Kevin Francis Whitehead (born April 27, 1952) is an American jazz critic and author.
Born in New York City, Whitehead studied at Oswego State University in New York, then earned a Masters in American Literature and Culture at Syracuse University. He began writing in the early 1970s for the short-lived magazine Oswego County Times . In 1979, he wrote his first record review, for Joni Mitchell's Mingus .
Since the end of the 1970s, Whitehead has been writing regularly on jazz, including for the NPR program Fresh Air with Terry Gross since 1987, as well as for newspapers and magazines such as JazzTimes , Chicago Sun-Times , Chicago Reader , Down Beat , Village Voice , and the Volkskrant . He lived in the Netherlands in the late 1990s. [1]
Whitehead wrote the books New Dutch Swing (1998) and Why Jazz: A Concise Guide (2010) and (with the photographer Ton Mijs) Instant Composers Pool Orchestra: You Have to See It (2011). He is also editor of Bimhuis 25: Stories of Twenty-Five Years at the Bimhuis. His works have appeared in anthologies such as Jazz: The First Century, The Gramophone Jazz Good CD Guide, Mixtery: a Commemorative for Anthony Braxton, Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2006 and Traveling the Spaceways: Sun Ra , the Astro Black and other Solar Myths.
Whitehead has also written liner notes for albums, including recordings by Ab Baars, Sylvie Courvoisier, Charles Gayle, François Houle, Phillip Johnston, Sheila Jordan, Henry Threadgill, Myra Melford (Michael Moore, 1993), Simon Nabatov / Han Bennink, Pharoah Sanders, Daniel Schnyder, Aki Takase, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Clusone 3, and the ICP Orchestra. In 2012 he was nominated for the JJA Award of the Jazz Journalists Association for his liner notes of the Sam Rivers album Trilogy (Mosaic Select). [2] He also taught jazz literature at Towson University, University of Kansas, and Goucher College.
As an improvisational musician, Whitehead played in the free jazz group Starship Beer, as well as appearing at New York's Knitting Factory, Chicago's Empty Bottle and HotHouse, and the Amsterdam Zaal 100. He lives near Baltimore.
Benjamin David Goodman was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing".
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music, although this was not the only style of music played by big bands.
Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early '30s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, known as the swing era, when people were dancing the Lindy Hop. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and Django Reinhardt.
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. was an American jazz pianist, composer, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five gold records and three Grammy Awards in his career. His album The In Crowd earned Lewis critical praise and the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance. His best known singles include "The 'In' Crowd", "Wade in the Water", and "Sun Goddess". Until 2009, he was the host of the Ramsey Lewis Morning Show on the Chicago radio station WNUA.
Misha Mengelberg was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz, Mengelberg is known for his forays into free improvisation, for bringing humor into his music, and as a leading interpreter of songs by fellow pianists Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols.
Fred Hersch is an American jazz pianist, composer, educator and HIV/AIDS activist. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than 70 of his jazz compositions. Hersch has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, and, as of December 2014, had been on the Jazz Studies faculty of the New England Conservatory since 1980.
Erik van der Luijt is a Dutch jazz pianist and keyboard player, arranger and composer.
Willem Breuker was a Dutch bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and clarinetist.
Craig Marvin Taborn is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by a wide range of music, including by the freedom expressed in recordings of free jazz and contemporary classical music.
Chicago Underground is an avant-garde jazz ensemble formed in Chicago in 1997 based around the core duo of cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer/percussionist Chad Taylor. They have recorded and performed as the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, Quartet or Orchestra depending on how many additional musicians are included. The ensemble which has released numerous recordings on the Thrill Jockey and Delmark labels.
Will Friedwald is an American author and music critic. He has written for newspapers that include the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Village Voice, Newsday, New York Observer, and New York Sun – and for magazines that include Entertainment Weekly, Oxford American, New York, Mojo, BBC Music Magazine, Stereo Review, Fi, and American Heritage.
Robert D. "Bob" Rusch is an American jazz critic and record producer. Rusch has also been accused of allegedly sexual abusing students when he worked as a teacher.
Dana Hall is an American jazz drummer, percussionist, composer, bandleader, and ethnomusicologist. After spending the first few years of his life in Brooklyn, New York, he relocated with his family to his mother's hometown of Philadelphia. There, Hall was exposed to jazz and soul music at an early age through the recordings of his mother Diane, his uncle Earl Harris, and his large extended family. His family's interest in creative music, and their “open door” policy toward Philadelphia jazz musicians of the era sparked Hall's curiosity, passion and ultimately career in music.
Marc Myers is an American journalist, author of five books and a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, where he writes on music, the arts and celebrities. In 2007, he founded JazzWax, a leading daily jazz blog that has won three Jazz Journalists Association "Blog of the Year" awards.
Lars Dietrich is a Dutch saxophonist, composer and electronic musician who has been based in New York City and Amsterdam.
Stan Kenton Plays Chicago is a studio album by American jazz musician Stan Kenton and his orchestra, released on August 17, 1974, by Creative World Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Universal Recording Corp. in Chicago on June 4, 5, 6, 1974. The sessions are entirely based on the music of modern rock n' roll groups, in contrast to Kenton's earlier work which primarily featured swing with some progressive jazz leanings.
Instant Composers Pool (ICP) is an independent Dutch jazz and improvised music label and orchestra. Founded in 1967, the label takes its name from the concept that improvisation is "instant composition". The ICP label has published more than 50 releases to date, with most of its releases featuring the ICP Orchestra and its members.
Neil Tesser is a Grammy Award–winning American journalist, radio host, music critic, and author. In 2015, he received the Jazz Journalists Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in Jazz Journalism.
Timuçin Şahin is a Turkish jazz guitarist and composer. He was awarded first prize at the Dutch Jazz Competition in 2001 and second prizes at the Jur Naessens Music Award in 2002, and the Deloitte Jazz Award in 2006. He has so far released five contemporary jazz albums, including solo releases, as part of the contemporary jazz trio On the Line, and as part of the Timucin Sahin Quartet and the Timucin Sahin Quintet.
The Thompson Fields is an album by the Maria Schneider Orchestra that won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2017. Schneider was the composer, conductor, and co-producer of the autobiographical work. The title comes from the Minnesota farm where she was raised.