Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Dick Whittington Trio
with Andrew Speight
A performance of "Straight Ahead" Be-Bop, featuring the compositions of John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Miles Davis, John Lewis, as well as Standards by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others.
Dick Whittington - piano
Andrew Speight - saxophone
John Wiitala - bass
Vince Lateano - drums
$20 General Admission
Dick Whittington grew up in Los Angeles. At sixteen he studied with Sam Saxe, possibly the only jazz piano teacher of that era, who taught keyboard harmony and improvisation by analyzing the music of Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and other great jazz pianists.
After high school Dick began sitting in with the great musicians on L.A.'s vibrant South-Central jazz scene. While attending Cal State Northridge, where he received a degree in Elementary Education, he was working gigs with Bobby Hutcherson, Sonny Criss, Barney Kessel, Charles Lloyd, Charlie Hayden, Scott Lafaro, Gary Peacock, and Billy Higgins, later accompanying vocalists Anita O'Day, Ernestine Anderson, Dinah Washington, and Mel Torme.
When a 1961 tour with saxophonist Dexter Gordon concluded at San Francisco's Jazz Workshop, Dick relocated to Berkeley, spending the next 30 years teaching Jazz Education in the Berkeley Public Schools, where he co-founded the nationally recognized Jazz Band Program. Among the alumni are Benny Green, Joshua Redmon, Rodney Franklin, Peck Allmond, Peter Apfelbaum, Jeff Cressman, Eric Jekabson, Craig Handy and many others.
Over the last 5 decades Dick has performed with many jazz greats, including Stan Getz, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Art Pepper, Eddie Harris, and Chet Baker. In 1987, Dick and his wife, Marilyn Ross, founded the Maybeck Recital Hall, where, for 10 years, they lived and produced over five hundred jazz and classical concerts, including the internationally acclaimed "Live at Maybeck" solo piano series on Concord Records, which features over forty-five of the top pianists in jazz. Since moving to Big Sur, Dick played 4 years at Bernardus Lodge and has been at Carmel's Cypress Inn since 2005.
Andrew Speight is an internationally acclaimed saxophonist and educator. Originally from Australia, he relocated to the United States in 1990 to perform and record with jazz luminaries. That year, he was also a prize winner in the Thelonious Monk Saxophone competition. Andrew has toured with the prestigious Lincoln center Jazz Orchestra, and the Nat Adderley Quintet. He has performed with Benny Carter, Phil Woods, Branford Marsalis, and recorded with Wynton and Ellis Marsalis. In 1999, Andrew was awarded an ARIA for best jazz album (Australia’s most prestigious music award).Recordings featuring Andrew span from 1988 to the present, in configurations from Quartet to Orchestra. He has recorded in Japan, Australia, Europe, and the United States. In 2005 an album produced by Branford Marsalis featuring Andrew along with Ellis and Jimmy Cobb won much critical praise.
Andrew was the leader and artistic director of the Generations Jazz Project. The Project resided at San Francisco State, the centerpiece being a jazz combo of undisputed jazz masters. Founding members included Jimmy Cobb, Ray Drummond, Ronnie Mathews, Eric Alexander, and Marcus Belgrave. Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, Jeremy Pelt, Terrell Stafford, Louis Hayes, Jim Rotundi, Joe Farnsworth, and David Hazeltine are also part of the regular roster.He is also educational consultant to the Stanford Summer Jazz Program.
John Wiitala is a freelance bassist, active in the Bay Area Jazz scene since the 1980s. He's played and recorded with pianist Jessica Williams' trio, Mark Levine's Latin Tinge, the Bruce Forman Trio, Bill Bell, Wesla Whitfield and Mike Greensill, Ed Reed, Erik Jekabson, Adam Shulman, Patrick Wolff and Randy Porter. He currently teaches at the California Jazz Conservatory and annually at flutist Ali Ryerson's Master Class at Hidden Valley, the Stanford Jazz Workshop and the Theo Bleckman/Laurie Antonioli Vocal Intensive. Wiitala has had the fortune to accompany a few of his musical "heroes" through the years: Joe Henderson, Benny Golson, Mark Murphy, Charlie Rouse, Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Bob Dorough, Mose Allison, Charles McPherson, Kenny Barron, Albert Tootie Heath, Pete Jolly, Mike Wofford, Lou Levy, Bobby Hutcherson, Mary Stallings, Joe Locke, John Handy, Noel Jewkes and Calvin Keyes. He counts among his mentors Hal Stein, Flip Nunez, drummers Richie Goldberg and Donald Duck Bailey and pianist Smith Dobson IV.
Renowned Bay Area drummer Vince Lateano began his professional career as a jazz drummer in the ninth grade. At the age of 18, Vince went on the road with pianist Carmen Cavallaro, and on his return to the Bay Area, Vince established himself in San Francisco playing with the likes of Eddie Duran and Vince Guaraldi. He has toured with the Woody Herman Band (a band that included Alan Broadbent and Sal Nistico) and eventually joined the Cal Tjader group with whom he played until Cal’s untimely death in 1982. Vince has appeared on six recordings with Cal including the Grammy Award winning La Onda Va Bien! and the Grammy nominated Gozame! Pero Ya. Other recording credits include albums with Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Tania Maria, Tom Harrell, Al Cohn, Clare Fischer, Mark Murphy, Eddie Duran, Bill Perkins, Carmen McRae, and Bruce Forman, among others. In addition, Vince has performed with numerous artists including Scott Hamilton, Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Charlie Byrd, Bill Berry, Benny Carter, John Handy, Chet Baker, Mundell Lowe, and Marlena Shaw. Vince has been the Traveling Drum Clinician for the Monterey Jazz Festival since the Education Program’s inception in 1984.