Grammy and Emmy award-winning bassist Endea Owens and her band, the Cookout, dazzled Bowker Auditorium with an evening of jazz on Friday, Feb. 7.

Endea Owens is known as a dynamic emerging jazz artist, bassist and composer. She is the founder and bandleader of the Cookout. Originally raised in Detroit, she graduated from The Juilliard School and joined “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” as a member of the house band, Stay Human.

Owens would go on to win a Grammy Award for her work in Jon Batiste’s 2021 album “We Are,” as well as an Emmy Award with “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” This year, she won another Grammy Award for her work in Batiste’s film “American Symphony.”

On Friday night, Owens and the Cookout members took to the stage. “How’s everybody doing tonight?” she asked the audience. In addition to Endea Owens, who plays double bass, the Cookout featured Willerm Delisfort on piano, Nia Drummond on vocals, Anthony Hervey on trumpet, Kevin Oliver Jr. on saxophone and Diego Ramirez on drums.

The concert opened with “Where The Nubians Grow,” an original song from Owen’s 2023 debut album, “Feel Good Music.” In a pre-show interview, she reflected on what composing has been like. “[Composition is] so symbolic of life. Like we all have the choice to take risks, to play it safe, to coast through the melodies, to add a little tension, to make it peaceful right here. And everything has a story line, so I always think of each composition as a beautiful story with its own identity and its own weight and meaning.”

With the bass as the band’s heartbeat, Owens tuned into both her craft and that of her fellow musicians. Balanced by energy and stillness, each artist tuned into the voice of their instrument, letting them shine, all the while listening to those around them. Saxophonist Kevin Oliver Jr. and trumpetist Anthony Hervey each played solos, cruising through compelling riffs.

The next segment featured the bass, piano and drums. Owens performed a riveting, playful solo. “I always call it divine intervention because the bass was chosen for me,” Owens said in the interview. Owens started as a keyboardist and pianist, playing intuitively by ear. “And then I transitioned to violin, and I was first chair in everything, of course … But one day, I saw the basses laying around. We didn’t have any bass players and I said, ‘I can do that, that’s nothing. Let me pick up the bass and see what I can play.’ And I was able to play the whole Mozart Symphony 25 just by listening. So, after that my orchestral director said, ‘Well Endea, you have to play the bass now.’”

At first, Owens refused. But soon she took up the instrument. “So that kind of chose my path and he always said that I would thank him later. So, I grew to love the bass,” Owens said.

Pianist Willerm Delisfort struck a mesmerizing combination of keys and Drummer Diego Ramirez clashed catchy percussion sounds in their own solos. The auditory and visual experience of live music could be felt – from absorbing delectable tunes to watching the artists enjoy themselves. When asked about why she created her own band, Owens said, “I always think about our political climate right now, where everything seems to be extracted away from us and the disrespect is endless to our identity and our cultures and just who we are as human beings and just our humanity as a whole. So, I created my band the Cookout because I wanted to set an example of what it really means to have an equal ground.”

She talked about creating space for oneself and how the Cookout could inspire others to do the same. “… I wanted to actually start that, not only for myself, but for others. So, I always believe in a person creating their own lane. If all of these doors are closed, you can open your own. You have the gifts and you have the tool and the mind to do so.”

Then the band’s vocalist, Nia Drummond, entered and sang uplifting lyrics about inner peace, happiness and love. And after playing an album original called “Feel Good,” Endea Owens invited the audience to enjoy themselves, whether that meant sitting back, shouting, dancing or singing. Drummond then performed Norah Jones’s “The Nearness of You.”

The show ended with “For The People,” the final song in Owens’s album. It received a standing ovation. Audience members met the artists after the show and thanked them for their work.

Owens said that when she plays, “I’m not even on this earth. I’m a person that is quite ethereal. I feel like an ethereal being, like I’m boundless, I’m limitless. That’s what music makes me feel like.” Surely, the artist inspired that love in her audience.

Medha Mankekar can be reached [email protected].