Greg Osby Four

“Listening to some of the records by young guys is like drinking wine that was bottled yesterday,” alto-sax standout Greg Osby once told an interviewer. “It’s not seasoned. It’s not aged. It’s not ready.” Osby duly noted the most exciting exception to his rule, Jason Moran, the phenomenal pianist behind last year’s best jazz disc, Modernistic. Osby mentored Moran, along with other up-and-coming players such as Stefon Harris and Eric Harland, helping them develop their creative flexibility with his challenging experimental be-bop compositions. Throughout his prolific, boxed-set-ready career, Osby has stayed true to the St. Louis streets from which he hails, adding an exhilarating urban edge that’s more authentic than most keepin’-it-real hip-hop. Heavy touring adds even more grit; unlike the studio-only show-offs he derides as “living-room musicians,” Osby sharpens his skills the way the past masters did — one cigarette-smogged nightclub at a time. This stop, though, he’s in luck — the smoke-free Blue Room should add extra air to his already explosive brass blasts.