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Jazz Giants For March And April

On the March 31 Jazz Unlimited show, we will present jazz giants born in March and April.  Some of the artists include Bix Beiderbecke, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan, Nat "King" Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Henderson, Pee Wee Russell, Carmen McRae and Michael Brecker.

Check out my photos of Michael Brecker, Brad Mehldau and John Pattitucci on the slide show.

Here is a video of Lionel Hampton (introduced by Patti Page) playing "Flying Home" in 1957.

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.