Ulysses Owens Jr. | Three Grammys and a classroom

Winning Drumeo’s Jazz award and then, a year later, its education Legacy Award is an unusual double.

It also tells you exactly who Ulysses Owens Jr. is: a first-call New York jazz drummer who spends as much of his life teaching as playing, and who has somehow also found time to put a musical on Broadway.

Here is one of the busiest people in jazz.

Who is Ulysses Owens Jr.?

Ulysses Owens Jr. was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and came up through the church — which, for an American drummer, is a musical education you cannot buy.

He studied at the Juilliard School, in its jazz programme, and stayed in New York.

The playing

He has won three Grammy awards across his career, largely through his work with Christian McBride — the bassist’s Big Band and trio have been a constant — and he has a sideman list running through Kurt Elling, Wynton Marsalis, Diane Schuur, Renee Fleming and a great many more.

His own bands include Generation Y, a group built around younger players, which is a very Owens thing to do.

The teaching

He is faculty at Juilliard and at The New School in New York, and he taught Drumeo’s first 30-Day Jazz course — which, for a lot of drummers who had never played a jazz gig, was the first time the language was explained properly.

He also runs Don’t Miss a Beat, a Jacksonville arts and education non-profit.

Broadway

In 2024 he launched the Broadway musical A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong story, as a producer. Drummers who produce Broadway shows are not a large category.

The awards

Jazz Drummer Of The Year in 2024, then the Dom Famularo Award for Education — Drumeo’s Legacy award for teaching — in 2025, recognising his work as “performer, educator, and leader”.

What Ulysses Owens Jr. actually does

He is a big-band drummer. That is a specific and undervalued skill: reading charts, catching an ensemble figure with the whole horn section, driving eighteen people from behind. The Christian McBride Big Band work is a masterclass in it.

His brushes are exceptional. Brush playing is a dying art and he is one of its best current practitioners.

He has church time. The gospel background is audible in the backbeats — there is a physical weight to his 2 and 4 that a purely conservatory-trained drummer would not have.

He accompanies singers properly. Kurt Elling, Diane Schuur, Renee Fleming — playing behind a vocalist is a completely different job from playing behind a horn, and he is trusted with it repeatedly.

He explains things well. The teaching is not a side hustle he is bad at. Watch the Drumeo jazz course material and the clarity is remarkable.

Ulysses Owens Jr.’s setup

• Drums — Gretsch. He is a listed Gretsch artist, in traditional jazz sizes rather than anything oversized.
• Cymbals — Zildjian, with K Constantinople models — including an 18” K Constantinople Crash — very much the dark, dry, hand-hammered end of the range.
• Heads — Evans, where he is an artist.
• Beater — he has a signature beater with Dragonfly Percussion, which is a beautifully niche thing to have your name on.

Every era, with buy links, is on Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Rig Vault page.

Want the sound without the rig?

Two things, and neither is a drum.

Buy brushes and learn them. A pair costs less than a takeaway and will open a whole register of the instrument that most drummers never touch. Almost nobody does this, which is exactly why it is worth doing.

Then buy one dark, hand-hammered ride. The K Constantinople end of the range — thin, dry, with a defined stick sound and a short wash. It is the single most important cymbal on a jazz kit and it will change how you play more than a new kit would. Our cymbal buying guide covers what hand-hammering actually does, and the Gear Guru will spec a jazz setup to a budget.

Where to start listening

• Christian McBride Big Band — The Good Feeling (2011). Big-band drumming, done right.
• Christian McBride Trio — Live at the Village Vanguard. The small-group side.
• Kurt Elling — anything from the period. Playing behind a singer.
• Generation Y. His own band, and the younger players he champions.
• The Drumeo 30-Day Jazz course. If you have never played jazz, start here.

Final thoughts

There is a version of a jazz career that is entirely about the bandstand. Owens is the other kind: playing at the very top level, and then spending the rest of the week making sure the people coming behind him can do it too.

The two Drumeo awards in consecutive years — one from the public vote for playing, one from the panel for teaching — is as neat a summary as anyone could ask for.

See Ulysses Owens Jr.’s full rig in the Rig Vault, or read about Terri Lyne Carrington — another jazz drummer whose teaching may outlast her records.