Rodney Whittaker
Encyclopedia
Rodney Whitaker is an American jazz double bass
player and educator.
, and studied with Robert Gladstone, principal bass with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
, and trumpeter Marcus Belgrave
.
He achieved recognition performing with Terence Blanchard
's Quintet and then with Roy Hargrove
. His own first album Children of the Light was released in 1996
His score for the film China, directed by Jeff Wray, was released on PBS in 2002.
In 2006, Whitaker was nominated for the Juno Award
Traditional Jazz Album of the Year for Let Me Tell You About My Day, his album in collaboration with Phil Dwyer
and Alan Jones. He has also been working with the pianist Junko Onishi.
Whitaker is professor of double bass
and director of jazz studies at Michigan State University
's College of Music. He has presented master classes at such institutions as Duke University
, Howard University
, University of Iowa
, University of Michigan
, the New School
(NY), Lincoln Center, and the Detroit International Jazz Festival, and at the conferences of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE)
. He has also worked with Detroit Symphony Orchestra
to develop a jazz education department, and conducts their Civic Jazz Orchestra, as well as being on the faculties of University of Michigan and Juilliard School
.
Mora, Francisco Mora, AACE
Wait Broke The Wagon Down, Wendell Harrison, Wenha
1990
Terence Blanchard, Terence Blanchard/Branford Marsalis, Sony/CBS
1991
Simply Stated, Terence Blanchard, Sony/CBS
Don’t You Know I Care, Antonio Hart, RCA/Novus
The Old & The New, Shawn “Thunder” Wallace, MiJaWa
1992
Of Kindred Souls/ w/ 4 Originals, Roy Hargrove, RCA/Novus
A Portrait of You, Donald Walden, Jazz Works
Vibe, Roy Hargrove, RCA/Novus
1993
It’s All Right To Swing, Eric Reed/Wynton Marsalis, Mo Jazz
Crusin’, Junko Onishi, EMI
Jmukai Quintet, Mukai, EMI
1994
True Blue, Mark Whitfield, Verve/Polygram
Monk’s Modern Music, Rick Roe, Unknown
With The Tenors of Our Time, Roy Hargrove, Verve/Polygram
Approaching Standards, Roy Hargrove, BMG/Novus
1995
Roy Hargrove & Friends, Roy Hargrove, Verve/Polygram
The Swing & I, Eric Reed, Mo Jazz
Chicago, New York, Paris, Johnny Griffin, Verve/Polygram
Family, Roy Hargrove, Verve
Piano Quintet Suite, Junko Onishi, Blue Note
My Generation, Teodross Avery, Impulse
1996
Collage, Keith Saxton, Kevin Hole
Pursuance-The Music of John Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, Warner Bros.
Kevin, Mahogany, Kevin Mahogany, Warner Bros.
A Grand Encounter, Dianne Reeves, Blue Note
The Change Over, Rick Roe, Unknown
Wholly Cat’s, Russell Malone
Live @ The Kerry Town Concert Hall, Phil Lasley
Kamal, Kamal Sullivan, Arabques
Penn’s Landing, Clarence Penn, Criss Cross
1997
Tenor Time, Joe Lovano, Blue Note
Jackie Mac’s Bag, Milan Simich, Hip Bop
1998
Collected Roy Hargrove, Roy Hargrove, Verve
Collected Antonio Hart, Antonio Hart, Novus/BMG
Foresight, Foresight, N2K
Introducing Orin Evans, Orin Evans, Criss Cross
Dennis Jeter, Dennis Jeter, Jeter Productions
Francisco Mora, Francisco Mora, Community
Captain Black, Orin Evans, Criss Cross
Focusing The Vision, Vincent York, Vincent York
Andrew Speight Quartet, Andrew Speight, ABC/EMI
A Mingus & A Monk Among Us, Donald Walden, Jazz Works
1999
Bluestone, Joh Yamada, Alfa
Slidin’ Home, Wycliffe Gordon, Nagel/Heyer
Live From Swing City, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Sony
Big Train, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
Marciac Suite, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
Grown Fold Bizness, Orin Evans, Criss Cross
To Those We Love So Dearly, Victor Goines, Rosemary Joseph
Title Unknown-Soon To Be Released, Alex Graham
Double Duke, Joe Temperely, Naxos
The Search, Wycliffe Gordon, Nagel/Heyer
With Arkadia Jazz
All Stars
2000
Live @ Blue Note, Jaz Sawyer & Irvin Mayfield, Half Note
Uptown Lowdown “A Salute to D”, Nagel/Heyer/All Stars, Nagel/Heyer
Watch What You’re Doin’, Herlin Riley, Criss Cross
Sweet Release, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
Reflections & Change, Craig Handy, Sirocco Jazz
Flow, Craig Handy, Sirocco Jazz
A Portrait of Kevin Mahogany, Kevin Mahogany, Warner Bros.
