Charles met Houston Ross midway through 2000’s initial decade on the bandstand at Matthew Willner, a Charlottesville funk/fusion guitar. Houston immediately remarked on his admiration and said that he had not heard a local player of horn at that level since Leroi Moor. Owens was born in 1972. He is not to be confused his more well-known tenor saxophone nameake. Charles began his journey on his own, leading his own groups after a lot of hard work, apprenticeships, and reflection. Charles was a regular at the New York City jazz club Smalls on Friday nights and also appeared at many other legendary NYC nightclubs like Sweet Basil, Chicago Blues Blues, The Blue Note and The Zinc Bar. Owens found himself traveling the world, an educational experience that he treasures as much as any other aspect in his musical education. In the late 1990s, Owens was ready to record. He contributed a few tracks to Jazz Underground: Live At Smalls (1998), which was released by Impulse Records. The Charles Owens Quartet’s first album, Eternal Balance, was released in 1999. On this date, Owens, Omer Avital (bassist), Daniel Freedman (drummer) and Jason Lindner (pianist) were the members of the quartet. Jason Lindner’s Premonition was also performed, as well as an unreleased album from the Omer Avital sextet. Charles also composed and performed the music in Fly Trap, an independent film. Entertainment Weekly, Village Voice, New York Times and L.A. Times all praised Charles’ work. Charles is happy to be a Charlottesville-based father and performs weekly with the Houston Ross Trio despite being praised by Entertainment Weekly, the Village Voice, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. Houston composed the melody for “Nightfall” Houston wrote the melody for “Nightfall” in Houston’s buttery voice. He provided Charles with a demo of the tenor part, which Houston sang in Houston’s melodic and sweet tenor. Charles learned it from the notes and produced warm and engaging results that were close to the energetic and diverse Sokoband. Visit www.sokoband.com
