Ephraim Owens

One of the most highly-regarded jazz musicians on the Austin, Texas scene, trumpeter Ephraim Owens has been the bandleader at Austin’s Continental Gallery since 2006. But he has also been touring and recording with the blues-focused, Jacksonville-based Tedeschi Trucks Band since 2015. Owens says that when he heard then-senior Roy Hargrove play trumpet, “That was it,” and he has credited Hargrove as his most direct influence. After attending the famed Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, and two years of community college, Owens left for Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. He joined the University’s jazz band, and in 1994 the band played at both the North Sea and Montreux Jazz Festivals. Owens relocated to Austin in 1996 to pursue his career full time, and soon became an area fixture, with then-Mayor Bruce Todd proclaiming June 14, 1997, as Ephraim Owens Day. Owens has toured and recorded across a range of genres. In a 2016 interview, he named Sheryl Crow, Mumford & Sons, and Patty Griffin as artists with whom he particularly enjoyed collaborating. In 2015, Owens joined the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and appears on the band’s albums Live from the Fox Oakland, I Am the Moon. Owens’ Austin Music Awards include: Best Horn Player in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017; Austin Music Hall of Fame induction in 2017; and Best Performing Band (Jazz) in 2018 and 2020. Find him on Facebook.