So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* Broadcaster, author and photographer Dennis Owsley will end his long-running St. Louis Public Radio program "Jazz Unlimited" with a final broadcast on Sunday, December 29.

Owsley, who moved with his wife to Arizona this fall to be closer to his grandchildren, had been sending in pre-recorded shows from there.  He said the decision to sign off after 36 years of broadcasting was entirely his own, with no pressure from station management. With the notable exception of the St. Louis Symphony's live broadcasts, "Jazz Unlimited" is one of the last music programs on the St. Louis Public Radio schedule, which increasingly has emphasized news and talk since the mid-2000s.) 

The author of two books on the history of jazz in St. Louis, Owsley (pictured) has won honors including several Riverfront Times "Best of St. Louis" awards for best jazz radio program and a "Jazz Hero" award in 2016 from the Jazz Journalists Association. The Post-Dispatch's Joe Holleman has more here.

* Drummer Nate Smith recently did a brief Q&A that was published on the Jazz St. Louis website. Smith and his band KINFOLK will perform through Sunday night at the Bistro.

* Smith also has recorded a solo performance for an episode of Gaslight Studios' web series "Gaslight Sessions," which was released online Monday.

* The Grand Center district in midtown will be the site of a new concert venue with a capacity of 1,200 that's scheduled to open in 2021. The club, to be called The Sovereign, will book national touring acts, local and regional bands in a variety of genres, as well as corporate events, private parties and weddings.

The venture is the product of a team-up between Tim Weber, managing partner of Old Rock House and former general manager and talent buyer at Mississippi Nights, and Steve Smith, the CEO of Lawrence Group, an architectural and development firm involved in a number of real estate projects in the neighborhood. The P-D's Kevin Johnson has more, including some quotes from Weber, here.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn has posted to Facebook an album of photos from his recent shows at the Blue Note Tokyo.

"Jazz Unlimited" to re-air documentary on St. Louis jazz history starting Sunday, July 6

Starting this coming Sunday, July 6, Dennis Owsley's "Jazz Unlimited" program will begin re-broadcasting Owsley's ten-part audio documentary on "The Jazz History of St. Louis."

"This ten-week documentary is the second longest music documentary in the history of radio and certainly the longest music documentary in St. Louis radio (I did the second longest in St. Louis in 1987)," wrote Owsley (pictured) in a recent email to StLJN.

Of course, since he literally wrote the book on St. Louis jazz history - Owsley's 2006 tome City of Gabriels: The Jazz History of St. Louis 1895-1974 remains the definitive volume on the subject - you'd expect something in depth.

And indeed, this series, as its creator enumerated in said email, does not disappoint on that count: "It contains 143 interview segments, 265 complete pieces of music (some very rare), 116 short biographies of musicians and radio people, with 564 musicians or institutions mentioned."

"Jazz Unlimited" is broadcast from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Sundays on KWMU/St. Louis Public Radio (90.7 FM), and also can be heard online at http://www.stlpublicradio.org/listen.php. "The Jazz History of St. Louis" documentary will continue weekly through Sunday, September 7.

Jazz at the Bistro, Peter Martin, "Jazz Unlimited" among Riverfront Times' "Best of St. Louis" for 2010

Jazz at the Bistro is named "Best Jazz Club" and pianist Peter Martin is cited as "Best Jazz Artist" in the Riverfront Times' 2010 "Best of St. Louis" edition, which came out today.

In addition, KWMU's "Jazz Unlimited," hosted by Dennis Owsley, was named "Best Jazz Radio Program"; BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups gets the nod as "Best Blues Club"; singer/guitarist/teenage phenom Marquise Knox is 2010's "Best Blues Artist"; and Devil At The Confluence, Kevin Belford's history of pre-World War II blues music in St. Louis, is "Best Book By A Local Author." You can read about all the 2010 "Best of St. Louis" winners here.

Riverfront Times announces 2009 "Best of St. Louis" winners

The Riverfront Times published its annual "Best of St. Louis" issue this week, and among the 2009 award winners were:

* Hamiet Bluiett for "Best Jazz Artist";
* KWMU's Jazz Unlimited, hosted by Dennis Owsley, for "Best Jazz Radio Program";
* Jazz at the Bistro for "Best Jazz Club"; and
* Cabaret St. Louis' Jim Dolan for "Best Local Impresario."

You can see complete coverage of all the 2009 "Best of St. Louis" winners here.

KWMU names new GM

Catching up with a story from last week, public radio station KWMU (90.7 FM), which airs the Jazz Unlimited program hosted by Dennis Owsley from 9:00 p.m. to midnight on Sundays, has a new general manager.

