Results for "Rodney Whitaker"

Rodney Whitaker

Born: February 22, 1968

Rodney Whitaker is associate professor of double bass and director of jazz studies at the Michigan State University College of Music.

Whitaker is one of the leading performers and teachers of jazz double bass in the United States. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and received national recognition performing with the Terence Blanchard Quintet. Whitaker has also toured internationally as a featured performer with the Roy Hargrove Quintet. In addition, he has appeared and presented master classes at the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) conferences. Featured on more than 100 recordings - from film to compact discs - Whitaker's film score, China, directed by Jeff Wray, was released on PBS in 2002.

In 2006, he was nominated for the Juno Award, Canada's equivalent to the Grammy, for his work on “Let Me Tell You About My Day,” produced by Alma Records

DreamLand

By Libby York

Label: OA2 Records
Released: 2023
Track listing: Hit the Road to Dreamland; Estrada Branca (This Happy Madness); Mountain Greenery; Cloudy Morning; Throw It Away; Rhode Island Is Famous for You; Still on the Road; When October Goes; Moonray; An Occasional Man; Something Cool; It's Love.

Detroit Jazz Festival 2023: A Tribute to a Great Jazz City

by Paul Rauch
September 11, 2023

Detroit Jazz Festival 2023 Hart Plaza & Campus Martius Detroit, MI September 1-4, 2023 Opening night is always a gas. Whether it takes the form of the annual rite of spring in baseball, the long anticipated opening of a Broadway play, or for that matter, the opening salvo of a world ...

Anest, Kendrick, & McKinney: Live at the Blue LLama, Volume 1 & 2

by C. Andrew Hovan
August 18, 2023

When it comes to talent, there's no shortage of gifted jazz artists that call Michigan their home. The Jones brothers long ago put Detroit on the map, but water-tight music programs at Michigan State and the University of Michigan have produced a thriving community of vital musicians. On any given evening, there's live jazz to be ...

Detroit Jazz Festival 2023: A Celebration of Home

August 13, 2023

The 2023 Detroit Jazz Festival is almost upon us, taking place in its annual Labor Day weekend slot on the yearly jazz festival calendar. The largest free jazz festival in the world brings the music to the people of Detroit, and the world, on September 1-4 in downtown Detroit and in Hart Plaza along the Detroit ...

Miles Davis Celebration at SFJAZZ Center

by Harry S. Pariser
June 20, 2023

Music of Miles Davis: A Celebration SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA May 25-29, 2023 Music of Miles Davis: A Celebration For four consecutive nights, four different ensembles graced the stage of SFJAZZ Center to present four aspects of the musical legacy of renowned trumpeter Miles Davis The evenings also featured compositions ...

Samara Joy at Christ Church Cranbrook

by Troy Dostert
April 14, 2023

Samara Joy Christ Church Cranbrook Bloomfield Hills, Michigan March 24, 2023 Jazz fans in the Detroit metro area have become well-acquainted with the stately confines of Christ Church Cranbrook, as the church has hosted a series of sacred concerts and jazz masses going back to 2015. These include regular appearances by ...

Michael Dease: The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill

by Jerome Wilson
April 14, 2023

Gregg Hill is a jazz composer favored by several jazz musicians who have recorded entire albums of his work, such as guitarist Randy Napoleon and bassist Rodney Whitaker. Here trombonist Michael Dease joins the party with a full album of Hill pieces arranged for a quintet. Hill's writing on this album delves into a ...

Jazz Honors The Beatles

by AAJ Staff
April 13, 2023

All About Jazz is honoring The Fab Four in the year of the 60th anniversary of the release of their first album (Please Please Me). This collective tribute was originally published in September 2009--as a living document, we'll add more quotes & stories over time (see how-to in comments section). We also compiled a companion playlist ...

Wycliffe Gordon: What You Dealin' With?

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 2, 2023

Privy to the entire history of jazz trombone via the technological age in which we live, Wycliffe Gordon seems to have utilized this information in such a way that his own playing displays elements from various periods and a technical competence that is indeed remarkable. “I was most familiar, at first, with guys who played with ...