Rodney Whitaker

Bassist Rodney Whitaker emerged as one of the standout figures among Detroit’s rising wave of contemporary jazz players. Born in the Motor City, he took up violin at eight before turning to the bass five years afterward, prompted by the sound of Paul Chambers on a John Coltrane recording. During his teenage years he performed with saxophonist Donald Washington in Bird/Trane/Sko/Now!, a band that also featured the young James Carter; he subsequently took over the bass chair from Robert Hurst in the Terence Blanchard–Donald Harrison Quintet and then spent three years alongside Roy Hargrove. Having already appeared on sessions by Blanchard, Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Junko Onishi, and Mark Whitfield, Whitaker released his first album as a leader, Children of the Light, in 1996. Hidden Kingdom came out two years later, Ballads and Blues followed in 1999, and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow arrived in the middle of 2000.