Osborne to headline, host Vineyard Vibes

Lauren Carter

When people ask funk and R&B artist Jeffrey Osborne what’s been happening with his career, his answer is simple: the same thing that’s always been happening.

Now 59, Osborne may not top the Billboard charts on a regular basis, but he has continued to release albums and perform live shows around the country. This Saturday he’ll host and headline the seventh annual Vineyard Vibes, a showcase on Martha’s Vineyard for some of Berklee College of Music’s students, alumni and faculty, and a tribute to legends of soul like James Brown and Aretha Franklin.

Osborne said when Berklee contacted him about the event, he was eager to get involved.

“I was born and raised in Providence, R.I., and growing up I played in that area,” he said during a telephone interview before a performance in Philadelphia. “Most of the people I played with were working their way through the Berklee school of music, so it kind of brings back a lot of memories for me. And I usually vacation on the Vineyard every year for the month of August, so the Vineyard is one of the places I’m very familiar with — and the funny thing is all the years I’ve vacationed [there], I’ve never performed there. It’s just ironic that all these things I’m familiar with came together.”

The son of an accomplished trumpet player and the youngest of 12 children, Osborne got his start in music with the group L.T.D. (Love, Togetherness and Devotion) in 1969. He went solo 10 years later, scoring five gold and platinum records throughout his career, as well as Top 40 hits including “Love Power,” which he performed with Dionne Warwick, and “On the Wings of Love,” which was performed by Clay Aiken on the popular talent competition “American Idol.”

These days, however, commercial success has proven more elusive for Osborne, who continues to work consistently, though in locations more removed from the mainstream spotlight.

He released “From the Soul” in 2005 on his own label, JayOz Records, and said he plans to return to the studio in September to begin work on his next record.

“People ask, ‘What have you been doing?’” Osborne said. “I’ve been making records, they’re just not hearing them. It’s not just me; it’s all the people I know, all the people I grew up with, like Earth, Wind & Fire. We get to a certain point in our careers, and there aren’t as many outlets. Stations will play old songs, [but] they just won’t play anything new that I give them. I think it’s part of the evolutionary process, and we all go through that.”

Osborne said it comes down to demographics. Radio stations tend to play artists that cater to the coveted, record-buying 13-25 age bracket, and his fans don’t generally fall into that group.

Osborne also observed that commercial success is becoming harder to achieve in a music environment where the focus has shifted from artistry and innovation to simplicity and hit songs.

“I don’t hear distinction in a lot of today’s artists,” he said. “I can put the radio on and I can’t tell one from the other. It’s sad, but it’s true. When I was growing up, if you heard Aretha Franklin, you knew it was Aretha Franklin. If you heard Marvin Gaye, you knew it was Marvin Gaye. I don’t hear that today. Music used to have so much character and so much personality, and now it’s all about a beat, a groove. I’d like to see it come back around, where it evolves and it opens up and it expresses itself.”

Osborne said that’s a prime reason why schools like Berklee and events like Vineyard Vibes are so important.

“It’s schools like Berklee that will preserve what the art of music is all about,” he said. “They’re teaching young people the art, and they’re teaching them to appreciate music, and that it is an art form. I think the problem with the younger generation, as far as music goes, is that if you listen to today’s music, there’s not a lot of music in today’s music. There are some good songs, but I’m not sold on a lot of the young artists yet, because what I see is a lot of young people not expressing themselves through music — they’re not learning music, they’re learning to sample. Musically we’ve gone backwards, as opposed to opening up and letting it flourish.”

Still, despite a changing industry where music has become almost secondary to marketability, Osborne said commercial recognition is important, but not the only measure of success. He said the opportunity to touch people’s lives and share stages with many of the artists he grew up admiring, and will help pay tribute to on Saturday, has been “priceless.”

“I think that’s the beauty of what music has done for me,” Osborne said. “It’s allowed me to really touch and rub elbows with some of my favorite people in life, to be able to not only admire these people and have them influence me as an artist but to get the opportunity to stand on stage and perform with them. To me, that’s what living a dream is.”

As such, Osborne said he is content with where he stands in the musical scheme of things — though he would like to try his hand at acting — and appreciative of what music has helped him achieve thus far. Still, he has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

“I’m just fortunate I get to work, and work quite a bit,” he said. “I’ve built such a long list of hit records since 1970, so I’m able to work without a record. I think that people think that what we do is glamour and glitter and all easy, but it is a grind, it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of people in the right places, and you also need some luck. So it all has to come together, and for me I’m very thankful for what I’ve achieved in life. I really couldn’t repay music for what it has given me.”