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Jonathan Rowden

"Jonathan Rowden is making some notable noise way out west...a west coaster with something fresh to say and play" - Josef Woodard, Downbeat Magazine

About Me

axophonist/composer JONATHAN ROWDEN was born in Los Angeles, and raised along the west coast from Seattle to Orange County. Currently residing in the eastern Los Angeles area, his quartet's debut in 2013 he has quickly gained a reputation as one of the foremost younger creative-music artists in the diverse LA jazz and creative-music scene. Drawing from his eclectic taste and background in classical music and new music, he aims to create music that spans beyond traditional genres under the jazz umbrella, and explores new territory. His melodic lyricism, rhythmic acuity, and a fiery passion for group improvisation takes listeners on a journey beyond listening, and to more deeply engaging in the moment. His quartet, THE JONATHAN ROWDEN GROUP is an instrumental quartet at whose aesthetic core is a honed interplay between structured, original composition and free improvisation that rides a tumultuous continuum from serene, spiritual calmness to brutalizing intensity, and has quickly deemed them to be among Los Angeles’ most distinctive, cohesive, and original new voices. His debut album featuring the Jonathan Rowden Group “BECOMING” was released (LP, CD, mp3) on the Los Angeles-based boutique label Orenda Records on May 27th, 2014 and is receiving acclaim from listeners and critics alike. Downbeat Magazine reviewed it, giving 3 Stars for Becoming stating: “ [it] is a mix of unabashed emotionality, compositional breadth and occasional flights of free-ish fancy...is more than the sum of a series of unconnected parts, but rather plays out like a suite- minded structural grand plan...adding up to an intriguing introductory mission statement from a West Coaster with something fresh to say and play.” His second album with the JRG is slated for a mid/2016 release.

Rowden is also the co-founder and creator of WYR, a collaborative, improvisational trio with drummer-percussionists Chris Wabich and James Yoshizawa. The group blends electronic- effects with acoustic world percussion and live sampling to create a sonic experience that is unique to itself and defies traditional genre-classification. WYR frequently collaborates with other artists in unconventional instrumentations. Most recently, they collaborated with acclaimed vocalists Areni Agbabian (lead singer of the Tigran Hamasyan Quintet) and Joanna Wallfisch (recent Sunnyside artist) in a live-filming project entitled Terranigma. The concert film was recorded and produced by Alex Chaloff at the Blue Whale on September 15th 2015, and is due for public release in January 2016.

Education continues to be an important component of Rowden's career - he is a former adjunct professor of music at MTSAC (Mount San Antonio Community College) and is currently an adjunct at CBU (California Baptist University) in Riverside, California. As a masterclass clinician he has given numerous recent clinics and workshops at many colleges and universities and high schools. Rowden also founded Tear It Down, as nonprofit organization for the development and presentation of creative-music artists in Los Angeles & Orange County now co-run by himself and June Pai. TiD presents curated, satellite concerts for southern California's most interesting up-and-coming artists.

My Jazz Story

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