Owl Studios

Owl Studios – Founded by owner and CEO Jim Hall in 2005, Owl Studios is an Indianapolis-based record label that mainly carries jazz artists, although it has expanded into the jam band genre. The business operations of Owl Studios began on the 11^th floor of an office building on Monument Circle along side of Hall’s insurance business. Featured in the December, 2008 issue of Downbeat magazine, Owl Studios has recorded both veteran recording artists like organist Mel Rhyne and Steve Allee as well as up-and-coming acts like Muzaic, a five-piece Bloomington jam-band that plays funk, rock and reggae. Among the Indy-based acts that have recorded for Owl are saxophonist Rob Dixon, vocalist Cynthia Lane, saxophonist Frank Glover, keyboardist Monika Herzig, the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, and the newly signed Twin Cats (jazz-funk group featuring twins Adam and Seth Catron). Other artists include guitarist Fareed Haque, Haque’s jam called Garaj Mahal, trumpeter Derrick Gardner, and New York bassist Bill Moring (a transplanted Hoosier). Even the out-of-town artists like Derrick Gardner make frequent appearances in the area to help promote the label and their own CDs. In fact, Owl Studios regularly sponsors performances at the Jazz Kitchen—namely CD release parties—and the Jazz at the Point summer series at Eagle Creek Park. In 2013, Kenny Phelps, a first-call Indianapolis jazz drummer, and his wife Valerie purchased the label and changed its name to Owl Music Group.