WESTPORT — MoCA\CT’s exhibition on the intersecting influences of art and music came to a lively close this weekend, with Endea Owens + The Cookout playing to a packed house.

The museum has featured several lively events to complement Art, Jazz + The Blues, including Chris Brubeck bringing both his Brubeck Brothers Quartet and Triple Play groups to the venue. Owens, a Grammy Award-winning bassist who was part of the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, was joined by jazz vocalist Brianna Thomas, pianist Tyler Bullock, trumpeter Alphonso Horne, drummer Jerome Jennings, and saxophonist Zoe Obadia.

The concert featured selections from Owens’ albums Feel Good Music and Caught Up in This Illusion, as well as jazz favorites like “All of Me” and the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

“Performing live jazz in front of artwork was such a powerful experience,” said Owens. “My mother collected art throughout my life, so I’ve always felt a connection between visual art and music. Both are forms of storytelling, and being surrounded by these works while performing made me think about my family, my community, and the musical traditions that shaped me. The exhibition brought another layer of meaning to the performance and made the music feel even more beautiful.”

Robin Jaffee Frank, the executive director of MoCA\CT, commented, “As a closing party, I couldn’t have dreamed of anything better than this. The energy, the sense of community, the incredible voices, and the joy that you could feel in this room made the works of art on the walls come alive.”

MoCA\CT expressed its gratitude to The Joyce Thompson Art Fund for its sponsorship of Owens, as well as performing arts partners Gold Sound Media and Ed Webb Design. It also thanked performing arts sponsors Conlon Amendola, Attorneys at Law; Design Within Reach; Bill and Jodi Felton; Hofstetter Baron Group; Honda of Westport; Leifer Properties; Cynthia and Carl Muller; Joyce Pauker; Saatva; Sabina and Harlan Stone; and The Walton Family. 

Expanded coverage of Fairfield County cultural events is made possible with support from the Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts