Overnight Jazz

Late Night Jazz Fans! We’ve got two new hosts joining the overnight mix of jazz programming on KUVO on “Overnight Jazz,” Neil Tesser and Dave Schwan. They are both based in Chicago.

 

They will be hosting various hour-long sets mixed in with sets produced by Greg Bridges and Lee Thomas, both based in the Bay Area.

Neil Tesser

GRAMMY® Award-winning journalist Neil Tesser has reviewed, reported on, and broadcast Jazz in Chicago for 40 years. He previously hosted nightly Jazz programs at NPR station WBEZ-FM Chicago (1980-1996) and WNIB-FM (1974-1976). From 2001-2005 he hosted the evening-drive program “Miles Ahead” on the AM dial, and from 2005-08 he co-hosted and produced the Jazz commentary program “Listen Here!” syndicated on some 100 stations. He was the first winner of the Jazz Journalists Association’s “Willis Conover Award” for excellence in broadcasting, and in 2015 he received their Lifetime Achievement Award.

Neil has authored liner notes for more than 400 albums, receiving an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, and in 2013, the GRAMMY for his notes to John Coltrane’s Afro-Blue Impressions. He is the author of The Playboy Guide to Jazz (Plume Books); has contributed chapters to the anthologies Jazz: The First Century (Morrow, 2000), The Oxford Companion To Jazz (Oxford, 2000), and Discover Jazz (2011); and edited Learning To Listen, the autobiography of famed vibraphonist Gary Burton (Berklee Press, 2013).He was a Jazz writer for the Chicago READER from 1973-2008; the first Jazz reviewer for USA Today; Playboy Magazine’s Jazz critic from 1991-2002; a monthly columnist for Jazziz Magazine; and Jazz critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Downbeat, and other publications, as well as the web sites Examiner.com and Chicagomusic.org.

A board member of the Jazz Institute of Chicago and a charter member of the programming committee for the Chicago Jazz Festival, Neil is also active in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the GRAMMYs), serving on several national committees and as Vice Chair of that organization’s Board of Trustees during its 50th anniversary celebration.

 

Dave Schwan

A broadcast journalist and program host for nearly 40 years, Dave Schwan has had a life-long fascination with the history of Jazz, American music and its contributions to the world.  He believes that Jazz is a true art form and agrees with Duke Ellington’s dictum: “If it sounds good, it is good.” Thanks to musical family members at his Northwest Indiana childhood home, Dave has been around music all of his life, and was exposed to Jazz as early as age five.

Dave has been associated with Chicago’s WFMT 98.7FM since 2010. In addition to being a musician himself, travel is one of his main interests and that has taken him to all 50 states, Europe and Peru.  Along with taking in the history of these places, Dave has always made a point to seek out their musical culture as well, something he believes never fails to enhance a journey anywhere in the world.