Interviews with Bird, Bode on this week's Jazz Unlimited

Dennis Owsley, host of KWMU's Jazz Unlimited program on Sunday nights, doesn't just play CDs by jazz musicians, photograph those musicians, and write about them; sometimes he talks to them, too. This Sunday, Owsley's got a couple of interviews - one old and one new - scheduled to occupy a sizeable portion of his program, which airs from 9 p.m. to midnight.

The first hour will feature a vintage conversation between alto saxophonists Charlie "Bird" Parker and Paul Desmond, originally recorded in 1954 for a Boston radio station. "With the music, the interview is 25 minutes long (14 minutes of talking)," says Owsley via email. "(Parker) talks about his practice regimen as a young man, Edgar Varese, Dizzy and a whole lot of other stuff." The segment will also include music from two of the most famous live performances in the annals of bop - the 1945 Town Hall concert and the 1953 Massey Hall concert - and from an AFRS radio broadcast from 1945 featuring Parker as a member of Billy Berg's band.

The program's second hour will be given over to an extended interview between Owsley and singer Erin Bode, who discusses her work, influences and career so far, but does not address her recent appeal for money for a legal defense fund. (The interview was recorded before Bode's announcement of her as-yet-unspecified legal woes.) "The interviews are done "live on tape" in that we start a stopwatch and go for an hour, so there is no editing of any kind, except to take out silences to make it fit the hour exactly," explains Owsley. "I don't do these interviews to promote anything, I want the audience to get to know what makes the artist tick."

You can hear Jazz Unlimited by tuning into KWMU 90.7 FM, or via online stream here.