Jazz Articles about Chuck Owen
About Chuck Owen
Instrument: Composer / conductor
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsChuck Owen: Renderings
by Pierre Giroux
Renderings by Chuck Owen and The WDR Big Band is a remarkable jazz album that showcases the artist's mastery as a composer, arranger and bandleader. This release stands as a testament to Owen's innovative approach to jazz music blending traditional elements with modern influences to create a unique and captivating sonic experience. The album title is an apt description of the musical approach taken by Owen, as he focuses on the works by other composers along ...
read moreChuck Owen and the WDR Big Band: Renderings
by Jack Bowers
Anyone who uses YouTube to search for contemporary jazz must surely be familiar with Germany's blue-ribbon WDR Big Band, as it is abundantly represented at the site. Bearing that in mind, it may come as no surprise to those seekers (and others) that the WDR's latest recording, on which it is paired with the esteemed Florida-based composer and arranger Chuck Owen, offers another master class in big-band artistry, or how to make even the most arduous charts seem deceptively simple. ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Jerome Wilson
Florida's Chuck Owen has been a jazz educator for over 40 years, led his big band, The Jazz Surge, for 25 years and earned seven Grammy nominations along the way, so he cannot be called an unknown. Still, it seems that he is nowhere as well known as he should be, going by the quality of the music on this CD which celebrates The Jazz Surge's 25th anniversary. The band's music has some of the brassy punch of ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Angelo Leonardi
Giunta al settimo disco, l'orchestra The Jazz Surge di Chuck Owen celebra i 25 anni di un'attività discografica ricca di riconoscimenti (tra cui sette nominations ai Grammy) e prestigiose collaborazioni (Chick Corea, Joe Lovano, Bob Brookmeyer, Dave Douglas, Bill Holman, Gerald Wilson e molti altri). Nata nel 1995 come estensione della cattedra di Owen all'University Of South Florida la formazione ha ottenuto negli anni rilievo nazionale col suo stile immerso nella tradizione orchestrale jazzistica ma ricco di ambiziose ...
read moreChuck Owen: Within Us
by Pierre Giroux
Anniversaries are a big deal, especially when they celebrate a notable achievement in the history of a contemporary jazz big band. So when the 25th Anniversary of the first recording of the Jazz Surge came along, Chuck Owen thought it would be a suitable occasion to acknowledge the past and continue to look forward, with the current release Within Us as an attestation to the collective identity of the band. The 19-piece band that is directed ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Jack Bowers
Any big band celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary has earned a triumph surpassing most others. To mark the occasion with an album as admirable as this one is icing on the celebratory cake. The fact is, composer/arranger Chuck Owen's Florida-based Jazz Surge, formed in 1995, shows no signs of aging or becoming obsolete. Thanks to Owen's broad-beamed and colorful charts, the Jazz Surge is as mesmerizing as a memoir and stylish as tomorrow. Half a dozen of Owen's ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Whispers on the Wind
by Jack Bowers
Chuck Owen's Florida-based and Grammy-nominated Jazz Surge is back in the saddle with another series of impressive musical portraits, Whispers on the Wind, whose genesis harkens back to Owen's childhood in windy Omaha, NE, and whose inspiration derives in part from the works of three contemporary authors: Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King (the last, as Owen writes, from King's Dark Tower series). To help cast the spell, Owen uses a number of instruments not generally associated with big-band ...
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