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Musicians Named Williams

Jazz Unlimited for Sunday January 14, 2018 will be “Musicians Named Williams.”  Williams is the third most common surname in this country.  Jazz musicians names Williams have made significant contributions to jazz history.  We will feature music by Clarence Williams, Count Basie with Claude Williams, Sidney Bechet with Johnny Williams, Sandy Williams, Cootie Williams, Rudy Williams, Joe Williams, Mary Lou Williams, Buddy Tate with Jackie Williams, The Jazztet with Tommy Williams, our own Terry Williams, Jimmy Williams, Ptah Williams, Billy Williams, Chauncey Williams, Todd Williams, Eric Dolphy with Richard Williams, Jessica Williams, James Williams, Dr. Lonnie Smith with Jamire Williams, John Williams (of “Star Wars” fame, Art Pepper with David Williams, Bruce Williams and Hal Russell with Mars Williams.

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

The Archive of this show will be available until the morning of January 22, 2018.

This video is of Joe Williams singing "Here's To Life on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (date unknown).

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.