Music Reviews

Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new, seven-disc Charles Mingus box set chronicling the jazz legend's mid-'60s live performances. The records, Whitehead says, "can be a little raw, as if the explosive music caught the engineers by surprise."

We remember Dave Brubeck, who died Wednesday at age 91, with a March 2012 review from jazz critic Kevin Whitehead, who wrote about a few of the more obscure titles from Dave Brubeck's quartet.

The West African nation of Mali is a hotbed of blazing electric guitar players. In recent years, two of the best — Zani Diabate and Lobi Traore — died suddenly while in the prime of their creative lives. Both have posthumous releases out this year worth tracking down.