OHR Presents: Jazz!

This week, OHR celebrates the singularly American musical art form, Jazz, with a mélange of both regional and nationally renowned artists recorded live at Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with these melodious mavens. The uniquely blended culture of America has produced some of the world’s most notable modern musical genres. Not the least of these is jazz. Growing from its roots in African-American blues music, jazz in its many forms dominated American popular music of the first half of the 20th Century. Featured on this episode of Ozark Highlands Radio are: A.J. Croce, jazz pianist, singer, songwriter and son of famed American singer-songwriter Jim Croce; powerhouse jazz and Texas swing trio The Quebe Sisters; talented Arkansas family group The Clark Family Trio; Ozark original singer and guitarist Denise Lanuti with her band Mighty Fine Time; multi-instrumentalist and featured artist on PBS’ American Epic, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton; inimitable time traveling San Francisco ragtime duo Meredith Axelrod & Craig Ventresco. In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers a 1991 archival recording of Ozark original Moon Mullins performing the classic tune “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.