Jazz
In Defense Of Jazz Biopics: Melodramas And Morality Tales, Set To Music
Many jazz fans hate biopic films, but critic Kevin Whitehead likes noticing which true elements get in — or get left out — as messy lives are squeezed into stock-story formulas.
In Jazz-Movie Endings, Some Story Elements Just Keep Bouncing Back
Over 90-some years of movies about jazz, many films have spun a familiar lick, sometimes falling back on stock standards when inspiration fails, and sometimes knowingly quoting from older works.
Remembering McCoy Tyner, A Jazz Legend Who Created His Own Style
Tyner, who died on March 6, placed thundering piano chords under fast, right-hand melodies. He led his own groups for decades, but was frequently associated with one early employer, John Coltrane.
A Look Back At How Virtuoso Jimmy Blanton Changed The Bass Forever
On what would have been Blanton's 100 birthday, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead recounts the ways in which the bassist revolutionized his instrument during his brief time on the music scene.
On The Centennial Of His Birth, A Look Back At Thelonious Monk's Jazz Legacy
The jazz legend would have turned 100 today. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Monk's music is "universally beloved, by jazz musicians across the stylistic spectrum who might agree about little else."