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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Group chemistry and deft composing make Harrell's new album a polished, inventive album that's worth checking out. Critic Kevin Whitehead says it's "really, really good."
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Carter had a late-career renaissance when she performed for New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1992. Critic Kevin Whitehead says the recording showcases how much feeling Carter put in her singing.
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Both Lennie Tristano and Herbie Nichols were active on the New York scene in the 1950s. Though worlds apart stylistically, their music demonstrates how the piano accommodates myriad personalities.
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Richards is a musician who's attuned to her instrument's idiosyncrasies and pet sounds. On her new album, she's helped along by the collective sound environment created by her quartet.
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Miller's band, the sextet Boom Tic Boom, keep good time — and appear to have a good time — on their new album. "You can hear how much her crew enjoy playing this music," critic Kevin Whitehead says.
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Lee, one of the premier singers of new jazz, mixes it up with pianist Blake on a newly reissued two-CD set featuring standards and straight-up jazz tunes the two recorded in Belgium in 1966 and '67.
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A 50-year old album by pianist Oscar Peterson and a studio orchestra has been reissued by the German label MPS. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead confesses to having mixed feelings about it.
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Seven months before his 1964 masterwork Out to Lunch! Dolphy recorded a pair of sessions with producer Alan Douglas. Critic Kevin Whitehead says this reissue is long overdue.
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Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews two new interpretations of Monk's complete works: Monk's Dreams, by pianist Frank Kimbrough, and Work, by guitarist Miles Okazaki.
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Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead remembers the musical contributions of Hugh Masekela, Jerry González, Roy Hargrove, Buell Neidlinger, Randy Weston and Vancouver Jazz Festival founder Ken Pickering.