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The Career Of Herb Ellis

Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, December 11 will be “The Career of Herb Ellis.”  Guitarist Herb Ellis was born in Farmersville, Texas in 1921.  After a short stint in college, he went on the road with popular dance bands.  In his 59-year performing career, he played with Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Harris, Johnny Hodges, Roy Eldridge, Lester Young, Joe Pass, the Great Guitars and others as well as his own groups.  In addition to these musicians, this show will also feature music by Louis Armstrong, Freddie Greene, Onzy Matthews, Mahalia Jackson and the Ray Brown Big Band.

The Slide Show has my photographs of some of the artists heard on this show.

The Archive of this show will be available until the morning of December 19, 2016

Here are Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel playing "Body and Soul."

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.