High school senior Zandy Owens, guitarist in the jazz band at Seattle's Bishop Blanchet High School, is the KNKX School of Jazz guest DJ for February.
With his long, bleach blonde hair, Owens looks more like a rocker than a jazz musician. While his early years on guitar did include a lot of rock n’ roll, now in his senior year at Bishop Blanchet, Owens is dedicated to jazz.
Owens doesn’t limit his love of jazz to the guitar, either. As he shared an hour of his favorite tunes with KNKX, Owens highlighted his piano heroes Bill Evans and Chick Corea.
Corea’s tune “Armando’s Rhumba” was stuck in Owens' head for years before he learned the song's title.
“I’ve heard a lot more Chick Corea since, and it’s all wonderful music,” he said.
During his show, Owens features the great European guitarist Django Reinhardt, as well as Joscho Stephan and Olli Sokkeli. Their impossibly fast playing has the “shredding” energy of the rock n' roll that drew him in early on, and inspires Owens to continue to focus on his guitar technique.
Drawing on his experience singing in the choir at Bishop Blanchet, Owens chose an unusual vocal track for his playlist: a version of “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing” performed by Ella Fitzgerald and the Duke Ellington band from a 1964 television broadcast of the Ed Sullivan Show.
A fan of classical music from youth, Owens emphasized the technical prowess of pianist Frank Dupree on a big band recording of “Toccata Op. 8” by composer Nikolai Kapustin.
“It breaks a lot of rhythmic rules…it starts off at a million miles an hour!," he said.
Owens also leans into his family's Polish roots with a Yiddish-inspired recording from Andrej Makarevich and a jazzy polka from the Vostok Allstars.
Clearly Owens has a passion for jazz and improvisation that goes beyond genre boundaries. We're thrilled to share this music lover's taste with KNKX listeners.
Which instrument do you play and why?
I play guitar, mainly jazz and classical. I love playing guitar for many reasons, however the best descriptor that comes to mind is that I believe guitar is the greatest puzzle in the world. It never gets boring, and its endless complexities and ways to improve keep me always coming back to conquer the next piece, technique, skill.
What’s your all-time favorite jazz piece?
"Armando’s Rhumba" by Chick Corea. This is one of the first jazz pieces I ever remember hearing, and that engaging groove and great rhythm always captured my attention. Fast forward to today, I perform that piece all the time, use it for auditions, and just love playing it. The i-iio-V7 chord progression is just so iconic and suits the tune so well.
Who is your jazz hero?
Keith Jarrett is my jazz hero. The record and story behind the Köln Concert, I think, solidifies what I love about jazz: creating something so unique, so pure, especially considering Keith Jarret was facing horrible performing circumstances due to a piano catastrophe. However, instead of saying no to the concert, he created music only that piano could have played. I listen to it nearly every day, and it is a perfect representation of jazz in my opinion.
Why jazz?
I think freedom and collaboration is something very unique in jazz. And that leads to creating some of the best music on the planet!
