Kevin Whitehead

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.

A new 2-CD set features a decades-old recording of Mingus and his quintet at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival. Citic Kevin Whitehead says the album showcases one of Mingus' most explosive bands.