In the 1980s, a loose collective of young African American musicians including Steve Coleman, Graham Haynes, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen, Robin Eubanks, and Greg Osby emerged in Brooklyn with a new sound and specific ideas about creative expression.
Most of them previously contributed to CDs by alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, whose creativity has been a pivotal factor in that movement,[4] although he refused to be called its leader or founder.
Coleman and his friend Greg Osby, who plays alto saxophone in a related style, together led the group Strata Institute, which recorded two CDs (the second with tenor saxophonist Von Freeman as a further leader).
Pianist Andrew Hill said about Greg Osby: "He has an incredible sense of rhythm and harmonic accuracy, and picks the right notes with a precision that isn't common to people with his technical versatility.
"[5] Greg Osby said about Gary Thomas: "He's extremely intelligent and has a capacity for absorption that exceeds that of most people that I know […] He has his own compositional and improvisational method that is peerless in my opinion.
"[7] Antecedents to M-Base were identified by jazz critic Bill Milkowski as the Miles Davis-led band featured on recordings like 1975's Agharta; he noted the combination of Sonny Fortune's acerbic saxophone lines atop the syncopated grooves performed by the rhythm section of drummer Al Foster, bassist Michael Henderson, and rhythm guitarist Reggie Lucas.
Though two of Gary Thomas' recordings were highly rated by DownBeat[9] he only had a contract with a small European company and his performance opportunities were virtually limited to Europe.
[10] Greg Osby signed with Blue Note Records in 1990 and developed a specific balancing act between an enhanced reverence to tradition and maintaining his new direction.