Pharez Whitted

Pharez Whitted
Whitted at the 2005 Indy Jazz Fest
Background information
Born	1960 Indianapolis, Indiana
Genres	Jazz, Bebop, jazz fusion, soul jazz, funk
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Trumpet
Years active	1982–present
Labels	Owl
Associated acts	Slide Hampton, Virtue Hampton Whitted, Bobby Broom, Eddie Bayard, Bob Hurst, John Mellencamp
Website	www.pharezwhitted.com

Pharez Whitted is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, educator, recording artist and producer. In December 2016 he was named one of six "Chicagoans of the Year" by the Chicago Tribune. Howard Reich, Tribune jazz critic said of Whitted being named the jazz director of the new Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, “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 jazz music.”

Since 1982, Whitted has performed throughout the United States and overseas, including shows at the 1988 Presidential Inauguration, The Arsenio Hall Show, The Billboard Music Awards, Carnegie Hall, and the MoTown Music Showcase.

Whitted grew up in a family of musicians in Indianapolis, Indiana, studied music at DePauw University and earned a master's degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has served as director of jazz studies at Chicago State University and as of 2001, his band plays in Chicago, regionally, nationally and internationally, often made up of Bobby Broom, Ron Perrillo, and Eddie Bayard. Whitted is a Conn-Selmer clinician. He is the son of singer and bassist Virtue Hampton Whitted and Thomas Whitted, Sr., who played drums with Freddie Hubbard and Wes Montgomery, and the nephew of trombonist and National Endowment for the Arts jazz master Slide Hampton. He is currently the jazz director of Chicago’s Youth Symphony Orchestra, and works with Jazz at Lincoln Center and Ravinia’s Jazz Scholar program.

Whitted has performed with such jazz musicians as Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, George Duke, Kirk Whalum, Elvin Jones, Slide Hampton, John Mellencamp, The Temptations, Roy Meriwether, The O'Jays, Lou Rawls, Ramsey Lewis, and former The Tonight Show bassist and classmate Bob Hurst. Whitted wrote, produced, arranged, and played on his first two albums for Mo Jazz entitled Pharez Whitted (1994) and Mysterious Cargo (1996). He also co-produced the Mo Jazz album People Make the World Go 'Round.