
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 November 27, 2016 will be “The Keys and Strings Hour + New Music.” The Quieter Side of Jazz will feature a dozen solo piano players…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, November 20, 2016 is “The Career of Matt Wilson.” Drummer Matt Wilson, who hails from Knoxville, Illinois, is one of the great…
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Jazz Unlimited for November 13, 2016 will be “Re-Imagining of Familiar Tunes.” Great Jazz musicians are constantly re-imagining tunes in their own style.…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, November 6, 2016 will be “The Compositions of Jerome Kern.” Composer Jerome Kern was one of the first to bring jazz rhythms and…
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Jazz Unlimited for October 23, 2016 will be “The Keys and Strings Hour + New Music.” The “Keys and Strings Hour” or jazz without horns will present some…
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Jazz Unlimited for October 16, 2016 is “The Art of Blakey.” Born un Pittsburgh in 1919, drummer Art Blakey began his career with the Fletcher Henderson…
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Jazz Unlimited for October 9 will be preempted in the first hour by the Presidential debate and will resume at 10 pm for “Kansas Citians.” Not only was it…
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Jazz Unlimited for October 2, 2116 will be “Adderley Compositions.” The Adderley brothers, Cannonball and Nat, were not only world-class jazz…
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The September 25 Jazz Unlimited show will be a three-part show. The “Keys and Strings Hour “ will feature pianist Gene Harris in the first hour. The…
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Jazz Unlimited for September 26, 2016 is “The Heath Brothers.” The Philadelphia-born Heath brothers, bassist Percy (1923-2005), saxophonist, arranger,…