Drummer/composer
Owen Howard, originally from Edmonton, Canada, has just garnered his second
JUNO Award Nomination for "Jazz Record of The Year (Solo)" for his
seventh album as a leader, Drum Lore Vol. 2 More Lore (on BJURecords). The JUNO Awards
will be presented on Sunday, March 15, 2015 at the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton,
Ontario.
Upon
receiving the news of the nomination Howard, said, "I'm obviously very excited about my 2nd
Juno nomination for 'Jazz Album of The Year' for my new CD Drum Lore Vol. 2
More Lore. I consider it a real honor to
be recognized for a project I feel very passionate about. The idea of the Drum Lore project, which
highlights the drummer as composer, seems to reach out to people in a way that
was unexpected but certainly most welcomed!"
Owen
Howard has performed and recorded with the likes of Joe Lovano, Kenny Werner,
Tom Harrell, Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie, Dave Liebman, George Garzone,
Dave Holland, Eddie Henderson, Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton and many others. He
has appeared on over forty recordings to date, including five under his own
name, and has toured extensively throughout Europe, the United States and
Canada. With more than twenty years of successfully leading his own bands,
Howard is clearly an artist successfully following in the footsteps of
legendary drummers/bandleaders such as Tony Williams, Peter Erskine, Billy
Hart, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motian, Al Foster, Shelly Manne and others.
Now with
the release Drum Lore Vol. 2 - More Lore, the follow up to the
critically-acclaimed, 2011 Juno Award Nominated, Drum Lore (also on
BJURecords), Howard continues to celebrate and interpret music composed by
drummers, and also feature more of his own compelling compositions. Where Vol.
1 was conceived as a studio recording of sorts, with each piece featuring a
different configuration and concept, the second installment of the Drum Lore
project gives the listener a taste of what the group sounds like in its working
quintet format, featuring Adam Kolker (soprano & tenor saxophones, bass
clarinet), John O'Gallagher (alto saxophone), Frank Carlberg (piano), Johannes
Weidenmueller (bass) and the leader Owen Howard (drums).
Drum
Lore Vol. 2 offers up seldom heard originals by Philly Joe Jones and Joe
Chambers, as well as popular works by Victor Lewis, Paul Motian and Tony Williams.
The remainder of the recording is comprised of recent original compositions by
the leader. Highlights include, "Hey, It's Me You're Talkin' To", one
of Victor Lewis' most well known compositions; Joe Chambers' "Ungano"
(from the Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note album, Medina); "Haiku", a
composition that Howard composed at the piano in about ten minutes. "After
stating the 5-7-5-syllable form, the soloists are free to interpret at will.
It's quite different each time we perform it", said Howard; "Like Buttah","my
take on rhythm changes, which incidentally pays homage to Sonny Rollins' 'Oleo'
(which was a butter substitute back in the day)"; and "Got To Take
Another Chance", "a fun little piece by Philly Joe Jones that is based
on the chord changes of 'Take The 'A' Train'. I extracted the horn riff and
ending bit from the Max Roach/Clifford Brown version of 'A Train' (from the
record, A Study in Brown). I love Max's train ending on that cut. Straight up
fun!," said Howard; "Mumbo Jumbo" by the late great Paul Motian,
and "Pee Wee" by the legendary Tony Williams.
More on
Drum Lore: The birth of Drum Lore took place at a summer jazz workshop where
Howard was one of the several "artists-in-residence". The drummer
explains further, "As we were getting ready for a discourse on the finer
points of our various approaches to composition, one of the participants said
to me. 'Owen, why are you here? You're a drummer, and this is a composition
class? Well, how does one answer a comment like that? Rather than being
offended, I took it upon myself to dispel this myth that drummers can't, or
don't, compose." The brilliant result was Drum Lore (released in 2010 on
BJURecords), a recording of great stylistic diversity, dedicated to exploring
compositions exclusively by many of the revered drummers of our time. As Joe
Lovano has stated, "some of the hippest bandleaders and composers in jazz,
have come from the drum chair"; so many that Howard now offers Drum Lore
Vol. 2, and has at least several more CDs worth of music composed by drummers
that he'd like to record, so be on the lookout for the possibility of
"Drum Lore, Vol. 3" in the future.
See all of the nominees here: www.junoawards.ca/nominees
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