David Whiteis
David’s Contributions
July/August 2007 Albums
Indigo Trio: Live in Montreal
Nicole Mitchell/Harrison Bankhead/Hamid Drake
Flutist Nicole Mitchell, bassist Harrison Bankhead and percussionist Hamid Drake are longtime collaborators. But until June 13, 2005, when they appeared at the Suoni per il Popolo Festival in Montreal, these three Chicagoans had never performed publicly...
June 2007 Artist Profiles
Fred Anderson: New Velvet
Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson was already an underground legend in 1982 when he bought Tip’s Tavern, a small neighborhood bar on Indiana Avenue that he’d been running for several years, and rechristened it the Velvet Lounge. A founding member...
March 2007 News
Made in Chicago, Played in Poland: Free Jazz and Boogie-Woogie Piano in Poznan
Freedom was ringing throughout Poland in the 1980s, and for a young student named Wojciech Juszczak, the resonance helped spark a lifelong musical love affair. “It was at about the time of the end of martial law,” he remembers. “Solidarity Summer. The Warsaw...
January/February 2007 Albums
Out of Many Comes the One
The Chico Freeman Project
“Ya can’t shut the funk up,” New Orleans’ redoubtable Dr. John has instructed us. But on this disk Chico Freeman sounds determined to do just that—or, at the very least, cut it off at the knees. This might have been an enjoyable, if not exactly revelatory...
January/February 2007 Albums
Minions' Dominion
Delfeayo Marsalis
The fabled Marsalis technical dexterity is on full display here, as is the characteristic meld of pop-culture accessibility and high-art aspiration (“Brer Rabbit” was the closing theme of the ABC miniseries Moon Over Miami; “Lost in the Crescent,” a reprise...
January/February 2007 Albums
The In Side Out
Michele Rosewoman & Quintessence
The first six tracks here are an invocation of the Ring Shout, the traditional African ceremonial form of dance, song and worship in which a theme or set of themes is stated, responded to by the participants, and then repeated and improvised upon in a circular...
January/February 2007 Albums
Keep Searchin'
Steve Turre
Steve Turre conjures as diverse an aural palette from his horn as any trombonist living. When he mutes it, it becomes virtually a different instrument. He then takes his cue from the pinched sonic texture of this instrument and creates challengingly narrow...
November 2006 Albums
Consequences
Dave Burrell/Billy Martin
There is little meter, in the conventional sense, in most of these free-form explorations, but there is definitely swing. Pianist Burrell and percussionist Martin generate a powerful sense of directionality, infused with that ineffable combination of ease...
November 2006 Albums
From the Heart
Hilario Duran
Combining elements of bebop, big-band swing and ideas drawn from virtually the entire history of Afro-Cuban jazz (from Santeria rituals to the present day), Cuban pianist Hilario Duran’s music is charged with flamboyance and displays of technical wizardry...
November 2006 Albums
Good Forever
Von Freeman
Unlike many “elder statesmen” who survive mostly on memory and past accomplishments, Chicago’s octogenarian tenor saxophone master Von Freeman remains in full command of his facilities. New ideas seem to burst into life when he plays, and both his physical...
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ReportAbout David Whiteis
David Whiteis, an internationally published critic and journalist with over 25 years of experience writing about blues, jazz, and other essential issues, currently writes on a regular basis for JazzTimes, the Chicago Reader, Living Blues Magazine, Juke Blues Magazine (Great Britain), and other publications. He is the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s 2001 Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Achievement in Journalism. His recent book Chicago Blues: Portraits and Stories, was published by University of Illinois Press in 2006. He is currently working on a book about contemporary Southern Soul-Blues.