Though he’s
still only 18 years old, multi-instrumentalist Matthew Whitaker has come a long
way to get where he is today, overcoming adversity and dedicating countless
hours to honing his craft. Now, with his declarative label debut Now Hear This,
Whitaker announces himself as a major new voice on jazz piano, organ, and a
wide range of keyboard instruments.
Due out
August 9 via Resilience Music Alliance, Now Hear This teams Whitaker with a
stellar all-star band featuring guitarist Dave Stryker, bassist Yunior Terry,
drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., and percussionist Sammy Figueroa. Keyboard great
Marc Cary and flutist Gabrielle Garo also make special guest appearances. The
album was overseen by GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Brian Bacchus, who has
worked closely with the likes of Gregory Porter, Norah Jones, Randy Weston and Sullivan
Fortner, among others.
But it’s
Whitaker that commands the spotlight, evidencing a bold and confident sense of
swing and a wide-ranging palette that spans straight-ahead jazz and hard bop to
R&B and Latin influences. Supplementing his virtuoso piano skills with
soulful Hammond organ and coloristic synthesizers, Whitaker leaves any
“prodigy” stigma far behind on this stunner of an album.
Whitaker’s
distinctive voice would be captivating under any circumstances, but the
obstacles that he’s had to overcome in his young life make Now Hear This all
the more breathtaking. He was born three months premature in 2001, weighing
less than two pounds and able to fit in the palm of his father’s hand. The
newborn was given less than a 50% chance of surviving; the oxygen that he was
given by doctors allowed him to live but cost him his sight.
Blindness
proved no obstacle to playing music, however, and Whitaker displayed
preternatural talents from the first moment he touched a keyboard. That initial
opportunity came at the age of 3, when Whitaker’s grandfather gifted him a
small Yamaha keyboard. “I would come home from school and teach myself nursery
rhymes,” Whitaker recalls. “No one showed me how, I just started playing. If I
can hear it, I can play it.”
At 5
Whitaker began studying classical piano at the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg
Music School in New York City, the only community music school for the blind
and visually impaired in the United States. He continues to work closely with
the school; his heartfelt composition “Emotions” was written expressly for a
performance there. “They’ve supported me since I was 5 and they continue to do
that to this day,” Whitaker says.
As a blind
African-American piano prodigy, comparisons to Stevie Wonder were inevitable.
Meaningfully, Wonder himself gave the younger keyboard wizard his imprimatur
when he invited Whitaker to open for him during his induction into the Apollo
Theater Hall of Fame. In 2016 Whitaker returned to that legendary stage, this
time performing Wonder’s classic “I Wish” for FOX TV’s revival of Showtime at
the Apollo.
But Whitaker
never set out to be a Stevie Wonder clone, and while the soul icon is a
definite influence Whitaker can rattle off a long list of indelible influences
that leans heavily towards jazz giants like McCoy Tyner, Barry Harris, Art
Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. His gifts have been
recognized by a number of jazz luminaries who have provided crucial mentorship,
including Cary, Christian McBride, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Regina Carter, Jon
Batiste, Roy Ayers and Jason Moran, among others.
His musical
path was set at the age of 7 when his father dialed into a jazz station on the
car radio one day. “Ever since then it’s been my favorite genre of music to
play and listen to,” Whitaker says with obvious enthusiasm. “Unlike other
styles of music where you play what’s on a sheet of paper or play just like a
recording, with jazz you have the ability to be free with the music and
improvise. You can really do you.”
Whitaker has
done just that from an early age, adding drums to his repertoire at 6 and the
Hammond organ at 9, inspired by such legendary forebears as Dr. Lonnie Smith,
Charles Earland, Jimmy Smith and Joey DeFrancesco. Whitaker shows off his
impassioned B3 playing on a dazzling original arrangement of Charlie Parker’s
“Yardbird Suite” that he premiered during his debut performance at NYC’s
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival.
A more
intimate, impressionistic side of his organ playing emerges on his own
original, “Thinking of You,” which Whitaker insists is an open-ended
dedication, with no single “You” in mind. He renders the Barry Mann/Cynthia
Weil hit “Black Butterfly,” best known for Deniece Williams’ version, in
soulful atmospherics embellished by Cary’s Fender Rhodes, and gets deeply funky
on Eddie Harris’ immortal “Freedom Jazz Dance,” here highlighted by Stryker’s
blistering wah-wah guitar.
The album
opens on Whitaker’s brilliant acoustic playing, however, as he sets the pace
for “Overcoat,” an intense contribution from guitarist Django Rowe, a fellow
participant in the Kennedy Center’s renowned Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program.
That’s followed by a tender trio rendition of Ahmad Jamal’s gorgeous
“Tranquility,” after which the band expands to realize Whitaker’s own
composition “Underground.” The piece blends a vibrant array of colors, with
Figueroa’s percussion accents and Garo’s soaring flute added to Whitaker’s Moog
and synth flavorings.
The Tyner
influence emerges on a stormy trio rendition of the standard “Bernie’s Tune,”
while a more elegant side of Whitaker’s talents is revealed on Billy
Strayhorn’s “U.M.M.G.,” performed as a finely-tailored duet with Terry.
Whitaker’s “Miss Michelle,” a dedication to his manager, melds Latin and
R&B influences into a gently swaying dance, while the Latin inflections
explode on Michel Camilo’s fiery “Caribe.”
Now Hear
This is a perfect summation of Whitaker’s evolution to date. He’s enjoyed a
remarkable career already, receiving the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award and
the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award among other honors. His promise has
only begun to be fulfilled, as he prepares to enter Juilliard as a freshman this
fall as the first blind undergraduate student to join Juilliard’s Jazz Study
program.
“This album
is the next level for me,” Whitaker concludes. “I’m really happy and excited
and hope people enjoy it.”
Matthew
Whitaker · Now Hear This
Resilience
Music Alliance · Release Date: August 9, 2019
