StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Saxophones, St. Louis style, as playedby Greg Osby and Eric Person

This week's videos showcase two versatile saxophonists originally from St. Louis who have established successful careers as touring artists, composers and bandleaders. Up top, we've got two clips featuring Greg Osby, who usually concentrates on alto sax, but also has performed on soprano sax, clarinet and flute. In addition to leading his own bands, Osby has worked with Andrew Hill, the World Saxophone Quartet, Jim Hall, Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition and many others, and even did a tour with Grateful Dead successors The Dead a few years back.

The first video up above shows Osby fronting his own group in a performance of "The End Of A Love Affair," with a little bit of interview footage as a bonus. In the second clip he's seen in a less formal setting, jamming alongside guitarist John Abercrombie on a variation of the tune "Solar" that here is called "Improvisation #3."

Down below, we've got two videos featuring Eric Person, who divides his time between soprano, alto, and tenor saxes and flute. Like Osby, Person has done some gigs with the WSQ and has toured with a rock band, performing with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. Person also has played and recorded with Chico Hamilton, Dave Holland, Ronald Shannon Jackson and lots more, but these days he puts the bulk of his efforts into his own band, Meta-Four.

The first clip shows Person playing soprano sax on his own composition "Undercurrents." It's short but sweet, shot in artsy black-and-white with a Super-8 camera by Todd Boebel, with video editing by April Smith. In contrast, the second clip is about as informal as it gets - camcorder footage of Person jamming at a small club, this time playing alto sax. The tune is John Coltrane's "Impressions," and the other musicians are drummer Marvin "Bugalu" Smith, pianist John Esposito and bassist Andy McCloud, whose contributions are, alas, almost inaudible. While the audio is rough, you can hear Person pretty well, and the interaction between him and Smith suggests that they've both spent some time listening to those classic 1960s 'Trane recordings with Elvin Jones on drums.