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Jazz Is Now: The Ekep Nkwelle Quintet – An Endea Owens Curation

The Ekep Nkwelle Quintet:

Ekep Nkwelle, voice
Jayla Chee, bass
Bruce Acosta, guitar
Domo Branch, drums
Seth Finch, piano

Ekep Nkwelle is a 23 year old Cameroonian-American vocalist and songwriter. Born in Washington, DC, she began her musical journey while studying Classical Voice and Jazz Performance at Duke Ellington School of the Arts High School. She received her undergraduate degree from Howard University in 2021, studying Jazz Voice under the tutelage of vocalist, Christie Dashiell. Her gift and years of musical training have led her to the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York where she studies under Charenee Wade to receive a master’s degree in Jazz Voice in 2023. She has been blessed to perform at many venues and events, some notable ones being The Kennedy Center, Dizzy’s Jazz Club, DC Jazz Fest, Tri-C Jazz Fest, and International Jazz Day. With her music, Ekep strives to display her deep knowledge of and passion for Black music, history and culture to people all over the world.

This event is curated by Endea Owens.

About the Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships

Since its founding, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem has provided young artists with opportunities to perform as well as curate concerts and events. NJMH Artistic Director Christian McBride started curating performances and presentations at the Museum in 2006, and Artistic Director Jon Batiste began in 2010 while a student at Juilliard.  The excitement and energy those events brought to our community inform our current programming and creative vision.

As Christian and Jon became globally recognized jazz ambassadors, the Museum continued to provide emerging artists with career-enhancing opportunities to curate events at the Museum.  In 2022, we formalized this initiative as the Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships, with generous funding from the New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fellowship Program.  Our inaugural cohort of Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellows includes vibraphonist Joel Ross and bassist Endea Owens. These innovative artists have already made a splash on the international jazz scene with Joel releasing three albums on the legendary Blue Note record label, and Endea locking in the bass chair in Jon Batiste’s Stay Human band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Endea and Joel will be performing and curating a variety of events at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem throughout fall 2022.
Tue, Sep 13
7:00 pm

National Jazz Museum in Harlem

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