Hymn for Roscoe Mitchell, Stephen Rush Quartet
Olive Tree, Walter Blanding, Criss Cross
2001
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, Rodney Whitaker, Sirrocco Jazz
Play Penn, Clarence Penn Quintet, Criss Cross
Introducing Peter Baits, Peter Baits, Criss Cross
Introducing Milt Grayson, Milt Grayson
All Rise, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
2003
All Rise-Wynton Marsalis-Sony
Penns Landing-Clarence Penn-Criss Cross
Dameronia-Donald Walden & The Detroit Jazz Orchestra-Jazz Works
Louis Armstrong's Jazz Curriculum CD Series-LCJO-Warner Bros.
Introducing: Peter Baits - Peter Baits, Criss Cross
We Got It - Matt Ray - Label Unknown
E-Bop - Eric Reed - SAVANT
Joyride - Wycliffe Gordon - NAGEL/HEYER
Flow - Craig Handy - Sirrocco Jazz
Third Floor - Professors of Jazz @ MSU - MSU Jazz
Freewheelin' - Jazz Compilation - Arkadia
Hip Bop Essence - All Star - Hip Bop
Soul Trinity-Volume One - Frederick Sanders – FreSan
2004
Winter Moon-Rodney Whitaker-Sirocco Jazz Ltd.
Let Me Tell You About My Day – 2004 Alan Jones
Unforgivable Blackness-DVD-Wynton Marsalis/Ken Burns
2005
Sphere-Rick Roe-Unknown Records
The Good Life-Alex Graham-Origin (Arts) Records
2006
Here-Eric Reed-Max Jazz
Shades of Green-Ron DiSalvio w/Jimmy Cobb-Label N/A
World Trade Music-Francisco Catlett-Mora-Label N/A
2007
Get Ready-Carl Allen/Rodney Whitaker-Mack Avenue Records
2008
Work To Do-Carl Allen/Rodney Whitaker-Mack Avenue Records
2010
Maureen Choi Quartet-Maureen Choi Music
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
player and educator.
Biography
Born in Detroit, Whitaker attended Wayne State UniversityWayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
, and studied with Robert Gladstone, principal bass with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
, and trumpeter Marcus Belgrave
Marcus Belgrave
Marcus Belgrave is a jazz trumpet player from Detroit, born in Chester, Pennsylvania. He has recorded with a variety of famous musicians, bandleaders, and record labels since the 1950s. Notable among them are: Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, Gunther Schuller, Motown Records, Tribe Records, Blue Note...
.
He achieved recognition performing with Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...
's Quintet and then with Roy Hargrove
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...
. His own first album Children of the Light was released in 1996
His score for the film China, directed by Jeff Wray, was released on PBS in 2002.
