Kevin Whitehead

Critic Kevin Whitehead remembers the late musician, who was known for his animated piano recitals and group improvisations, and who sometimes used his forearm to play dense clusters on the keys.

The Algeria-born French pianist combines serious improvising with a playful attitude on his solo recital album. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Solal pulls listeners along "like a great storyteller."

Coltrane played his last engagements as a sideman with Davis in the spring of 1960. Recordings from those European shows have been bootlegged for years; now a few are collected in a new anthology.