endea owens and the cookout

Saturday, September 23

TIME: 6:00-7:15PM

VENUE: wagner stage. MIDWAY PLAISANCE at South WOODLAWN AVE.

endea owens and the cookout

Known as one of jazz’s most vibrant emerging artists, Endea Owens is a Detroit-raised recording artist, bassist, and composer. She has been mentored by jazz icons including Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker, and Ron Carter, and has toured and performed with Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Holliday, Diana Ross, Rhonda Ross, Solange, Jon Batiste, Jazzmeia Horn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Steve Turre, among others.

In 2018, Owens graduated from The Juilliard School and joined the Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a member of the house band, Stay Human. Since then, she has won an Emmy, a Grammy, and a George Foster Peabody Award, and her work has appeared on Jon Batiste’s Grammy-winning album We Are, in the Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, and as part of H.E.R.’s widely acclaimed Super Bowl LV performance. 

Owens has taught across the U.S., South America, and Europe. She is also the curator for the National Arts Club and a fellow for Jazz is Now! with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, where she presents original compositions, curates series, and headlines performances. 

In 2020, fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic, she founded the Community Cookout, a non-profit organization that provides meals and music to underserved neighborhoods in New York City. To date, Community Cookout has helped feed close to 3,000 New Yorkers and has hosted over a dozen free music concerts.

In 2022, she composed Ida’s Crusade (about the life of Ida B. Wells) for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. It was also performed by the NYO Carnegie Hall Orchestra. In 2023, she will premiere a newly commissioned work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, serve as the 2023 MAC Music Innovator with the organization, and release her debut album, Feel Good Music. 

The musicians:

Endea Owens - bass

Jerome Jennings - Drums

Shenel Johns - Vocals

Jhoard- Vocals

Keith Brown- Piano

Louis Fouche - Alto Sax

Kris Johnson - Trumpet