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The Compositions of Charles Mingus

Jazz Unlimited for Sunday June 19 is “The Compositions of Charles Mingus.”  Bassist/composer Charles Mingus’s work reflected his experiences as a mixed race man who identified himself as black.  Known as the angry man of jazz, his music was influenced by the black church, classical music, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington and was concerned throughout his career with civil rights and relationships.  We will hear his compositions played by his own groups, Dave Brubeck, Mingus Dynasty, Judy Niemack & Mal Waldron, Marty Ehrlich, The Mingus Big Band, Bob Stewart, George Adams, Junko Onishi, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Mark Murphy, Joe Henderson, Jon Jang, Ron Miles and Hal Wilner.

The Slide Show has some of my photographs of the artists heard on this show.

The Archive of this show will be available until the morning of June 27, 2016.

This is the Mingus Big Band playing Hora Decubitus (aka 'E's Flat, Ah's Flat Too) with Ku-Umba Frank Lacy (vcl) Conrad Herwig (tb) and Abraham Burton (ts) live at Jazz Standard.  Lyrics by Elvis Costello.

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.