Kevin Whitehead

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Freefall featuring pianist Kenny Barron and violinist Regina Carter.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead concludes his series Avant-Garde Made Easy with a review of the music of Misha Mengelberg.

No one in jazz was as far out and far in as tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler. Far out in terms of how he improvised. Far in, in terms of the songs he wrote to improvise on. They sounded like a jumble of bugle calls, national anthems, nursery rhymes and drinking songs. Music ran in the family. As a boy, Ayler had studied music and listened to jazz with his father, and they also played saxophone duets in church. As a memento, Albert later recorded an album of spirituals called Goin' Home.