Artist: M-Base Collective

While not a jazz band, M-Base Collective is a musical continuum in which many jazz artists have participated. 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 brand new sound and specific ideas about creative expression.

Using a term coined by Steve Coleman, they called these ideas "M-Base-concept" (short for "macro-basic array of structured extemporization") and critics have used this term to categorize this scene's music as a jazz style.

But Coleman stressed "M-Base" doesn't denote a musical style but a way of thinking about creating music. Coleman also refuses the word "jazz" as a label for his music and the music tradition represented by musicians like John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, etc. However, the musicians of the M-Base movement, which also included dancers and poets, strived for common creative musical languages, so their early recordings show many similarities reflecting their common ideas, the experiences of working together, and their similar cultural background.

In the year 1991 a significant number of M-Base participants labelled as "M-Base Collective" recorded the CD Anatomy of a Groove. Most of them previously contributed to CDs by alto-saxophonist Steve Coleman whose creativity has been a pivotal factor in that movement, 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). Under the name of Osby, a number of CDs with a specific character have been released starting in 1987 which also coined the perception of "M-Base" jazz.