Chuck Owen & WDR BIG BAND - Renderings (CD)

Release Date: 07/21/23

All charts conducted & arranged by multi-Grammy nominated Chuck Owen - Performed by the multi-Grammy winning WDR Big Band, Cologne

Seven-time-Grammy nominated, Chuck Owen rediscovered the joy (and challenge!) of being an arranger - or re-interpreter - rather than the principal composer, if you will. More importantly, it was the immediacy, imagination, sensitivity, and musical vision of the band's 'rendering' of Chuck's lifeless notes on a page, while most of the world was still in Covid hibernation, that defines this recording.

In a sense, the idea for 'Renderings' was born when Karolina Strassmayer, WDR's alto saxophonist asked if Chuck would arrange one of her compositions for an upcoming feature project. He was quite honored; but he quickly became aware that it had been a long time since he had taken on arranging anyone else's music. Owen found himself invigorated by the exploration of the new 'world' she provided through her composition as well as the challenge of fashioning his own home within it.

While working on the chart, Chuck received word that the planned recording date with WDR had been moved up 9 months! With a full teaching load and an international conference to produce later that spring his writing time was limited. So, with no compelling 'narrative' for the album project yet in mind, Owen decided to use the opportunity to finally undertake a big band arrangement of the old Sinatra/Tommy Dorsey classic 'This Love of Mine' based on a small group chart he had written some 20 years earlier. Chuck also thought that revising an earlier arrangement he had done of Chick Corea's 'Arabian Nights' specifically for the WDR group (and to feature Sara Caswell on violin) might be fun and a great foil to the other charts. ...the concept was emerging!

The answer came with absolute clarity. He could expand on and totally embrace the somewhat unplanned focus of writing arrangements - a prospect that, after years of primarily focusing on original works, he found incredibly exhilarating. Owen invited other WDR band members to submit some of their compositions. Incredible Results!