Also this issue: Sound Judgments Nostalgia, varnish and acoustic doors: tuning Verizon Hall to the Orchestra -- and expectations. -Peter Burwasser Progress Report Year one in the Orchestra's new home. -Peter Burwasser Rick Henderson -A.D. Amorosi Kara Lafty -Interview by Patrick Rapa Philadelphia Orchestra -Peter Burwasser The Go/The Witnesses/Gregg Foreman/The Trauma Queens -A.D. Amorosi Zwan -A.D. Amorosi Elliott -Chris Parker

December 12-18, 2002

musicpicks

The Greg Osby Four

"This music isn't for everyone," Greg Osby writes in the liner notes to his most recently issued CD. He shouldn't be so sure. Despite a preponderance of characteristically knotty melodies (inspired by numerology, physics and other such tuneful stuff), Osby's Inner Circle (Blue Note) rolls along smoothly, with ample stutter-steps and head-fakes but few unwelcome bumps. The man behind the machine has indeed forged an advanced, elliptical and somewhat exclusive album, but it's no less accessible than the rest of his oeuvre -- or that of fellow traveler Jason Moran, whose piano excursions provide the most consistently engaging component of Osby's quartet. Moran joins Osby here, and if past performances are any indication, their telepathic exchanges will confound viscera and cerebra in equal measure. No, this music isn't for everyone, but as Osby rightly qualifies: "It's for anyone ... who chooses to listen from an impartial perspective."

Sat., Dec. 14, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., $12.50-$25, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914.

—Nate Chinen