PHAREZ WHITTED - TRANSIENT JOURNEY

Given the mastery exhibited by Pharez Whitted as a trumpeter, composer, and bandleader on his forthcoming CD Transient Journey, it’s difficult to believe that the disc is only his third in a long and active career. But the CD, due from Owl Studios on April 13, heralds the dawn of a new era for the Chicago-based musician/educator: Whitted has arrived as a major jazz recording artist. “I’m especially happy to see this new record from Pharez because of how strongly I feel about him as a trumpet player and musician,” says guitarist Bobby Broom, who plays on the new CD and co-produced it with Whitted and engineer Gary Mielke. “I really admire how he’s been able to channel all the trumpet greats that came before him to wind up at his own powerful, distinct, and recognizable sound and style.

“Pharez’s follow-through on his musical vision—including the creation of these great compositions and the assembly and direction of this group—and the culmination in 'Transient Journey,' is something that I’m proud to be a part of,” says Broom. “And just wait till people hear this group live!” “This group” would be Pharez’s regular working band, consisting of a Windy City contingent—Broom, pianist Ron Perrillo, and bassist Dennis Carroll—as well as tenor/soprano saxophonist Eddie Bayard and the young drummer Greg Artry from Whitted’s hometown of Indianapolis.

Throughout his long-overdue third CD (he previously recorded a pair of albums in the mid-1990s for MoJazz, a Motown subsidiary), Whitted displays his remarkable command of the trumpet and his broad scope as a composer. Both are firmly rooted in the post-bop tradition associated with players like his late friend Freddie Hubbard. In fact, CD annotator Neil Tesser observes that “Throughout the album—throughout all of Pharez’s music, really—the spirit of Freddie Hubbard hovers nearby. . . . [Pharez Whitted honors the late giant with his combination of intensity and technique, spank and sparkle, and that hot-cider tone.”

It was through his large and musically accomplished family that Whitted, 49, first encountered Hubbard and his music. Pharez’s parents—drummer Thomas Whitted Sr. and singing bassist Virtue Hampton Whitted—had been members of a jazz orchestra called the Hampton Band that also included five of his uncles (trombonist Slide Hampton among them) and three of his aunts. His three older brothers are musicians, and one of his sisters a singer. His father had played drums with Hubbard in the 1950s, before the trumpeter moved from Indianapolis to New York.

Pharez went on to earn a master’s in jazz studies at Indiana University, studying with David Baker. He signed with MoJazz in 1994 and recorded two CDs, but found himself at odds with the label with respect to musical direction. “I was hearing something else,” he says now. “We musicians reject the fact that the commercial world is forcing us to do something, but then the jazz world is trying to force us to do something else again. The music you play should be something people want to listen to. I try to live down the middle. That’s where the music usually comes from, and that’s where I am.