by Eric Fine
Department: Players
August, 2010
Pharez Whitted>>Indiana Bop Dynasty
Imagine a trumpet player from a large family of jazz-oriented musicians accepting an invitation from John Mellencamp to not just appear on the pop singer's album in 1991, but also to tour with his band. This was the case with Pharez Whitted (whose father, Thomas Whitted, played drums with Wes Montgomery and Freddie Hubbard, and whose uncle is Slide Hampton).
But Mellencamp's invitation had a catch.
During rehearsals, Whitted recalled, "Mellencamp says, 'All right we're doing that tune that you soloed on, as well as a couple of other ones, and we want you to play your solo.' I said, 'Cool, I can play a solo on that.' He said, 'No, we want you to play that solo.'"
Whitted had to replicate the trumpet solo note-for-note that he improvised on Mellencamp's album, Whenever We Wanted - a widely held taboo in the jazz world. But Whitted's attitude remains surprisingly egalitarian, one of the reasons he never moved to New York from his hometown of Indianapolis.
"Not going to New York didn't bother me," Whitted said, "because I felt I was surrounded by a lot of inspiring musicians, people who helped shape who I am today. Me staying in the Mid-west, I was able to play in wind ensembles, I was able to play in orchestras, I was able to play in funk bands, I was able to play in rock bands, I was able to play in straight ahead bebop bands. I had a lot of different opportunities that I was able to take advantage of."
Whitted recorded two albums in the mid-1990's for Motown Records' MoJazz imprint and performed around the country. But personal issues, apart from music, began to weigh on Whitted. After being denied tenure at Ohio State University, he accepted a faculty position at Chicago State University in 2001. He and his wife split up in 2005; he also stopped composing. His new disc, Transient Journey (Owl Studios), is his first release in 15 years.
"Just life," said Whitted, who turns 50 in August. "I was playing, I was making music...[but] I didn't have anything to say. I had too many things on my mind."
Whitted rediscovered his muse around 2005, attributing his renewed outlook in part to sitting in with guitarist Bobby Broom;s trio one night at Pete Miller's in Evanston, Ill. "It was like we knew each other our whole lives," said Broom, "because of when we grew up and the music that we listened to.
As a 1970's kid, you're listening to everything; it's not just about straightahead jazz," Broom continued. "He is concerned with communicating the spiritual aspect of music to the person that doesn't necessarily know about jazz and the history of jazz and all of that."
Broom introduced Whitted to pianist Ron Perrillo, who shares their sensibilities, and Whitted soon began composing the tunes that appear on Transient Journey. The album carries a strong hard-bop flavor, although Perrillo plays keyboards on three tracks that season the music with a cross-over sensibility.
While Whitted plays with assurance, showcasing an attractive tone and impressive range, Broom singles out the leader's compositions. "Every tune has a melody that is attractive and memorable," said Broom, who appears on the album. "And Pharez does beautiful things with harmony so that it bolsters those beautiful melodies in a way that now we can see them as something else, something modern, something that has some depth."