Kevin Whitehead

Owing to his superb taste and refined touch, Roy Haynes has spent six decades as a drummer of choice for jazz stars like Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Pat Metheny. All of them appear on A Life in Time: The Roy Haynes Story, a new anthology spread over three CDs and a DVD. It's less a showcase for aggressive drumming than a reminder of how much good and great music Haynes has contributed to as a team player between 1949 and 2006.

A Fistful of Music, a box-set of composer Ennio Morricone's music, was recently released by Rhino records. This interview originally aired on Sep. 28, 1995.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead looks at the work of jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. This week, Monk received a special posthumous citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee for "a body of distinguished and innovative musical composition that has had a significant and enduring impact on the evolution of jazz."

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.

Kevin Whitehead continues his Avant Garde Made Easy series with a look at pianist Cecil Taylor.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead begins a new six-part series we call Avant-Garde Made Easy, highlighting some of the important modern jazz mavericks of the so-called Avant Garde. Today we consider the music of trumpeter Lester Bowie.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead begins a new six-part series we call Avant-Garde Made Easy, highlighting some of the important modern jazz mavericks of the so-called Avant Garde. We begin the series with pianist, composer, and band leader Sun Ra.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead continues his look at Duke Ellington.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead corrects some common misconceptions about Duke Ellington.