Kevin Whitehead

Cécile McLorin Salvant: Making Old Songs New Again

Kevin Whitehead — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was born in Miami to French and Haitian parents, and started singing jazz while living in Paris. Back in the U.S., she won the Thelonious Monk vocal competition in 2010. The 23-year-old's first album, WomanChild, is now out — and few jazz debuts by singers or instrumentalists make this big a splash.

Salvant's unusual material sets her apart as much as her chops do. The most recent non-original tune on her nervily accomplished debut is by Fats Waller.

Sarah Vaughan: A New Box Set Revels In Glorious Imperfections

Kevin Whitehead — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:49:00 +0000

Singer Sarah Vaughan came up in the 1940s alongside bebop lions Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, starting out in Earl Hines' big band. Hines had hired her as his singer and deputy pianist, while Gillespie praised her fine ear for chords as she grasped the arcane refinements of bebop harmony.

Earl Hines: Big Bands And Beyond On A New Box Set

Kevin Whitehead — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:32:00 +0000

By 1928, Earl Hines was jazz's most revolutionary pianist, for two good reasons. His right hand played lines in bright, clear octaves that could cut through a band. His left hand had a mind of its own. Hines could play fast stride and boogie bass patterns, but then his southpaw would go rogue — it'd seem to step out of the picture altogether, only to slide back just in time.

Hines might have focused on a career as dazzling pianist, like Art Tatum. But after working in various orchestras, he itched to lead one of his own.

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bicultural Jazz, Ever Shifting

Kevin Whitehead — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:38:00 +0000

Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa's quartet can sound like it's cross-pollinating Indian classical music and vintage Captain Beefheart. That befits a bicultural saxophonist who grew up in Boulder, where his Hindu family had a Christmas tree. For a long time, Mahanthappa resisted combining jazz and Indian music — it was almost too obvious a trajectory. But then he got serious about it.

South Asian influences had been planted in jazz decades ago, just waiting for further development.

A 'Special Edition' Box Set Of Jack DeJohnette And Band

Kevin Whitehead — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:13:00 +0000

On a new box set collecting the first four albums of Jack DeJohnette and his band Special Edition, two discs are gems and the other two have their moments. DeJohnette's quartet-slash-quintet was fronted by smoking saxophonists on the way up, set loose on catchy riffs and melodies. The springy rhythm section could tweak the tempos like no one this side of '60s goddess Laura Nyro.

Bass Note: Mingus And The Jazz Workshop Concerts

Kevin Whitehead — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:47:00 +0000

On a new box set from mail-order house Mosaic Records, Charles Mingus, The Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964-65, the jazz legend's bands usually number between five and eight players. The bassist often made those bands sound bigger. He'd been using midsize ensembles since the '50s, but his new ones were more flexible than ever, light on their feet but able to fill in backgrounds like a large group.

The concert tapes Mingus released or licensed in the mid-'60s suggest how little control he had over the recording process.

Jason Kao Hwang: From The Blues To China And Back

Kevin Whitehead — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Jazz reflects who we are as a people — democracy in action and all that. But a jazz tune or solo is also a portrait of the musician who makes it; the music reflects the particular background and training that influences how composers compose and improvisers improvise. Jason Kao Hwang makes that autobiographical component explicit throughout his extended composition for eight pieces, Burning Bridge.

The Mythic Power Of Bessie Smith

Kevin Whitehead — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:26:00 +0000

Vocalist Bessie Smith's musical career, spanning 1923-33, has been collected in a new 10-CD box set, Bessie Smith: The Complete Columbia Recordings.

Recorded shortly before the 1927 floods that devastated the Mississippi River valley, Bessie Smith had written "Back Water Blues" in sympathy with flood victims she'd encountered near Cincinnati months earlier, who, the story goes, asked her to bear witness to their pain.

George Cables: A Heartfelt Tribute To His 'Muse'

Kevin Whitehead — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:59:00 +0000

In the 1970s and '80s, George Cables was the pianist of choice for saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper; Pepper called him his favorite pianist.

Ron Miles Finds Wide-Open Spaces On 'Quiver'

Kevin Whitehead — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:47:00 +0000

Teaching jazz history got trumpeter Ron Miles deep into the pleasures of early jazz, with its clarity of form and emphasis on melodic improvising that doesn't wander far from the tune.