The Art of Blakey

By Dennis Owsley

Published October 16, 2016 at 1:18 PM CDT

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 Orchestra in 1939 and made his first recordings with the Billy Eckstine Band in 1944. A tireless messenger for jazz he has said, “To pass through life and miss this music is to miss out on one of the best things about living” and "This is the music of my culture good, bad or indifferent. No America - No Jazz. It’s the only culture America had brought forth.” Blakey led the Jazz Messengers from 1954 up until his death in 1990. “The Art of Blakey” is also the Fall Membership Campaign show. Please make a donation during Jazz Unlimited to keep this great music on the air and in your ears.

There are no photographs for this show.

The Archive for this show will be available until the morning of September 24, 2016.

This a video of a 1958 version of "A Night in Tunisia" from a concert in Belgium with Lee Morgan (tp) Belly Golson (ts) Bobby Timmons (p) Jymie Merrit (b) and Art Blakey (d).

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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