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Jazz Unlimited

George Gershwin-Part 3: "Porgy And Bess"

By Dennis Owsley
Published January 17, 2015 at 1:14 PM CST
Heard on "Jasbo Brown Blues," "I Got Plenty O'Nuttin'," "Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess" and "There's Dat's Leavin' for New York"
1 of 11
John Scofield-2005
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
"Jasbo Brown Blues," "I Got Plenty O'Nuttin'," "Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess" and "There's Dat's Leavin' for New York"
2 of 11
Stefon Harris-2005
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
"Jasbo Brown Blues," "I Got Plenty O'Nuttin'," and "Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess"
3 of 11
Tommy Flanagen-1987
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
"Jasbo Brown Blues," "I Got Plenty O'Nuttin'," "Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess" and "There's Dat's Leavin' for New York"
4 of 11
Dave Holland-2013
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
Heard on "Here Come De Honey Man"
5 of 11
James Carter-2013
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
Heard on "Here Come De Honey Man"
6 of 11
Kenny Garrett-2003
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
Heard on "My Man's Gone Now"
7 of 11
Roy Hargrove-2014
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
Heard on "Bess, You Is My Woman Now"
8 of 11
Lynne Arriale-2004
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
Heard on "Bess, You Is My Woman Now"
9 of 11
Steve Davis-2004
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
Heard on "It Ain't Necessarily So"
10 of 11
Mulgrew Miller-2005
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley
Heard on "It Ain't Necessarily So"
11 of 11
Peter Washington-2013
Dennis C. Owsley / Copyright Dennis C. Owsley

Jazz Unlimited for Sunday, January 18 will be “Gershwin-Part 3: Porgy and Bess.”  “Porgy and Bess” really resonated with jazz musicians.  Forty versions of it have been recorded since 1950.  This show will feature music from five versions of the opera by: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Cleo Laine and Ray Charles, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Miles Davis and Gil Evans and Joe Henderson.  Additional artists who will be heard are Johnny Hartman, Herbie Hancock, Stefon Harris & Blackout, Shirley Horn, Lynne Arriale, Bennie Wallace, Nina Simone and Fred Hersch.

The Slide Show contains my photographs of some of the musicians heard on tonight's show.

This Archive of the show sill be available until the morning of January 25, 2015

Here is a version of "Summertime" with Miles Davis and Kenny Garrett with the Quincy Jones Orchestra at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991.

Tags
Jazz Unlimited Louis ArmstrongRay CharlesMiles DavisModern Jazz QuartetJoe Henderson
Dennis Owsley
Dennis Owsley has broadcast a weekly jazz show for St. Louis Public Radio since April 1983. He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and is a retired Monsanto Senior Science Fellow and college teacher. His show, Jazz Unlimited, airs every Sunday from 9:00 p.m. to midnight. The show has the largest jazz audience in St. Louis and was named Best Jazz Radio Show in St. Louis for the years 2005-2007 and 2009 by the Riverfront Times. In celebration of his 25 years on the air, January 24, 2008 was proclaimed Dennis Owsley Day" in the City of St. Louis. He is the 2010 winner of the St. Louis Public Radio Millard S. Cohen Lifetime Achievement Award. Dennis is also a noted photographer, and his exhibit, In the Moment: Photographs of Jazz Musicians, ran from September 23, 2005 to January 21, 2006 at the Sheldon Art Gallery. He is a lifetime student of jazz history and teaches short courses on the subject. Dennis is the author of the award-winning book City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis 1985-1973, published in 2006.
See stories by Dennis Owsley