Endea Owens and the Cookout

A joyful, head-bobbing set of masterful jazz. —NPR Detroit-raised bassist and composer Endea Owens is one of jazz’s most vibrant emerging artists. She has been mentored by jazz icons such as Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker, and Ron Carter, and she has toured and performed with Wynton Marsalis, Diana Ross, Solange, and Jazzmeia Horn, to name a few. In 2018, Endea graduated from Juilliard and joined the Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a member of the house band. Since then, Owens has won an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Peabody. In 2022, Owens composed for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra a piece about the life of Ida B. Wells called “Ida’s Crusade”; it was also performed by Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz orchestra. Her debut album, Feel Good Music, arrived in 2023.