The alto saxophonist Greg Osby has routinely been assessed over the last 20 years as a jazz progressive, the sort of musician who constantly pushes forward. In postbop terms that's high praise, and a kind of trap. It respects the intent of innovation but places a premium on the results, devaluing any effort that isn't a bridge to new terrain.
On Tuesday, in the first set of what Mr. Osby described as a debut performance, the ensemble -- with Sara Serpa on vocals, Mike Pinto on vibraphone, Nir Felder on guitar, Joseph Lepore on bass and Hamir Atwal on drums -- created an hourlong suite of dark-hued, drifting, luminous music, with rounded edges offsetting some spidery intervals. The sound of the group reflected not only Mr. Osby's fully formed aesthetic but also the values of a postmillennial jazz scene, the hybrid-crazy realm in which his younger sidemen operate.
So there was an abundance of flowing eighth-note phrases and some dramatic open harmonies. “Tranya," a ballad by Mr. Pinto, flirted intriguingly with whole-tone scales but preserved the steady undercurrent of a rock tune. “Please Stand By," which appeared on Mr. Osby's last Blue Note release, in 2005, featured an Eastern-tinged chant over a one-chord vamp, evoking the frontier era of fusion. And “Truth," another Osby original, involved a sharp, skipping melody shot through with abstracted funk rhythm.
Performances continue through Sunday at the Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com.
