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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In 1968, jazz pianist Bill Evans led a trio with Jack DeJohnette and Eddie Gomez. They spent five weeks in Europe; a newly unearthed concert recording catches them live in a Dutch radio studio.
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Tenor saxophonist JD Allen has been leading a group with the same musicians for 10 years now. Critic Kevin Whitehead says the quartet's familiarity helps it hit its groove on Radio Flyer.
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Fifty years ago, singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry released a song that described a slice of life in rural Mississippi. Critic Kevin Whitehead shares a few of the jazz covers that followed.
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Allen mixes African, European and American beats on his new album, A Tribute to Art Blakey.Critic Kevin Whitehead says the record showcases the way that musicians "bat ideas back and forth."
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Since the 1990s, New York trumpet player Steven Bernstein has been the ringleader of this occasional quartet. This recent album was recorded at a home studio and its rough-hewn quality is just right.
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Paul Steinbeck's new book chronicles the antics, both on and off stage, of the storied jazz ensemble. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Message to Our Folks celebrates the band's success on their own terms.
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The reissued album features the sound of the South African musician once known as Dollar Brand. Critic Kevin Whitehead says: "When Abdullah got a-rumbling, his piano was like a force of nature."
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Fitzgerald, who died in 1996, had her first hits with Chick Webb's big band before going out on her own in the 1940s. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Fitzgerald at her best is as good as it gets.
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The New-Orleans-born trumpeter salutes the earliest jazz recordings on his new album. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Ruler Rebel showcases Adjuah's "commanding personal voice and ... sense of direction."
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Monk Dreams, Hallucinations and Nightmares, by the Finish-born pianist and composer, is a meditation on Thelonious Monk's "odd but catchy melodies," says jazz critic Kevin Whitehead.