In 2006, Whitaker was nominated for the Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
Traditional Jazz Album of the Year for Let Me Tell You About My Day, his album in collaboration with Phil Dwyer
Phil Dwyer (musician)
Phil Dwyer is a jazz saxophonist, pianist, composer, producer and teacher who, after 15 years in Toronto, now resides on Vancouver Island. Dwyer has been nominated for Juno Awards 4 times and won Best Mainstream Jazz Album in 1994....
and Alan Jones. He has also been working with the pianist Junko Onishi.
Whitaker is professor of double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
and director of jazz studies at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
's College of Music. He has presented master classes at such institutions as Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
, University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, the New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
(NY), Lincoln Center, and the Detroit International Jazz Festival, and at the conferences of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE)
International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE)
International Association for Jazz Education , formerly a not-for-profit corporation based in Manhattan, Kansas, was a volunteer-run organization that, among other things, allocated student scholarships through its approved festivals program. Its annual conference was a gathering point for...
. He has also worked with Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
to develop a jazz education department, and conducts their Civic Jazz Orchestra, as well as being on the faculties of University of Michigan and Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
.
As leader
- Children of the Light (DIW RecordsDIW RecordsDIW Records is a Japanese record label. It is a subsidiary label of Disc Union and specializes in jazz and avant garde music. Kazunori Sugiyama was an executive producer for the label before starting Tzadik Records with John Zorn.-Discography:...
, 1995) with Nicholas Payton, Wallace Roney - Hidden Kingdom (DIW, 1996) with James Carter, Ron Blake
- The Brooklyn Session: Ballads and Blues (CrissCross, 1998) with Wycliffe Gordon, Stefon Harris
- Yesterday Today and Tomorrow (Sirocco Jazz, 1999) with Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Dianne ReevesDianne ReevesDianne Reeves is an American jazz singer. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.-Early life:Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a...
As sideman
1986Mora, Francisco Mora, AACE
Wait Broke The Wagon Down, Wendell Harrison, Wenha
1990
Terence Blanchard, Terence Blanchard/Branford Marsalis, Sony/CBS
1991
Simply Stated, Terence Blanchard, Sony/CBS
Don’t You Know I Care, Antonio Hart, RCA/Novus
The Old & The New, Shawn “Thunder” Wallace, MiJaWa
1992
Of Kindred Souls/ w/ 4 Originals, Roy Hargrove, RCA/Novus
A Portrait of You, Donald Walden, Jazz Works
Vibe, Roy Hargrove, RCA/Novus
1993
It’s All Right To Swing, Eric Reed/Wynton Marsalis, Mo Jazz
Crusin’, Junko Onishi, EMI
Jmukai Quintet, Mukai, EMI
1994
True Blue, Mark Whitfield, Verve/Polygram
Monk’s Modern Music, Rick Roe, Unknown
With The Tenors of Our Time, Roy Hargrove, Verve/Polygram
Approaching Standards, Roy Hargrove, BMG/Novus
1995
Roy Hargrove & Friends, Roy Hargrove, Verve/Polygram
The Swing & I, Eric Reed, Mo Jazz
Chicago, New York, Paris, Johnny Griffin, Verve/Polygram
Family, Roy Hargrove, Verve
Piano Quintet Suite, Junko Onishi, Blue Note
My Generation, Teodross Avery, Impulse
1996
Collage, Keith Saxton, Kevin Hole
Pursuance-The Music of John Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, Warner Bros.
Kevin, Mahogany, Kevin Mahogany, Warner Bros.
