Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y

Miller Theatre commissioned the acclaimed writer (and musician) Tim Munro to write profiles of the creators featured onstage this season, with the goal of connecting listeners to both the creator and their music.

Ulysses Owens Jr. speaks in complete paragraphs. Which is all the more surprising given that I catch him in the car—at the beginning of a long evening drive home from a gig. “Nah, man, this is a perfect time,” he says. The line is crackly at his end, but his message comes through crystal clear. Ulysses lives his life with intention and speaks with focus. The following has been edited for clarity.

Heart and soul and vibe

Florida is the South. The commonality, particularly amongst the African American culture, is our roots in the church. I come from the Pentecostal Church. We have a certain kind of soulfulness and Blues in our sound. The style of Florida is charismatic music built on letting it all hang out. You give everything.

When you grow up in the church, your motivation becomes connecting your talent with the divine—so that it can move people in an impactful way. Because of how I grew up, there's going to be a sense of me playing tunes that are bluesy with heart and soul and vibe. With some kind of a spiritual undertone.

Though I don't play in church anymore, I didn't stop how I played in church. I just transferred it to the jazz club.

A matter of time

My journey into band leading was like my journey into being a parent. I always wanted to be one. I just didn’t know when it was going to happen.

There were two levels of motivation behind becoming a bandleader. One motivation was economic—I wanted to always be able to determine when I worked. The other motivation was artistic. I knew it was time for me to find my own voice.

There was a point in my career where I was working with many great bandleaders. I played with Christian McBride for seven years. By the end of that, I was like, ‘Christian, I love working with you. And it has inspired me to go out on my own, to have my own band.’

He was like, ‘I knew that it was just a matter of time.’

Stuff from the refrigerator

I arrange and compose. Composing, you are starting from bare minimum. You don't know what’s what. You have to determine the ingredients. You have to determine if there’s poultry or fish or whatever. You set the course of the meal.

Arranging, you know there’s already cutlery and food on the table. You get to determine where it goes and what people eat. Or we’re on the show Chopped. They say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a bunch of stuff from the refrigerator and it’s up to you to use that to make a meal.’

For me, inspiration begins when I’m either driving or right before I'm sleeping. Spaces where you’re very meditative and things are mentally quiet. So the mind can expand and go into a really beautiful, deep place.

I’m a huge fan of Spotify playlists. A few months ago, I was listening to an Art Blakey playlist and this really great song came on—“Waterfalls”—and I thought, ‘oh man, that sounds like my band, like Gen Y.’

A pivot

Leaving Christian's band in 2018, I was a little lost. I didn’t really know what I was going to do.

I had this idea for a book. The previous generation did not leave anything entrepreneurial for us. They would say to us, “Work hard, figure it out.” The book would include everything I wished someone had taught me about the music business. I’d been working on it for over ten years. I created a template where people could start from. It included notes from fireside chats—meetings on the road with Kurt Elling and Christian, dinner with Christian’s manager, a drink with his agent.

Gargi Shindé at Chamber Music America said I needed to develop this into a manuscript. Then a publisher decided to put it out, and I presented it at Chamber Music America’s national conference. That book (The Musician’s Career Guide: Turning Your Talent into Sustained Success) has changed the course of my professional life.

Drummer-leader

People get mad when I say this, but every drummer is unofficially the bandleader. You know, we’re sort of the “conductor” of the band. If a drummer shapes an ensemble the right way, it's going to be incredible. Or it could be terrible.

As a drummer, the instrument itself is a barricade, a barrier. When you look at a vocalist or a trumpeter, you can see their face. With a bassist, they’re hugging a huge instrument, but you can see their body. With a pianist, you can see their profile. Drums, you got this big instrument with toms and all kind of equipment covering up half your body.

I had work to do. First, positioning the drum set so I wasn't hidden. Then realizing that my vibe on the microphone was also part of my brand. Then picking the set—I had to figure out how my vision was clear, that it's me running the ship.

Gen Y

Once I became a bandleader (and once I became a father) my motivation and my agendas changed. It became about the development and the growth of those around me. How do I want to operate in a way that benefits people?

I knew I wasn’t going to just put together a band for the heck of it. My band leading voice was always going to have mentorship rolled into it. I love youthful energy. You get to reconnect with that old part of you. When things used to be new. They keep you young and remind you to not be jaded.

Gen Y is my band—I’m a bandleader, I have a vision, it's my program. But within all of that, I'm looking for opportunity to build other people, assist them in finding their own voice.

With experienced musicians, there's very little conversation. When I pull up a tune and I have someone who's my age—they already know my perspective. With someone young I have to take time with them, talk more. It has made me more patient as a person.

Behind the curtain

I'm in love with the process. That is what makes those of us who self-identify as nerds. We love the stuff that nobody else wants to talk about. I was that kid that was reading all the liner notes. I was that kid that will open a book and wanted to know everybody in the acknowledgements.

I've always been in love with knowing the behind…not even just behind the scenes, but like behind the inspiration, if you will. What made a person create this thing. And who's connected to them while they're creating.

One of my favorite projects was a YouTube series I hosted called From the Drummer's Perspective. It was a series of interviews with drummers I admire.

I interviewed Greg Hutchinson. There’s a recording of his with Christian McBride called Family Affair. In the interview he says, ‘Oh man, you know how we recorded that? It was in a drum room, but the engineer surrounded the perimeter of the drum set with all these area room mics.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?!’

I love that stuff. To go behind the curtain, so to speak, and learn information about how someone evolves into who they are.

A better band leader

Before I started teaching and doing entrepreneurial work, I was quite self-centered as an artist. I created from the perspective of, ‘This is what I need to say—there will be someone that wants to hear it.’

During the pandemic, I played a lot in Florida. A New York audience is very different than a Jacksonville audience. In New York they know the tunes and the subtleties.

In Jacksonville, they just loved music and wanted to enjoy themselves. They were like, ‘Yo, we're coming out and we’re going to spend $100 tonight on drinks and food and entertainment.’ They didn't really care about jazz—but they were exuberant and excited to experience it.

I learned how to cater to the everyday listener. Those things made me a better band leader…a better musician.

Tim Munro is a Brisbane-based, triple-Grammy-winning musician. He is currently Associate Professor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University

Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, without the prior written permission of the author.