Best Jazz Radio Program

Josh Weinstein prefers his jazz free. Yeah, he'll inject structure, and funk and, of course, soul, but he prefers wide-open spaces and out-there improvisations. He knows his East Coast jazz, 1950 to the present, digs the Chicago scene and understands its strong connection to the absolutely vital (and underappreciated) St. Louis free-jazz scene of the late '60s and early '70s. Unlike the two most high-profile local jazz shows, Don Wolff's Saturday Night Jazz Session on KMOX (1120 AM) and Dennis Owsley's superb Jazz Unlimited on KWMU (90.7 FM), All Soul, No Borders isn't afraid of hip-hop beats, the guitar or Sun Ra. Where the others are oriented toward '50s and '60s Miles Davis, Weinstein prefers the trumpeter's more palatial '70s excursions. Last month the disc jockey featured a two-hour Hendrix/Coltrane throw-down that included, back-to-back, Hendrix's "Machine Gun" and Coltrane/ Dolphy's "India" from 1961. It tore the paint off of the walls -- something Weinstein does on a laudably regular basis every Thursday from 10 p.m. till midnight.