JAZZ CITY, 2022

Celebrating The Centennial of Louis Armstrong’s Arrival to Chicago

Featuring trumpet greats Pharez Whitted and DERRICK Gardner

Columbus Park Refectory, 5701 W Jackson Blvd in Chicago.
Free and open to the public!
Bring your lawn chairs, picnics, and enjoy a great night of live jazz.

6:30 PM Jazz Links student ensemble led by Brandon Harper.
7PM Pharez Whitted and Derrick Gardner showcase distinct styles of jazz trumpet and invoke classic Louis Armstrong. They’ll be joined by Richard Johnson on piano, Jeremiah Hunt on bass, Kyle Swan on drums.

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DERRICK GARDNER BIO

Jazz trumpeter, Derrick Gardner, inspired by the finest hard-blowing funky bop bands of the 1960‟s, is working to extend that great tradition as a composer, arranger, performer, leader and educator.
With extraordinary, creative natural talent, Derrick quickly made his mark upon arriving on the New York jazz scene in 1991. There he began a top-flight career that has taken him around the world performing internationally with the Count Basie Orchestra, (1991-present), Frank Foster‟s Loud Minority Band, Harry Connick Jr.‟s Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Swiss tenor player Roman Schwaller‟s European Sextet. Among his performance locales are Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Japan, South Africa and Thailand as well as many premiere venues in the United States. Over the last 18 years Derrick has worked with a tremendous litany of artists that include late Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Frank Foster, Jon Faddis, Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Rufus Reid and Clark Terry just to name a few.

PHAREZ WHITTED BIO

There are many moments that can define a man’s life and for Pharez Whitted, this is one of them. He’s taken on the new role as Chicago’s Youth Symphony Orchestra (CYSO) Jazz Director and Howard Reich at the Chicago Tribune described Pharez perfectly - “Few Chicago musician-educators are more qualified than Whitted to build the new band, for he commands a richly deserved reputation as a trumpet virtuoso, seasoned educator and irrepressible champion of the music.”

Whitted is humble with his legacy and his deep roots in music go as far back as the 1930’s in Indianapolis where the Hampton Family Band first began performing. His mother Virtue, his uncle Slide Hampton and the other 10 siblings (12 in total) laid the foundation with their self-educated and courageous father, Clarke “Deacon” Hampton at the helm. With that level of determination and talent, Whitted was destined to inherit the gift of music.

At the age of nine he found a trumpet in the closet and asked his brother to show him how to play a C major scale and it was all over – he was hooked. It wasn’t just that his father, Thomas Whitted Sr., played drums with Freddie Hubbard and Wes Montgomery, or that his mother, Virtue Whitted, sang and played the bass, it was the love he had for this music and his close ties with it. It didn’t stop there. He began his career in 1982 not long after earning his Master’s Degree at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He recorded his first self-entitled album, ‘Pharez Whitted’ with Motown in 1994 and continued recording solo albums ever since.

If you asked Pharez what inspires his music, he’ll say that the world needs hope and beauty and his compositions were created for that purpose. His music is for the people, to lift them up and inspire beautiful thoughts and a harmonious vibe throughout the Universe. One love, one Universal voice.