Danny O’Bryan
Danny O’Bryan has been involved in the Louisville jazz scene for over 50 years. In the early 1960s when all of his peers were entranced with rock ‘n’ roll, Danny was playing saxophone in a Beatles cover band and secretly combing the jazz bins in local record stores.
After seeing trumpeter Miles Davis at the Brown Theatre in 1963, O’Bryan was totally hooked. He began writing about jazz while attending the University of Louisville in the 1970s. He started his first venture into radio with an early edition of Jazz Insights on WUOL in 1978.
From 1983-87, he was jazz critic for the Louisville Times and Night Life columnist for Scene Magazine. Over the years, he’s interviewed and written about many of the jazz greats including Woody Herman, Count Basie, Buddy Rich and Wynton Marsalis. But his most memorable moment came in 1978 when he had lunch with singer Ella Fitzgerald after interviewing her for Jazz Insights.
When not in the studio, Danny can be seen in local nightclubs singing and playing saxophone with his band “Lush Life” or reading his poetry in local bookstores. He is also an adjunct English Professor at Jefferson Community College and Technical School.
On Jazz Insights, every Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m, Danny plays an ever changing gumbo of jazz he calls “a little old, a little new and a little in-between but always swinging!” You can also keep up with all of Danny’s escapades on his blog.
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