
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 on Sunday, October 20 will present music from the 56-year of Armando “Chick” Corea. Chick was born in the Boston area and was working…
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The Sept. 13 Jazz Unlimited show will present “The Music of Thelonious Monk.” By his early teens, Thelonious Monk was a promising classical…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, October 6 will be “The Music of Dizzy Gillespie.” Trumpeter, raconteur, composer and sometime vocalist John Birks “Dizzy”…
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Jazz Unlimited for September 29 is “Jazz Giants for September and October.” Jazz giants are those musicians who have made exceptional contributions to…
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Jazz Unlimited tonight, September 22, 2019, as we present “The Compositions of Richard Rodgers.” Composer Richard Rogers was a Broadway Theater and film…
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Jazz Unlimited for September 15, 2019 will present “The Keys and Strings Hour Plus New Music.” The quieter side of jazz will present quartets without…
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Jazz Unlimited for September 8, 2019, presents “The Career Bred Mehladau.” One of today’s major piano players, Brad Mehldau, was born in Jacksonville in…
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Jazz Unlimited for September 1 will be “The Music of John Coltrane.” Saxophonist John Coltrane had the most formidable technique in jazz history. His…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, August 25, 2019, presents “The Keys and Strings Hour Plus New Music.” The August “Keys and Strings Hour” will feature…
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Jazz Unlimited for August 18, 2019, presents “The Career of Illinois Jacquet.” Born in the New Orleans area but raised in Houston, Illinois Jacquet was…