The new KWMU GM is Tim Eby, a public radio veteran who's currently at WOSU, an NPR station affiliated with Ohio State University in Columbus, and he'll start work on January 20. You can read the news release from the the station and the University of Missouri-St. Louis here.

KWMU moving to Grand Center

St. Louis' National Public Radio affiliate KWMU (90.7 FM) will move from the campus of the University of Missouri - St. Louis to the Grand Center arts and entertainment district in midtown, according to a story in yesterday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The radio station is known to St. Louis jazz fans as the home of Dennis Owsley's weekly program Jazz Unlimited, which is broadcast from 9:00 p.m. to midnight on Sundays. The story says UMSL will build a three-level, 27,000 square foot facility next to the KETC building on Olive at a cost of around $7 million that will contain the new offices and studios for KWMU as well as space for other university programs. Read the whole thing here.

Memorial service for Rosa Owsley to be held June 1 at Ethical Society

A memorial service for Rosa Owsley will be held at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, June 1 at the Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton Rd.. The wife of jazz historian, photographer and radio host Dennis Owsley, Rosa Owsley died April 17 from complications of cancer. In addition to her husband, she is survived by a son, Dan, and a daughter, Anna.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Rosa Owsley Fund c/o Ginny Fisher at Affton High School, 8309 Mackenzie Road, St. Louis MO 63123 or to the Nature Conservancy in her name.

Jazz this week: Hard Bop Heritage, Erin Bode and more

The first part of January is typically a slow time for touring acts, so it's no big surprise that there are no national or international jazz musicians performing in St. Louis this week. Still, there are a number of locally based musicians deserving of your attention playing over the next few days, so let's take a quick look at a few of the highlights:

Jazz at the Bistro has the always listenable Hard Bop Heritage on Friday and Saturday nights, while singer Erin Bode (pictured) will perform at the Cabaret at Savor on Saturday.

Brandt's will present perennial favorite Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum on Friday, and the Sidney Street Trio, a new group featuring James Warfield Jr. on saxophone, Darryl Mixon on bass and Joe Pastor on percussion, on Saturday. Cookie's Jazz and More has the TMM Trio on Friday and violinist Nikki Glenn with Eddie Randall and Friends on Saturday.

Looking beyond the weekend, guitarist Todd Mosby will perform at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups on Monday night.

Last but not least, our esteemed colleague Dennis Owsley has something special planned for this week's edition of his Jazz Unlimited radio program. Owsley's devoting this installment to jazz vocals, showcasing tracks from the 30 greatest jazz vocal albums of all time as selected by a panel of 72 singers for a 2004 article in Down Beat magazine. He'll play a track from each album during the first and third hours of the program, with the second hour devoted to an extended interview with singer Kurt Elling. You can hear it all by tuning into KWMU (90.7 FM) from 9 p.m. to midnight on Sunday, and also discuss the topic with Owsley over on KWMU's online forum.

For more St. Louis jazz-related events this weekend and beyond, please consult the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

(Edited after posting to add tags.)

Owsley's online outreach

While we're speaking of jazz radio personalities, Dennis Owsley, who hosts Jazz Unlimited on KWMU (90.7 FM) every Sunday night from 9 p.m. to midnight, emailed with the news that KWMU now has online discussion forums for all of its locally produced programs.

Owsley's using the Jazz Unlimited area to share information about the artists and recordings he's playing and to share a few of what he describes as "pet peeves," like this one:

Jazz Singing--Does It Always Have to Sound Like 1960?

The third hour of Jazz Unlimited will have new recordings on the play list. Among these are two vocals. One of the vocalists sounds like she is singing in 1960, using arrangements of well-known standards that fit that period and is gathering much acclaim from media outlets like NPR shows. The other, when she sings a standard, changes the rhythm or adds new chord changes to standards. She writes her own lyrics to instrumental jazz tunes and occasionally writes both lyrics and music for new songs. She does not get the critical acclaim from the same media outlets.

The irony is that if the first singer were working in 1960, iconic jazz vocalists like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Chris Connor, Anita O'Day, etc., etc. were working and she would get no press. In most European countries today, a singer singing standards like 1960 would have no work, while the second singer works all the time.

What does this say about the future of jazz in the United States when the only thing that garners media attention looks back and not forward?

Owsley also is posting playlists at last.fm, and says he plans to begin a jazz journal there soon.

Bluiett, the Bistro and Jazz Unlimited among the winners of the RFT's 2007 "Best of St. Louis" awards

The Riverfront Times' annual "Best of St. Louis" issue is out this week, and among the 2007 winners are Hamiet Bluiett for Best Jazz Artist; Jazz at the Bistro for Best Jazz Club; and KWMU's Jazz Unlimited, hosted by Dennis Owsley, for Best Jazz Radio Program.

You can read about the rest of the 2007 "Best of St. Louis" award winners here.

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.