Jazz Unlimited ended on December 29, 2019 with host Dennis Owsley's retirement. The weekly radio show covered the continuum of jazz from Louis Armstrong to Lester Bowie. Each show was scripted and based on a theme to provide the broadest coverage of the music.
Host Dennis Owsley has been a jazz album collector, aficionado, and historian since 1958 and has seen most of the major artists in jazz in live performance. April 2018 marks his 35th anniversary presenting jazz on St. Louis Public Radio. He celebrated his 25th anniversary with a mayoral proclamation of a Dennis Owsley Day on January 24, 2008. He received the Millard S. Cohen Lifetime Achievement Award from St. Louis Public Radio in 2010 and was named a Jazz Hero of St. Louis by the Jazz Journalists Association. Jazz Unlimited won the Riverfront Times' Best of St. Louis Award in the "Best Jazz Show" category six times.
Nearly all the music heard on Jazz Unlimited is from Owsley's personal collection. He has an international reputation as a photographer of jazz musicians as well. >> See his photographs.
Owsley wrote an award-winning book, City of Gabriels—The Jazz History of St. Louis 1895-1973.
He produced a radio documentary in 1986 that led to that book. That documentary was produced again and expanded in 2013, the second-longest music documentary in radio history. >> Listen to all of the interviews.
Listen to the most recent two episodes of Jazz Unlimited:
View playlists from past episodes of Jazz Unlimited:
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Jazz Unlimited for September 10, 2017 will be “The Music of Oscar Peterson.” Pianist Oscar Peterson is reputed to be the most recorded pianist in jazz. We… -
All of us spend a significant portion of our lives sleeping. When we are asleep, we dream, we have rapid eye movements, some of us talk, some of us walk…
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Jazz Unlimited for August 27, 2017 will be “The Keys and Strings Hour + New Music.” Piano duets will be featured on the August “Keys and Strings Hour.”… -
Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, August 20, 2017 will be “Broadway 1950 and Beyond-Part 2.” Before the original cast record albums, most of the music from… -
Jazz Unlimited for August 13, 2017 will be “Broadway: 1950 and Beyond-Part 1.” Before the original cast record albums, most of the music from Broadway… -
Jazz Unlimited for August 6, 2017 will be “Dexter Gordon in His Own Words.” The great tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was noted not only for his melodic… -
Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, July 30 2017 will be “Remembering Geri Allen.” Geri Allen was a pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader and visionary jazz… -
Jazz Unlimited for July 23, 2017 will be “The Keys and Strings Hour Featuring Gary Peacock + New Music.” The Keys and Strings Hour will present bassist… -
Jazz Unlimited for July 16, 2017 will be “The Music of Johnny Hodges Away from Duke Ellington.” Johnny Hodges was a major star in the Duke Ellington… -
