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The Career OF John Hicks

Jazz Unlimited for January 17 will be “The Career of John Hicks.”  Born in Atlanta, pianist John Hicks came to St. Louis at the age of 14.  Hicks went to high school with Lester Bowie and Oliver Lake.  He went to Lincoln University and the Berklee School of Music.  Hicks made his first recordings with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.  He soon became an in-demand pianist, playing with Betty Carter and David Murray in addition to leading his own groups.  This show will feature him with, in addition, Joe Lovano, Jay McShann, Booker Ervin, Nick Brignola, Ray Anderson, St. Louisan Russell Gunn, Bobby Watson, Vincent Herring, Arthur Blythe, St, Louisan Freddie Washington, The Mingus Big Band, Pharoah Sanders and his own groups.

The Slide Show has my photographs of some of the musicians featured on this show.

The Archive of this show will be available until the morning of January 25, 2016.

The video is John Hicks (p) and Pharoah Sanders Playing Hicks' composition "After the Morning" at the 1982 Frankfurt Jazz Festival.

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.