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Jazz Artists of History With Major Birthdays In February; Tribute To Donald Byrd

Some jazz greats have major birthdays in February.  The February  Jazz Unlimited show will include reed players John Handy, Buddy DeFranco, Harold Land and Dexter Gordon and many others.  In addition we will have a tribute to jazz great Donald Byrd, who passed away February 4.

Check out my photos of some of the musicians heard on tonight's show.

>> Playlist

Due to recording rights, the audio for this show has been removed. Audio is posted for two weeks after a show airs. 

Here is a video from the film "A Song is Born" with Benny Goodman, Mel Powell and Lionel Hampton.  See if you can spot any other jazz greats in the crowd.

Dennis Owsley has broadcast a weekly jazz show for St. Louis Public Radio since April 1983. He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and is a retired Monsanto Senior Science Fellow and college teacher. His show, Jazz Unlimited, airs every Sunday from 9:00 p.m. to midnight. The show has the largest jazz audience in St. Louis and was named Best Jazz Radio Show in St. Louis for the years 2005-2007 and 2009 by the Riverfront Times. In celebration of his 25 years on the air, January 24, 2008 was proclaimed Dennis Owsley Day" in the City of St. Louis. He is the 2010 winner of the St. Louis Public Radio Millard S. Cohen Lifetime Achievement Award. Dennis is also a noted photographer, and his exhibit, In the Moment: Photographs of Jazz Musicians, ran from September 23, 2005 to January 21, 2006 at the Sheldon Art Gallery. He is a lifetime student of jazz history and teaches short courses on the subject. Dennis is the author of the award-winning book City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis 1985-1973, published in 2006.