
Jazz
'Fresh Air' marks the centennial of jazz great Charles Mingus
Critic Kevin Whitehead reflects on the legacy of the musician who would have been 100 on April 22, 2022. Mingus died in 1979, leaving behind a catalog of music that reflected his outsized personality.
Marking The Centennial Of 2 Early Electric Guitarists: George Barnes And Mary Osborne
Barnes and Osborne would both be 100 on July 17. Barnes grew up in Chicago and went on to play on Bob Dylan's first single. Osborne turned up on records by Mel Tormé , Wynonie Harris and others.
'Fresh Air' Celebrates The 90th Birthday Of Jazz Improviser Sonny Rollins
Rollins recorded his first sessions in 1949, and played his last live shows in 2012. Kevin Whitehead offers an appreciation, then we listen back to a 1994 interview with the tenor saxophonist.
Charlie Parker, Born 100 Years Ago, Made Jazz Complexities Sound Deceptively Easy
More blues singer than Broadway, the Bird helped introduce bebop to jazz — and along the way redefined jazz velocity with his scrappy sound and pithy melodic figures.
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."
Celebrating The Centennial Of Jazz Legend Ella Fitzgerald
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.