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George Whitty

Grammy-award winning keyboardist George Whitty has spent 20 years playing on the road with the Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Richard Bona, Chaka Khan, Sadao Watanabe, and a dozen others, and his resume as a session musician includes some of the best-selling records of all time: Santana's "Supernatural" (with Dave Matthews), Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" and "These are Special Times", and more than 100 other CDs. As a producer/keyboardist, his Grammy-winning streak began with Chaka Khan's "The Woman I Am" in 1992 and extends through 3 award-winning releases with the Brecker Brothers, most recently Randy Brecker's "34th and Lex", 2004's Grammy-winner for Contemporary Jazz Record of the Year, which he also mixed. In April 2010, he completed work on several tracks for Herbie Hancock's CD "The Imagine Project", programming Herbie’s live rig for the tour as well. As a composer, he's written for hundreds of episodes of television and several award-winning films, composing for a dozen shows from "The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliot" to "All My Children", for whose music he won a 2014 Emmy award. George recently finished the score to the feature film, "The Getdown”, now in the rotation on Showtime, and has been touring the world as keyboardist with David Sanborn, Chris Minh Doky & the Nomads and his own trio Third Rail (which just released its first CD, "IGNITION: Live Across Europe"), working on several CD projects, conducting clinics and master classes and teaching private lessons around the world, and enjoying life in the mountains outside Los Angeles with his wife and two small boys.

Awards

2014 Emmy Award: Outstanding Composition for Dramatic Series, for "All My Children" 4 Grammy-award-winning productions for Chaka Khan, the Brecker Brothers, and Randy Brecker. 1 Grammy-winning CD mixed and another nominated: Randy Brecker "Hangin' In The City" and "The Jazz Ballad Songbook" by RB and the Danish Radio Big Band

Gear

I am a Yamaha endorsee, love the Motif series and use the S90 as my choice in a weighted keyboard.


Tags

11
Album Review

Jeff Richman: XYZ

Read "XYZ" reviewed by Jim Worsley


XYZ could perhaps reference any number of things. Sparing us that rabbit hole, in this case it references boundaries pushed to their fullest extent with some exceptional new music from fusion guitarist Jeff Richman. Richman's previous release, Sizzle (Nefer Records 2017) was/is a record that lives up to its name. There is something to be said about not putting out a record every eighteen months, twenty-four months, or any other calendar-driven period. It would seem that Richman threw away the ...

11
Album Review

Randy Brecker and Eric Marienthal: Double Dealin'

Read "Double Dealin'" reviewed by Jim Worsley


It can be difficult for two giants to share space without colliding into each other. It alternatively can be a bold mix of dynamic forces. Double Dealin' (Shanachie, 2020) robustly falls into the second category. It took many years for Randy Brecker and Eric Marienthal to finally find the right project to come together on. The long wait is rewarded with energetic performances in this funk and groove extravaganza. The title track kicks the record off with more ...

3
Album Review

Clivia Tanisi: Love's Way Back

Read "Love's Way Back" reviewed by Jim Worsley


It wasn't so much about “Learning How to Fly," as the opening track has it, as it was apparent that Clivia Tanisi still knew how to navigate in space. Tanisi took a twenty-year sabbatical to be a mom and raise her children. Singing proved to be like riding a bike, as she grooved into her lane, and fell in time with the other bikers. These were no weekend joy riders that Tanisi was pedaling with either. With drummer Dave Weckl, ...

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6

Recording

Italian Guitarist Luca di Luzio Releases 'Never Give Up' with Randy Brecker, George Whitty, Rodney Holmes and more!

Italian Guitarist Luca di Luzio Releases 'Never Give Up' with  Randy Brecker, George Whitty, Rodney Holmes and more!

Source: Jazzfuel

Funk, jazz and blues get a Mediterranean twist on Never Give Up, the latest album from Italian guitarist Luca di Luzio is available now. A jazz guitar graduate of the Conservatorio di Musica Frescobaldi, di Luzio showcases his pulling power with an all-star group which features trumpet legend Randy Brecker alongside keyboard player George Whitty, bassist Alain Caron, drummer Rodney Holmes and percussionist Steve Thornton. Studying first under the likes of greats including Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, and Mike Stern, ...

"The set kicked off with 2003's "Comin' Home Baby," a spacey, atmospheric groove that provided a background to showcase Sanborn's wildly talented keyboardist and organist, George Whitty." - The Buffalo (NY) News, 05.21.07

"Soul, Funk, New Orleans, Latin, jazz and blues fused with a breathtaking dexterity and seemingly boundless ingenuity to the multifaceted writing, with Whitty, who had travelled from Amsterdam, to an enthusiastic audience stunned in the basement...." Rheinische Post, Krefeld, Germany

http://music.gwhitty.com/third-rail-reviews-3/

Primary Instrument

Keyboards

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

Over the last 20 years I have been an instructor in a wide variety of settings, including private instruction from Norway to Japan, workshops and clinics around the world, and master classes at the Berklee College of Music. Over the last 2 years I have developed and produced an extensive series of online video instruction (currently more than 70 lessons) at www.musicpath.net covering improvisation, production, arranging, mixing and more. In the classroom, I take great pleasure in sharing what I’ve learned, inspiring energy, optimism and confidence, and I consider my ability to distill the intangibles of music into teachable principles to be one of my greatest strengths as an instructor. An extensive collection of the music I’ve made, videos of live performances, 60+ film cues, and more information can be found at my website: www.gwhitty.com For a look at my complete resume, click here: http://music.gwhitty.com/GWResume6-14.pdf

Clinic/Workshop Information

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

XYZ

Blue Canoe Records
2023

buy

Love's Way Back

Autumn Hill Records
2020

buy

Double Dealin'

Shanachie Records
2020

buy

Globetrotter

Jazzlife
2019

buy

XYZ

From: XYZ
By George Whitty

Videos

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