Up Close with Ulysses Owens Jr.

Thank you to my Winnipeg correspondents Jeff King and Aaron Sabasch who hipped to these great ones of drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., via the Facebook, shown here playing with the Christian McBride trio:






Owens latest album on the Criss Cross label "Unanimous" has actually been making the rounds on my car's CD player for the past few months and I've really been digging his playing and hard swinging concept.

Check out Peter Hum's glowing review of his new album here over at jazzblog.ca:

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/06/07/young-and-fine-ii-ulysses-owens-jr-cd-reviewed/

I came across a couple of interviews with Owens and if you read them you can tell that he definitely is one drummer to watch in the years to come:

http://inflatableferret.com/interviews/interview-ulysses-owens/

http://revivalist.okayplayer.com/2012/08/27/ulysses-owens-jr-redefining-the-commerce-of-creativity/

Here's Ulysses sharing a nice practice pad warm-up lesson with us:



And this is also a nice one of Owens showing off his chops on some Yamaha drums:



I've heard via Christian McBrides Facebook feed that he's recently recorded new quintet and trio albums to be released in the new year. I'm definitely looking forward to checking those out!