pianist and composer Chris McGregor's big band of the same name. Produced by Joe Boyd, it was recorded in 1970, and was issued on LP by the short-lived Neon imprint of ...

'' (Neon) * '' Procession (Live at Toulouse)'' (Ogun) * '' Travelling Somewhere'' (

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

) * '' Bremen to Bridgwater'' (Cuneiform) * '' Eclipse at Dawn'' (Cuneiform) With

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London, England) 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 or ...

/London Jazz Composers' Orchestra * ''

Ode An ode (from ) is a type of lyric poetry, with its origins in Ancient Greece. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structu ...

'' (

Incus The ''incus'' (: incudes) or anvil in the ear is one of three small bones (ossicles) in the middle ear. The incus receives vibrations from the malleus, to which it is connected laterally, and transmits these to the stapes medially. The incus i ...

, 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 diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...

) * ''Your Lovely Ways'' (Dawn) * ''Life and Death in Paradise'' (Fresh Air) With Alan Skidmore * ''Alan Skidmore Quintet: T.C.B.'' (

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

) With

* '' Song for Someone'' (Incus, 1973) With Harry Miller * ''Family Affair'' (Ogun, 1977) * '' Which Way Now: Live in Bremen 1975'' (Cuneiform, 2006) recorded in 1975 * '' Full Steam Ahead'' (Reel Recordings, 2009) recorded during 1975–1977 * '' Different Times, Different Places'' (Ogun, 2013) recorded during 1973–1976 With Norma Winstone * ''Edge of Time'' (Algo)

Select bibliography

*'' Ian Carr: Music Outside: Contemporary Jazz in Britain, 2nd edition'' (London: Northway Publications, 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 in England 20th-century British pianists 20th-century English musicians 20th-century British saxophonists 20th-century British male musicians FMR Records artists Ogun Records Artists British male jazz pianists