All That Jazz
Legendary jazz DJ Oscar Treadwell gets an extreme makeover.
By Chris Varias
Photograph Courtesy of the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County
It was 60 years ago when jazz saxophone legend Charlie Parker cut an approximately three-minute up-tempo homage to a young Philadelphia jazz DJ named Oscar Treadwell. Backing Parker on the song “An Oscar for Treadwell” were Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Curly Russell, and Thelonious Monk—a quartet of giants who had penned the coolest tribute ever to a radio disc jockey. (Think about it: Treadwell gets Bird, Diz, Monk, and Rich all on one tune. By comparison, Wolfman Jack only managed to be immortalized by the Guess Who.)
From 1960 until Treadwell’s death in 2006 at age 79, the man they called O.T. (born Arthur Pedersen, left) spent a career in local radio, including his 22-year stretch at WGUC-FM. During each show, Treadwell provided a masterful oral history of jazz (and blues and some rock) between spins. And he didn’t want his history lessons to stop upon signing off. Along with 4,000 of his own CDs, Treadwell donated more than 100 reel-to-reel copies of his radio programs to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Initially converted to cassette tapes in 2006, reference librarian Brian Powers and Friends of the Public Library had the tapes converted again to CD, but the presentation was unworthy. There were no track listings or song titles, and the front cover featured only Treadwell’s head. “I called it the floating head of Treadwell,” Powers says. “It looked like Timothy Leary.” So Powers enlisted a volunteer crew of library employees and jazzbo patrons to identify each track. The process took a year and a half.
The library relaunched the collection as Jazz with O.T. earlier this year, 400 discs complete with track listings and fresh graphics. “I didn’t think anybody was really aware what that collection was,” Powers says. “Now there’s a better chance that people will rediscover it.” Of course, the library also has the Guess Who, if you’re into them.
Originally published in the August 2010 issue.