Ralph Bowen, born December 24, 1961, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, is a jazz saxophonist who began piano lessons at an early age. He later took up clarinet and saxophone, leading a quartet and performing with big bands in Toronto by the age of thirteen. In his teens, Bowen received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts to study music under Pat LaBarbera and Phil Nimmons at the Banff School of Fine Arts. He moved to New York City in 1985 after winning an audition for Blue Note Records' contemporary jazz band Out of the Blue (OTB). With OTB, Bowen recorded four albums including O.T.B. and Inside Track. Bowen's notable albums include Movin' On (1992), Soul Proprietor (2002), and Total Eclipse (2012). He has led the jazz program at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
