
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 June 17, 2018 will be “The Music of Horace Silver.” Pianist-composer and bandleader Horace Silver wrote over 160 compositions. Over 20…
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Jazz Unlimited for June 10, 20218 will be “Relationships.” Relationships are tricky things. Most successful relationships start with strong loving…
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Jazz Unlimited for June 3, 2018 will be “The Career of Ben Webster.” The show will start with an interview with trombonist Steve Turre about the upcoming…
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Jazz Unlimited for May 27, 2018 will be “The Keys and Strings Hour Plus New Music.” The “Keys and Strings Hour” will feature some Miles Davis compositions…
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Jazz Unlimited for May 20, 2018 will be “The Career of Buster Williams.” The Penguin Guide called him, “one of the most important sidemen in jazz.”…
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Jazz Unlimited for May 13, 2018 will be “The Career of Billy Higgins.” A drummer who played for musicians with widely divergent styles, an always smiling…
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Jazz Unlimited for May 6, 2018 will be “The Music of Art Pepper.” Born in California to violent alcoholic parents, alto saxophonist Art Pepper was not…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, April 29, 2018 will be “Grammy Winners in My Collection-Part 4.” In it’s early days, the jazz Grammy Awards were not awarded…
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Jazz Unlimited for April 22, 2018 will be “New Music Plus A Tribute to Cecil Taylor.” It will mark my 35th Anniversary of presenting jazz on St. Louis…
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Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, April 15, 2018 will be “Grammy Winners in My Collection-Part 3.” In it’s early days, the jazz Grammy Awards were not awarded…