[2] In 1961 Bowen moved to London and played with popular dance orchestras of Johnny Howard, Jack Dorsey, Ray McVay, and Denny Boyce.
[2] In 1964 Bowen shifted away from local dance bands to becoming the lead trumpet player in Johnny Dankworth's orchestra, touring throughout Britain and accompanying Mel Tormé.
[6] He also served as first trumpet with the instrumental based Mantovani Concert Orchestra in the mid-1970s which played cover versions of pop music.
Film soundtracks Bowen played on include Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965), The Railway Children (1970), and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).
[2] In 1964, Bowen was first contracted to play trumpet on the recording sessions for Goldfinger, the third installment of the popular James Bond film series.
[13][2][14][15] In 1975, Bowen went on a five-week tour of Japan with the John Barry Orchestra to promote The Man with the Golden Gun.
The trumpet section on this tour consisted of Stan Roderick, Greg Bowen, Tony Fisher, and Eddie Blair.
This led to work with the RIAS Tanzorchester under musical directors Werner Müller and Jerry van Rooyen (now the WDR Big Band).
Bowen was later hired to take the permanent lead trumpet chair with the RIAS Dance Orchestra in 1976; moving his family to Berlin from the UK.
More recently he has been performing with the Berlin Big Band and since 2014, he has been playing lead trumpet and recording with the Maria Baptist Jazz Orchestra.