DownBeat‘s Frank Alkyer called Matthew Whitaker’s 2021 Resilience Music Alliance album, Connections, “Astounding . . . The fleetness of finger, the touch and taste, the grit and grime when he needs it, the lightness and airiness when it’s called upon — Whitaker has it all.”
One of the tracks on that album was a duet with Whitaker on piano and Regina Carter on violin, playing Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” When I interviewed Whitaker last year to preview his September West Orange Jazz Festival performance (Jersey Jazz, September 2025), he said his connection with Carter goes back to the 2017 Monterey Jazz Festival. “She invited me to come up on stage,” he said. “After that, I thought, ‘We have to do something together.'” The album recording, he added, “was absolutely fantastic and so much fun to play.”
On Friday, April 17, Whitaker, will be honored with the Trailblazer Award at the Wharton Arts ‘Arise to the Occasion Gala’ at the Hyatt Regency Morristown. Whitaker’s music, said Wharton Artistic Director Helen H. Cha-Pyo, “transcends boundaries. His story inspires countless young musicians, and his heart for others reminds us why we do what we do. I’m absolutely thrilled to celebrate Matthew’s extraordinary journey and the light he continues to bring to the world through music.”
Whitaker, who will turn 25 on April 3, moves easily between piano and organ. At the West Orange Jazz Festival, he honored some of his organ heroes: Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, and Elbernita “Twinkie” Clark. Their music was featured on Whitaker’s 2024 MOCAT album, On Their Shoulders: An Organ Tribute, which received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Jazz Album in 2025.
Having grown up in Hackensack, NJ, Whitaker studied at The Harlem School of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music’s Pre-College Jazz program and was a member of the Big Band and Organ Messengers at Montclair’s Jazz House Kids, before graduating from Juilliard.
Wharton Arts, located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Paterson, NJ, is a non-profit community performing arts education center serving nearly 2,000 students through a range of classes and ensembles including the New Jersey Youth Chorus, the New Jersey Youth Symphony and Jazz Orchestra, Paterson Music Project, and the Wharton Performing Arts School.
The Gala begins at 6 p.m. with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner and performances, at 7:30 p.m. by Wharton Arts students. For more information about tickets and sponsorships, log onto WhartonArtsGala.org.-SANFORD JOSEPHSON
PHOTO BY JOHN ABBOTT