Kevin Whitehead
Kevin Whitehead is the jazz critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Currently he reviews for The Audio Beat and Point of Departure.
Whitehead's articles on jazz and improvised music have appeared in such publications as Point of Departure, the Chicago Sun-Times, Village Voice, Down Beat, and the Dutch daily de Volkskrant.
He is the author of Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film (2020), Why Jazz: A Concise Guide (2010), New Dutch Swing (1998), and (with photographer Ton Mijs) Instant Composers Pool Orchestra: You Have to See It (2011).
His essays have appeared in numerous anthologies including Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006, Discover Jazz and Traveling the Spaceways: Sun Ra, the Astro-Black and Other Solar Myths.
Whitehead has taught at Towson University, the University of Kansas and Goucher College. He lives near Baltimore.
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When Hersch invited jazz, pop and opera composer Spalding to perform three nights with him at the Village Vanguard, he thought she'd bring her bass. Instead, Spalding just wanted to use her voice.
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Shorter, who died March 2, was inspired by film and literature, as much as by sounds. One of the great musical minds of our time, he had a profound influence on the course of jazz.
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No '60s pop composer wrote more sophisticated songs than Bacharach, who died Feb. 8. Dozens of his best songs endure for all the right reasons; they're inventive, challenging and linger in your ear.
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Tenor saxophonist Davis and organist Scott had one of the great jazz partnerships in the late 1950s. A new anthology focuses on their Cookbook series of albums.
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Barron previously recorded most tunes on his album, a few more than once. Now he gives them layers of new meaning and an allusive texture — with occasional hints at Afro-Cuban rhythms and gestures.
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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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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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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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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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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.