Kevin Whitehead

Kevin Whitehead is the jazz critic on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Widely written on American and improvised musics, Whitehead's articles have appeared in publications such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Village Voice, and Down Beat. He is the author of Why Jazz: A Concise Guide (2010) and New Dutch Swing (1998), and the jazz columnist for eMusic.com. His essays have appeared in numerous anthologies including Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006, Jazz: The First Century and The Cartoon Music Book.

Whitehead taught at the University of Kansas and Goucher College. He lives outside of Austin, Texas.

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Music Reviews
8:46 am
Wed April 18, 2012

Jenny Scheinman's 'Mayhem' Hard To Pin Down

Credit Michael Gross
Jenny Scheinman's (left) quartet represents players raised on and used to playing all kinds of music.

Originally published on Wed April 18, 2012 10:24 am

Violinist Jenny Scheinman's band and new album are both called Mischief and Mayhem. The record was made just after her quartet played a week at the Village Vanguard, but despite the jazz cred of regular Vanguard appearances, their stylistically fluid music draws on a lot of traditions.

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Music Reviews
9:11 am
Wed March 21, 2012

Clark Terry: Not Just A Jazz Jester

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Clark Terry.

Writing about Clark Terry in the past, I've grumbled that this great and distinctive trumpeter had long been stereotyped as a pixie-ish jazz jester. There's more range and deep blues feeling to his sound than that. It wasn't all sweetness when he was growing up poor in St. Louis, touring in the Deep South before WWII or breaking the color line with TV orchestras in 1960.

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Music Reviews
9:04 am
Mon March 12, 2012

Forgotten Gems From The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images
The Dave Brubeck Quartet.

After Dave Brubeck signed with Columbia Records in the mid-1950s, his quartet made a few albums a year, and now that material has been collected in a 19-disc box set called The Dave Brubeck Quartet: The Complete Columbia Studio Albums Collection.

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Music Reviews
9:01 am
Tue February 7, 2012

Matt Wilson: Trios, Quartets And 'Don Knotts'

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Like a comedian, drummer Matt Wilson knows about offhand dexterity and split-second timing.

Brooklyn drummer Matt Wilson keeps busy with many bands and projects — other people's and his own. Two new Wilson albums find him as part of a co-op all-star trio, and at the helm of one of his own quartets. Part of Wilson's appeal is that he keeps things light, in a good way.

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Music Reviews
9:46 am
Thu January 26, 2012

Jimmy Owens Navigates Monk's 'Brilliant Corners'

Credit Stephanie Myers
Jimmy Owens mostly dresses Monk's tunes for uptown wear — Monk the Harlem jam session swinger.

In 1974, trumpeter Jimmy Owens helped prepare and played on a Carnegie Hall concert of Thelonious Monk's music. On the night in question, the orchestra had a surprise soloist: Monk himself. It was one of the pianist's last public performances.

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Music Reviews
10:00 am
Wed January 11, 2012

François Houle And Benoît Delbecq's Dream State

It's been more than a decade since clarinetist François Houle and pianist Benoît Delbecq's previous recording, but Because She Hoped proves that they can a strike a mood together quickly. That quiet, misterioso air is one specialty, conjuring a dream state: a slow-motion sleepwalk.

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