Endea Owens
The Hub, Edinburgh, 25/08/24
Endea Owens and The Cookout Sextet.
Though there were closing events, technically this gig at the hub was the last concert performance, and what a display of energy, boldness and superspeed musical prowess it was.
Detroit-based jazz bassist and composer Endea Owens and her sextet, The Cookout (piano, trumpet, sax, vocals, bass and drums), closed the Edinburgh International Festival in dynamic form, supplementing their advertised set with an unofficial ‘second half’ of farewell tunes, which unfortunately I couldn’t stay for.
Opening with a recent band number, ‘Where the Nubians Grow’ (2023), Endea Owens launched into a gutsy, boisterous solo, leading into a driving reworking of Miles Davis’ ‘So What’, from the classic Kind of Blue album (1959). This threw a starting number of different era jazz tropes into the mix, with a decidedly modern groove-based twist.
Then guest vocalist Shenel Johns lifted the roof with soaring soprano on a shuffling, swinging ‘The Power of Love’ (Huey Lewis and the News, 1985), topped by a blistering alto sax contribution.
This sextet do indeed cook. Alternating on stage for different songs, they improvised on top of their own numbers and standards with power, pace, poise and an injection of fiery, interwoven dissonance from trumpet and saxophone.
‘Cycles’, another original, was led off by virtuosic drummer Lee Pearson, followed by ‘Dr Feelgood’ (Aretha Franklin, 1967), Owens’ reflective ‘Black Matter’, and an affecting ‘Miss Celie’s Blues’ bass/vocals duet, taken from the 1985 movie of Alice Walker’s prize-winning novel, ‘The Color Purple’.
From time-to-time throughout a lively set, Endea Owens tried to encourage what for her was a rather staid, if friendly, audience into life. More of a club vibe is what the Cookout enjoy. They may not have quite got it, but they and we could still sense the shared musical appreciation and genuine enjoyment in the air.
While Europe has a thriving jazz scene, rising star Endea Owens showed Edinburgh that when it comes to explosive talent, the USA is still where much of the action is.
