For those unaware, Chuck Owen is a composer/arranger, conductor, producer, and a recognized leader in jazz education. The recipient of 5 Grammy nominations for his work with the Jazz Surge, he has also written for the WDR Big Band, Netherland’s Metropole Orkest, and many others.

He is also the recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship and currently serves as the founding President of ISJAC (International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers).

“Magic Light”, Chuck’s first album project with ReSurgence is set for an April 19th 2024 release by Origin Records. The septet, culled largely from members of his Jazz Surge big band, has already caused quite a buzz through its virtual appearance at the JEN X conference in 2021 as well an extended 2023 mid-west tour on top of featured performances in Florida and North Carolina.

With the luminescent songstress Kate McGarry joining in, a new side of Chuck’s writing emerges. A more intimate, more exposed, but just as evocative!

1. Spinning Wheel (5:41)
2. Can’t Remember Why (8:41)
3. . . . And Your Point Is?? (9:37)
4. Omaha (6:52)
5. Apalachicola (10:52)
6. We Rise (6:34)
7. What Once Was Lost (10:01)
8. Magic Light (5:30)

This sumptuously-hued new recording opens on the exuberant Spinning Wheel and the luxuriant Can’t Remember Why and then we get the rhythmically melodic . . . And Your Point Is?? and the ambient, low slung Omaha.

Along next is a highly atmospheric yearn found caught within Apalachicola, and that is backed by the euphoric We Rise, the album rounding out on the ache found within What Once Was Lost, closing on the melancholic Magic Light.

PERSONNEL:
Kate McGarry – Vocals
Sara Caswell – Violin
Jack Wilkins – Saxophones
Corey Christiansen – Guitars
Chuck Owen – Piano, Keyboard, Accordion & Hammered Dulcimer
Mark Neuenschwander – Bass
Danny Gottlieb – Drums (Tracks 1,2,4,6 & 8)
Matt Wilson – Drums (Tracks 3,5 & 7)

www.chuckowen.com