Kevin Whitehead

Guaraldi had range, as well as an instrumental hit right when jazz was vanishing from AM radio.

The jazz trio returns to covering classic rock, folk and pop tunes on its latest album, Where Do You Start. Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the band's take on Elvis Costello, Nick Drake, Sonny Rollins and more.

Julio Cortazar's book Rayuela is expansive, smart, breezy, romantic and occasionally reminiscent of a disturbing dream. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says that Miguel Zenon and Laurent Coq's Rayuela-inspired album lands on all those squares.

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.

Scholar and fan Ryan Truesdell has turned unheard Evans scores into richly textured works.

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.

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.

Bassist Linda Oh's story is so compelling, everyone who write 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.

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

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.