Ralph Bowen Explained

Ralph Bowen
Background:non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth Date:24 December 1961
Birth Place:Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Genre:Jazz
Occupation:Musician
Instrument:Tenor saxophone
Label:Criss Cross, Posi-Tone

Ralph Bowen (born December 24, 1961)[1] is a Canadian jazz saxophonist.

Biography

Bowen started piano lessons at an early age, with clarinet and saxophone lessons following soon after. At thirteen he led a quartet and performed in big bands in Toronto. As a teenager, he was awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to study music with Pat LaBarbera and Phil Nimmons at the Banff School of Fine Arts. While in Toronto, he studied with LaBarbera for eight years and developed a long-time association with drummer Keith Blackley and his father, drummer Jim Blackley. He performed and recorded with Canadian fusion group Manteca.

In 1983 and 1984, he was awarded two more grants to pursue his musical studies in at the jazz department at Indiana University, where his teacher was David Baker. In 1985, the same year he and Cecil Taylor were voted Main Jazz Men of the Year by the Toronto Globe and Mail, Bowen won the audition for the Blue Note Records co-leader position of the contemporary all-star New York based jazz band known as Out of the Blue (OTB). He moved to New York and would eventually record four albums for Blue Note.

In 1986, Bowen began to tour with jazz pianist Michel Camilo with whom he recorded a number of albums and soundtracks. Between 1986 and 1991 he completed three world tours with jazz pianist Horace Silver and toured Europe with Jim Beard. He has also worked with Orrin Evans, Jim Trompeter, Renee Rosnes, Earl MacDonald, Ralph Peterson Jr., Charles Fambrough, and Anthony Branker.

Bowen has led the jazz program at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.[2]

Awards and honors

Discography

As leader

With Out of the Blue

As sideman

With Anthony Branker

With Michel Camilo

With Orrin Evans

With others

Other sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ralph Bowen Musician Biography - Canadian Jazz Archive Online . https://web.archive.org/web/20110514131134/http://www.canadianjazzarchive.org/en/musicians/ralph-bowen.html. usurped. May 14, 2011. Canadian Jazz. Archive. 8 November 2016.
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20080927062323/http://www.nj.com/greatday/stories/more.html "The State of Jazz: Meet 40 More Jersey Greats"

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