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Composers Named Simon

Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, November 10, 2019, for “Composers Named Simon.” In addition to the well-known composer Paul Simon, there are eight composers with the same surname and one Simons presented on this show.  St. Louis musicians Arvell Shaw, Velma Middleton, Kim Portnoy, Ric Vice, Clancy Newell, Erin Bode & her group and Steve Schenkel & Ashley Mason will be heard along with Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Geoff Keezer, Kurt Elling, the SFJazz  group, George Adams, Bill Evans, Buddy Rich, Shelly Manne, Herbie Hancock, Karrin Allyson, Chris Potter & Kenny Werner, Don Byas, Judy Niemack and Rich Perry.

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

Here is a 1950 video of Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton singing "That's My Desire" on the Cavalcade of Bands TV show.

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.