By Shauna Stuart | For The Birmingham Times
When Endea Owens’ tour with her band, The Cookout, took the stage at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB’s) Alys Stephens Center in early October, the band got some emergency help from local musicians.
Less than two hours before the concert, Owens — the Emmy and Grammy award-winning bandleader, composer, and bassist for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — needed a different bass from the instrument UAB rented for the show.
The problem for Owens was that the action, or the distance between the strings and fingerboard, on the bass from UAB was set high. While classical music players typically prefer a high action to help project their sound, jazz musicians like Owens tend to prefer the action of the bass set low. The setup allows their fingers to move quickly over the strings to keep pace with the up-tempo rhythms of jazz.
Thanks to quick thinking from musicians headed to the concert that evening, Owens ended up playing the bass that belongs to Bernard McQueen, a member of the Daniel José Carr Quartet and an instructor at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
Last-Minute Phone Call
Here’s what happened: Alana Hall was driving to the concert in Birmingham when she got a voice note from Lee Pearson, drummer for The Cookout, asking if she knew anyone who could loan the band a bass for the evening. Hall and Pearson first met in 2022 at a jam session in Baltimore, Maryland, and kept in touch over the years. With the minutes counting down to the 8 p.m. show, Hall immediately started making phone calls.
The first person she called was her brother, Tyson Hall, a professional musician and the vice principal of Anniston High School, in Anniston, Alabama. When her brother couldn’t think of anyone, Hall, an alum of Alabama State University (ASU) and former trumpeter for the university’s Mighty Marching Hornets band, called Emery Kidd, a well-known bassist and her former recording technology professor at ASU, to ask if he could loan the band his bass for the night. Kidd wasn’t in Birmingham, though. He was more than 90 miles away in Montgomery, Alabama, getting set up to play his own gig — a private dinner for the presidents of two historic historically Black universities and colleges (HBCUs): Tuskegee University, located in Montgomery, and Morehouse College, located in Atlanta, Georgia. The event was part of a weekend lineup of events for a football game between the two schools.
So, Kidd reached out to one of his mentors: McQueen. McQueen and his wife, Thelma, had just left Longhorn Steakhouse in Gardendale, Alabama—where they had dinner to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary—and were driving down Interstate 65 when the call came in.
The McQueens were happy to assist. They turned around on the interstate and headed home to get the bass. After picking up the instrument, they drove to UAB, but they encountered a few obstacles. The university had the streets surrounding the Alys Stephens Center closed off for its annual block party. The McQueens were about a block away from the Alys Stephens Center when Bernard’s phone rang again — this time it was staff from UAB.
“They wanted to know where I was,” recalled McQueen, who decided to park as close to the Alys Stephens Center as he could.
When McQueen described his location, the university sprang into action. McQueen was able to drive a little closer to the venue before a man wearing a green polo shirt and a khaki baseball cap came to meet them — UAB had a staffer meet them halfway.
“He grabbed the bass!” said McQueen, laughing. “I mean, he put the thing over his head, and I’m talking about he was gone with it.”
Crisis Averted
The man walked fast with the McQueens in tow, but Bernard’s eyes never left his prized bass. “Oh, yeah, I was watching because [my bass] don’t go anywhere I don’t go. It’s not going anywhere without me. So, we were trying to keep up with him, but we kept him in sight,” said McQueen.
Carrying the bass, the UAB staffer rushed into the Jemison Concert Hall. When the McQueens arrived, they saw Owens come out on stage, warmly introduce herself, and try out the bass.
With the crisis averted, the McQueens settled comfortably into the front row of the theatre to enjoy the concert.
A standout moment for McQueen was the band’s performance of jazz standards, especially “Moanin’,” by jazz drummer and bandleader Art Blakey.
“Yeah, that right there got it for me,” said McQueen. “I had never heard a bass player play the melodic line [of the song] as far as the whole lead line. I mean, she was killin’ it.”
After the band took its final bow to a standing ovation and the audience cleared out of the concert hall, McQueen went to retrieve his bass. Minutes later, the musicians returned to the stage to enjoy cheerful conversation and take photos. Owens joyfully thanked McQueen again for loaning them the bass, and the duo had a nice chat about the show.
Naturally, McQueen observed Owens’ playing style, drawing comparisons to himself and his favorite fellow bassists.
“She plays aggressive. … I’m a laid-back type of player, I think. But I love her style. I mean, to me, she’s aggressive, like Cleve Eaton was. So, I like that,” said McQueen. “Jazz really is a conversation. First, you are having a conversation with your bandmates. And, most importantly, you are having a conversation with the audience. She had that.”
McQueen and Owens also had a nice chat about the show and some jazz greats. He told her about Cleve Eaton, the legendary Fairfield, Alabama-born musician best known for his tenure as the bassist for both Count Basie and the Ramsey Lewis Trio.
Eaton, who preferred his bass set up with a low action, often let McQueen try out his bass at jam sessions. So, when McQueen was ready to buy his own upright bass at Homewood Music, in Homewood, Alabama, he told shop owner Bob Tedrow to set his bass up just like Eaton’s.
That conversation flowed easily, said McQueen: “The energy I felt from her, she felt like a real down-to-earth person.”
