On the Beat in New York Jacksonville Drummer in Juilliard Jazz Program

Guilfoyle, Sarah, The Florida Times Union

Byline: Sarah Guilfoyle, Staff writer

When Westside resident Ulysses Owens was 2 years old, he grabbed the plastic sticks holding his mother's new shoes in shape and started beating.

Sixteen years and four drum kits later, Owens, 18, has drummed himself into a pioneering jazz program at New York's prestigious Juilliard School.

"I'm happiest when I am behind a drum kit playing music," Owens said.

After waiting for an ideal climate and environment, the school felt the time was right for a jazz program. Victor Goines, director of the new Institute for Jazz Studies, said Owens was the "kind of person we were looking for" for this fall's inaugural class.

It was his talent and intellectual perspective, Goines said, that helped Owens emerge from 200 …

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Publication information: Article title: On the Beat in New York Jacksonville Drummer in Juilliard Jazz Program. Contributors: Guilfoyle, Sarah - Author. Newspaper title: The Florida Times Union. Publication date: July 28, 2001. Page number: Not available. © 2007 The Florida Times-Union. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.

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