
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 January 13, 2019, will present “The Brecker Brothers.” The Brecker Brothers, saxophonist Michael and trumpeter Randy have forged highly…
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Jazz Unlimited for January 6, 2019, will be “Tributes to Nancy Wilson and Richard Henderson plus the Music of Woody Shaw.” Song Stylist Nancy Wilson and…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, December 30, 2018 will be “Jazz Giants Born in November and December.” Jazz Giants are individuals whose sound and approach are…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, December 23 will be “Winter Holiday Music.” In this country, the month of December is host to four major celebratory…
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Jazz Unlimited for December 16, 2018 will be “The Keys and Strings Hour Plus New Music.” The “Keys and Strings Hour” will present new and recent…
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Jazz Unlimited for December 9, 2018 will be “Coltrane Tunes Without Coltrane.” The great saxophonist John Coltrane left us a number of compositions that…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, December 2, 2018 will present “Remembering Roy Hargrove.” Trumpeter Roy Hargrove passed away from cardiac arrest and kidney…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, November 25th will present “The Keys and Strings Hour Plus New Music.” The Keys and Strings Hour will present music new for my…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, November 23 will present “Food and Drink.” Thanksgiving is the season of gluttony and we will present music suggestive of the…
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Jazz Unlimited for November 11, 2018 will be “Classic Bebop Tunes.” The bebop era in jazz brought about a change in how we think about improvisation.…