Known as one of jazz’s most vibrant emerging artists, Endea Owens is a Detroit-raised recording artist, bassist, and composer. She has been mentored by jazz icons such as Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker, and Ron Carter. She has toured and performed with Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Holliday, Diana Ross, Rhonda Ross, Solange, Jon Batiste, Jazzmeia Horn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Steve Turre. In 2018, Owens joined the Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a member of the house band, Stay Human. Since then, Owens has won an Emmy, Grammy Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award. Owens’s work has appeared on Jon Batiste’s Grammy Award-winning album We Are, Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, and H.E.R’s widely acclaimed Super Bowl LV performance.
In 2022, Owens composed an original piece about the life of Ida B. Wells entitled “Ida’s Crusade” for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and was also performed by the NYO Carnegie Hall Orchestra. Owens is set to premiere a newly commissioned work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and will serve as the 2023 MAC Music Innovator with that organization. In addition, Owens is the curator for the National Arts Club and also a fellow for “Jazz is Now!” with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, where she presents original compositions, curates series, and headlines performances for the 2022-2023 season. Owens’s debut album Feel Good Music is set for release in 2023.