With her funky double bass sound, Detroit-born bassist, composer and bandleader Endea Owens, who trained at New York’s Juilliard School, is one of the most exciting emerging talents on the American jazz scene. Supported by mentors such as Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker and Ron Carter, Endea Owens has played her way into the limelight on her own terms and has already won an Emmy, a Grammy and a George Foster Peabody Award. She has performed with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Holliday, Diana and Rhonda Ross, Solange, Jazzmeia Horn, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Steve Turre and played in Jon Batiste's »Stay Human«, the house band of »The Late Show With Stephen Colbert«.

When the effects of the Covid pandemic made life difficult for many people in New York, Endea Owens put together a band to accompany the distribution of free meals. The »Community Cookout« acted as a powerful, groovy, cheerful encouragement in difficult times, »Feel Good« was Endea Owens' motive and motto, she says it and she does it: »If you have the ability to do something, you should do it. So it wasn't even a second thought to create The [Community] Cookout, to create something that would benefit everyone«.

In 2022, Endea Owens composed an original work about the life of Ida B. wells titled »Ida’s Crusade« for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, which was also performed by the NYO Carnegie Hall Orchestra. Endea premiered a commissioned work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and worked as a MAC Music Innovator in 2023. In addition to her work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, she has curated for the National Arts Club and was a fellow at »Jazz is Now!« at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem in 2022. In the summer of 2023, Endea Owens released her debut album »Feel Good Music« as a solo artist with her band The Cookout.

Endea Owens & The Cookout:
Endea Owens Double bass
Keith Brown Piano
Shenel Johns Vocals
Louis Fouché Saxophone
Kris Johnson Trumpet
Lee Pearson Percussion