A Grand Encounter, Dianne Reeves, Blue Note
The Change Over, Rick Roe, Unknown
Wholly Cat’s, Russell Malone
Live @ The Kerry Town Concert Hall, Phil Lasley
Kamal, Kamal Sullivan, Arabques
Penn’s Landing, Clarence Penn, Criss Cross
1997
Tenor Time, Joe Lovano, Blue Note
Jackie Mac’s Bag, Milan Simich, Hip Bop
1998
Collected Roy Hargrove, Roy Hargrove, Verve
Collected Antonio Hart, Antonio Hart, Novus/BMG
Foresight, Foresight, N2K
Introducing Orin Evans, Orin Evans, Criss Cross
Dennis Jeter, Dennis Jeter, Jeter Productions
Francisco Mora, Francisco Mora, Community
Captain Black, Orin Evans, Criss Cross
Focusing The Vision, Vincent York, Vincent York
Andrew Speight Quartet, Andrew Speight, ABC/EMI
A Mingus & A Monk Among Us, Donald Walden, Jazz Works
1999
Bluestone, Joh Yamada, Alfa
Slidin’ Home, Wycliffe Gordon, Nagel/Heyer
Live From Swing City, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Sony
Big Train, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
Marciac Suite, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
Grown Fold Bizness, Orin Evans, Criss Cross
To Those We Love So Dearly, Victor Goines, Rosemary Joseph
Title Unknown-Soon To Be Released, Alex Graham
Double Duke, Joe Temperely, Naxos
The Search, Wycliffe Gordon, Nagel/Heyer
With Arkadia Jazz
Arkadia Jazz
Arkadia Jazz is an American jazz record label.Postcards Records is a division of Arkadia Jazz "focusing on electro-acoustic recordings by boundry-challengers".Brazilian jazz ensemble Nova Bossa Nova released their one album for the label....
All Stars
- Thank You, Joe!
2000
Live @ Blue Note, Jaz Sawyer & Irvin Mayfield, Half Note
Uptown Lowdown “A Salute to D”, Nagel/Heyer/All Stars, Nagel/Heyer
Watch What You’re Doin’, Herlin Riley, Criss Cross
Sweet Release, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
Reflections & Change, Craig Handy, Sirocco Jazz
Flow, Craig Handy, Sirocco Jazz
A Portrait of Kevin Mahogany, Kevin Mahogany, Warner Bros.
Hymn for Roscoe Mitchell, Stephen Rush Quartet
Olive Tree, Walter Blanding, Criss Cross
2001
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, Rodney Whitaker, Sirrocco Jazz
Play Penn, Clarence Penn Quintet, Criss Cross
Introducing Peter Baits, Peter Baits, Criss Cross
Introducing Milt Grayson, Milt Grayson
All Rise, Wynton Marsalis, Sony
2003
All Rise-Wynton Marsalis-Sony
Penns Landing-Clarence Penn-Criss Cross
Dameronia-Donald Walden & The Detroit Jazz Orchestra-Jazz Works
Louis Armstrong's Jazz Curriculum CD Series-LCJO-Warner Bros.
Introducing: Peter Baits - Peter Baits, Criss Cross
We Got It - Matt Ray - Label Unknown
E-Bop - Eric Reed - SAVANT
Joyride - Wycliffe Gordon - NAGEL/HEYER
Flow - Craig Handy - Sirrocco Jazz
Third Floor - Professors of Jazz @ MSU - MSU Jazz
Freewheelin' - Jazz Compilation - Arkadia
Hip Bop Essence - All Star - Hip Bop
Soul Trinity-Volume One - Frederick Sanders – FreSan
2004
Winter Moon-Rodney Whitaker-Sirocco Jazz Ltd.
Let Me Tell You About My Day – 2004 Alan Jones
Unforgivable Blackness-DVD-Wynton Marsalis/Ken Burns
2005
Sphere-Rick Roe-Unknown Records
The Good Life-Alex Graham-Origin (Arts) Records
2006
Here-Eric Reed-Max Jazz
Shades of Green-Ron DiSalvio w/Jimmy Cobb-Label N/A
World Trade Music-Francisco Catlett-Mora-Label N/A
2007
Get Ready-Carl Allen/Rodney Whitaker-Mack Avenue Records
2008
Work To Do-Carl Allen/Rodney Whitaker-Mack Avenue Records
2010
Maureen Choi Quartet-Maureen Choi Music