archive

August 15, 2012 Garbarek helped the ECM label find its emerging voice 40 years ago. A new box set of early albums captures the saxophonist's forming sound — austere and astringent.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

August 2, 2012 Scholar and fan Ryan Truesdell has turned unheard Evans scores into richly textured works.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

July 20, 2012 Davis' bluesy alto sax rasp is straight out of Charlie Parker's playbook, but he makes it his own in a new live recording from the Smalls Jazz Club.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

July 17, 2012 The jazz musician didn't make his burden any lighter by choosing to play tenor and soprano saxophones — the same instruments his father, John Coltrane, indelibly stamped. But critic Kevin Whitehead says he speaks in his own voice on the album Spirit Fiction.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

July 5, 2012 Bassist Linda Oh's story is so compelling, everyone who writes about her mentions it: how she was born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, who emigrated to western Australia when she was three. Oh's second album is out. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says her music also covers a lot of ground.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

June 19, 2012 It's tricky making a little band sound this big, but trombonist Ray Anderson knows his tricks.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

June 12, 2012 There have been a few groundbreaking harpists in jazz and improvised music, from Dorothy Ashby to Zeena Parkins. Now, Fresh Air's jazz critic says the Colombian phenomenon joins that list with Double Portion, his new album of solos and duets.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

June 5, 2012 Drummer Mike Reed's quartet People, Places and Things was put together to spotlight music written in Chicago in a fertile period between 1954 and 1960. The group has since expanded its mission to include later works, which are included on a new album titled Clean on the Corner.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

May 29, 2012 Masabumi Kikuchi's fully improvised album Sunrise features late, like-minded drummer Paul Motian.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

April 18, 2012 Scheinman's quartet features players raised on and accustomed to performing all kinds of music.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

March 21, 2012 From a new series, Kevin Whitehead reviews a pair of '60s LPs from the distinctive trumpeter.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

March 12, 2012 In December, Columbia released a box set of the 19 studio albums Dave Brubeck's quartet recorded between 1955 and 1966. Besides familiar titles like Time Out and Dave Digs Disney, there were a host of all-but-forgotten albums. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says a few of them are well-worth tracking down.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

February 7, 2012 Like a comedian, the drummer knows something about offhand dexterity and split-second timing.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

January 26, 2012 Owens mostly dresses Thelonious Monk's tunes for uptown wear — Monk the Harlem jam-session swinger.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

January 11, 2012 The latest duo recording from the clarinetist and pianist is like a slow-motion sleepwalk.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist