The recipient of five individual GRAMMY nominations and a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, Chuck Owen’s compositions have been performed widely; by the Netherlands’ Metropole Orch., WDR Big Band, Brussels Jazz Orch., Aarhus Big Band, Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orch. and numerous others. Chuck’s evocative and intensely personal work is steeped in the jazz tradition but draws liberally and playfully from a diverse array of influences.
Since 1995, Owen’s primary creative outlet has been his own 19-piece Jazz Surge. Conductor as well as primary composer/arranger, he has produced each of the Surge’s 7 highly feted CDs. Whispers On the Wind, released in 2017, was recognized with 4 GRAMMY Nominations while named #1 Big Band Album in the annual Jazz Station Awards. River Runs (2013), a stunning 5-movement genre-bending orchestral/big band hybrid and The Comet’s Tail (2009) also received GRAMMY nominarions. Their most recent recording Within Us (2021) was celebrated with a sold-out performance at NY’s Birdland while multiple critics acclaimed it one of the year’s best jazz releases.
Retired from the University of South Florida where he taught for 40 years, Chuck was accorded the title of “Distinguished Professor Emeritus.” He continues to serve as President of ISJAC (International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers), an organization he helped found having formerly served as President of IAJE and panelist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, the NEA, ASCAP, the Recording Academy, and numerous others.
Renderings, Chuck’s 2023 album project in collaboration with the renown WDR Big Band, received rave reviews worldwide, making the lists of several annual top 10 releases. Meanwhile, ReSurgence, his new septet featuring several members from the Jazz Surge along with the luminescent vocalist, Kate McGarry, have their first album, Magic Light, set to debut in Spring 2024 amidst a flurry of performances & tours.