Kevin Whitehead

Kevin Whitehead appears in the following:

Remembering cello player Abdul Wadud, and other jazz greats who died in 2022

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Wadud, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, organist Joey DeFrancesco, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, trumpeter Jaimie Branch and saxophonist Ronnie Cuber are among the notable musicians who died in 2022.

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'Emerald City Nights' revisits jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal in a series from the 1960s

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

When Jamal's trios visited Penthouse jazz club in Seattle in the '60s, they came to play. Now 92, the pianist has signed off on the release of a new series of live recordings from back in the day.

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'Fresh Air' marks the centennial of Charles Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Schulz, who died in 2000, spoke in 1990 about his iconic Peanuts comic strip. Plus, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead talks about pianist Vince Guaraldi, who created the music for A Charlie Brown Christmas.

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Jazz trio Thumbscrew celebrates 10 years together on 'Multicolored Midnight'

Thursday, November 03, 2022

From the beginning, Thumbscrew has had a thing for off-kilter rhythms and shifting accents. This new album is filled with idiosyncratic tunes — music befitting of the idiosyncratic band.

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Saxophonist Bobby Watson brings the sparks on 'Back Home in Kansas City'

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

After decades in New York, Watson has returned to Kansas City. The core KC jazz values — a swinging beat, a personal style, and an earthy, bluesy sensibility — are firmly in place on this new album.

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'Searching in Grenoble' showcases the unique style of jazz pianist Mal Waldron

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Nobody sounds like Waldron, a fact proved by a new 2-CD recording the artist made during a 1978 solo concert. Searching in Grenoble is a good introduction to the pianist's compelling sound.

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Fresh Air remembers jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis

Friday, September 16, 2022

In 1965, Lewis' trio had a crossover hit with The 'In' Crowd, a jazz recording they made in a Washington, D.C. nightclub, which reached the pop charts. Lewis died Sept. 12.

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The Free Form Funky Freqs blend jazz, R&B, rock and a little space music

Thursday, September 08, 2022

The Funky Freqs came up playing the post-Corea jazz-rock style known as free funk — music with fewer complicated melodies and more earthy grooving. Their new album is Hymn of the Third Galaxy.

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New quartet album by jazz drummer Billy Drummond is a treat

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

On Valse Sinistre, Drummond's ride-cymbal beat is lively, varied and full of passing cross-rhythms — the sound of a musician fully engaged and in the habit of attentive listening.

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Tyshawn Sorey's 'Mesmerism' celebrates the everyday miracle of the jazz rhythm trio

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Each player in this trio addresses the beat in a spontaneous way, without constant chaos. A casual romp like this session makes for breezy listening.

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Jacob Garchik's boldly mixed 'Assembly' is quintessential COVID-era jazz

Monday, July 11, 2022

Garchik's album started as a socially-distanced session which was then mixed — sometimes seamlessly, sometimes brazenly. It's music for an era of frequent disruption — and prized moments of calm.

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Pianist David Virelles shows off the depth and breadth of what he can do on 'Nuna'

Friday, July 01, 2022

Though he's been a New Yorker for over a decade, Virelles remains preoccupied with the rich, rhythmically charged music of his native Cuba. His new album shows where he's been — and where he's going.

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Max Roach's 1960 landmark 'We Insist!' proves timeless in a reissue

Friday, May 20, 2022

Roach's album was recently named to the National Recording Registry, a roster of works deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant; We Insist! scores in all three categories.

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The Clarinet Trio's new album showcases the lovely sound of blended woodwinds

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Transformations and Further Passages, a lively new album by Germany's The Clarinet Trio, revives tunes written by German jazz composers in the 1950s and '60s.

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'Fresh Air' marks the centennial of jazz great Charles Mingus

Friday, April 22, 2022

Critic Kevin Whitehead reflects on the legacy of the musician who would have been 100 on April 22, 2022. Mingus died in 1979, leaving behind a catalog of music that reflected his outsized personality.

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Reissue traces jazz giant Ornette Coleman's 'Genesis of Genius'

Wednesday, April 06, 2022

Coleman's first LPs from the late 1950s are newly available. They showcase Coleman's sound before he began making the records with his own bands that made him a controversial jazz star.

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Cecil Taylor's piano lightning bolts are precisely targeted in this 1973 recording

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Taylor's 1973 concert at New York's Town Hall has just been released for the first time as a digital album. It's a great, early example of Taylor's mature music — dense but well-designed.

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Remembering jazz trumpet player Ron Miles, a thinking person's improviser

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Some trumpeters aim to blow you away with their imposing technique; Miles drew the listener in. The performer, who died March 8, specialized in genre-blurring jazz that mixed old and new sounds.

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Lennie Tristano's private stash of recordings reveal a trove of free improvisations

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Despite the poor sound quality, Tristano's newly unearthed Personal Recordings from 1946-1970 are fascinating. Free jazz can be rambunctious, but these musicians step and listen carefully.

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Jazz trio Artifacts gets to the point quickly, and sticks to it, on a new album

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Flute player Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Mike Reed all came up on Chicago's new jazz scene about 20 years ago. Now they revisit their roots on ... and then there's this.

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