Pharez Whitted

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The talented Pharez Whitted (Trumpet) takes the stage at Natalie’s with an all-star band featuring Opal Staples (Vocals), Eddie Bayard (Saxophones), Kevin Turner (Guitar), Reggie Bishops (Keys), Jonathan Wood (Bass), and Kenny Phelps (Drums).

At the age of nine Pharez Whitted 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 deeply rooted love he had for the music and his close ties with it.

Pharez was on MoJazz, Motown’s Jazz label and worked with a variety of artists including George Duke, Elvin Jones, Slide, Hampton, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, David Baker, Ramsey Lewis, Lou Rawls,  Bobby Broom, John Mellencamp and El Debarge.  He also had two albums on the jazz charts in the top 10 (“Transient Journey 2010 “and “For the People” 2012).

In addition to his work as a musician, Pharez is a producer, composer, arranger and educator and presently serves as the Director of Jazz Studies at Chicago State University and is part of the faculty at the Rivinia’s prestigious Jazz Scholar Program in Chicago.