Endea Owens carries a résumé that could anchor a season of conservatory programming — Juilliard, Ron Carter as a mentor, accolades that include an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Peabody — and then she named her ensemble The Cookout. That gap between credential and warmth is, more or less, what this show promises.
About the Show
Owens is a Detroit-raised bassist, composer, and bandleader whose debut album Feel Good Music (2023) signals both the range and the intent: the music blends jazz, soul, and global influences into what one presenter calls “a vibrant and deeply personal sound.” The arc from Detroit runs through mentors Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker, and Ron Carter, all three of them central figures in the jazz tradition she carried into Juilliard, where she graduated in 2018. She went from there to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s house band, Stay Human, a gig that proved her fluency across musical contexts. Her credits since span Jon Batiste’s Grammy-winning album We Are, the Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, H.E.R.’s Super Bowl LV performance, and stage time alongside Wynton Marsalis, Diana Ross, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Solange.
The formal commission work runs a different lane: “Ida’s Crusade,” Owens’s original composition about Ida B. Wells, premiered with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2022, and she has since premiered commissioned works with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. She serves as curator for the National Arts Club and as a fellow for “Jazz is Now!” at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
The Cookout she brings to Club B10 features CV Dashiell on drums, Christopher McBride on saxophone, Trunino Lowe on trumpet, Miki Hayama on piano, and Nia Drummond on vocals. The ensemble name has its own origin: in 2020, Owens founded the Community Cookout, a nonprofit that provides meals and live music to underserved New York neighborhoods. NPR Music’s phrase for what this band does live — “head-bobbing groove” — is a useful orientation: this is jazz as occasion, not jazz as exercise.
Venue & Logistics
The show takes place in Club B10 at MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams), a multi-venue arts complex that draws audiences from the Capital Region and the Berkshires. Show time is 8 p.m. Saturday, November 14.
Tickets
Tickets are $36 advance, $46 week-of, $56 preferred, and $20 for students. Buy tickets