Artist: Mary Osborne

Mary Osborne (July 17, 1921 – March 4, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist and guitar manufacturer. In New York during the 1940s, she played with jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk. After moving to California in 1968, she and her husband founded the Osborne Guitar Company. 

At the age of fifteen, Osborne joined a trio led by pianist Winifred McDonnell, for which she played guitar, double bass, and sang. During this time, she heard Charlie Christian play electric guitar in Al Trent's band at a stop in Bismarck. She was enthralled by his sound, at first mistaking the electric guitar for a saxophone. She said of it, "What impressed everyone most of all was his sense of time. He had a relaxed, even beat that would sound modern even today." Osborne immediately bought her own electric guitar and had a friend build an amplifier. She sat in with Christian, learning his style of guitar.

In the 1940s, Osborne sat in on jam sessions on 52nd Street, where she played with some of the biggest names in jazz. In 1941, she went on the road with jazz violinist Joe Venuti. In 1942, she was working freelance in Chicago when she made a recording with Stuff Smith. In 1945, Osborne headlined a performance with Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk in Philadelphia, to reviews and audiences that praised her specifically. Osborne, Tatum, and Hawkins went on to record in concert in New Orleans. 

In 1945, Osborne returned to New York, where she recorded with Mary Lou Williams in 1945, Coleman Hawkins, Mercer Ellington, and Beryl Booker in 1946, and led her own swing trio. Her trio lasted from 1945 to 1948 and played in clubs on 52nd street, had a year-long engagement at Kelly's Stables, and made several recordings. Throughout the 1950s, she played with Elliot Lawrence's Quartet on The Jack Sterling Show, a daily morning CBS radio program, and appeared on the television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. 

In 1968, Osborne moved to Bakersfield, California, where she lived the rest of her life. With her husband, she founded the Osborne Guitar Company. She taught music and continued to play jazz locally and in Los Angeles. She played in the Newport and Concord festivals in the early 1970s, and in the Kool Jazz Festival in New York in 1981. In 1989 and 1990, she played at the Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival, and in 1990 also played at the Playboy Jazz Marathon. In 1991, in her final performances, Osborne returned to the Village Vanguard in New York for a week-long engagement. 

Further information about Mary Osborne is found here.

This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Osborne, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).