The wonderful guitarist Mark Whitfield, will appear alongside his bandmates Charles Goold on drums and Mark Lewandowski on bass along with his son Davis Whitfield on piano, as one of the many fine musicians taking part in the 27th annual Litchfield Jazz Festival on Saturday, July 30th in Washington CT. Over the course of his long career, Whitfield has many accomplishments in jazz and has gone on to work with scores of legendary performers.
Born in 1966 in the coastal village of Lindenhurst, New York, Whitfield started out his musical journey relatively late in life compared with his festival contemporaries. While many Jazz Fest performers started learning how to play instruments or even began performing before they were in high school, Whitfield started around age 15. He began with learning how to play bass and guitar. One of his influences for his early work was the music of George Benson, a famed soul jazz guitarist known for his seamless transition between playing straight-ahead jazz, smooth jazz, contemporary R&B, and even scat singing. Using Benson’s take on jazz music as a base for his own, Whitfield would begin performing in high school leading to him winning a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Mark Whitfield / markwhitfield.com
At Berklee, he would begin making connections in the professional jazz world, most notably with his greatest inspiration, George Benson. After graduating in 1987 and moving back to New York, Benson would help Whitfield connect with Jack McDuff, the famed, funky, and soulful jazz organist. Under Benson’s and McDuff’s tutelage, Whitfield was able to launch his career as a jazz guitarist. He went on to work with many other acclaimed jazz musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, and many others. By 1990, Whitfield made his solo debut with the album The Marksman under Warner Records with Time Magazine’s Critics’ Voices claiming that, “This prodigiously gifted 24-year- old jazz guitarist is right on target with a mellow, bluesy swing that will have you jabbing the “repeat” button before the first tune is over” (Andrea Sachs, Time.com, 1990).
Since then, Whitfield’s career has exploded. He has gone on to produce over 16 solo recordings and tour throughout Europe and North America. He has even collaborated with musicians like John Mayer, Christian McBride, Steven Tyler, and Sting to name a few. Whitfield’s career has also earned him many awards including the 2022 Grammy Award for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble” for his work with Joey Defrancesco in the Christian McBride Big Band album For Jimmy, Wes, and Oliver on Mack Avenue Records.
Mark Whitfield still makes time to help the next generation of jazz musicians with some advice. “Always,” he said, “respect the music by truly learning what’s been played and playing it with integrity and enthusiasm before you attempt to make it your own” (Mark Whitfield, jazzguitartoday.com, 2022). To help young guitarists struggling with the instrument, he released two sets of instructional videos, with one released in 2000 called Mark Whitfield: Star Licks Master Sessions and another in 2017, Mark Whitfield: Land the Gig. He was a faculty member at the Litchfield Jazz Camp and his two sons Davis and Mark Jr. Whitfield were once campers there.
Today at 55, Whitfield can often be found performing around the globe, recording albums as a leader or a sideman, teaching the next generation through numerous music programs, or working gigs with his sons who are rising stars in the jazz world themselves. Visit Litchfield Jazz Festival’s website at www.litchfieldjazzfest.com to learn more about the performances in store July 29 – 31. To purchase tickets to see Mark Whitfield perform along with the whole July 30th Litchfield Jazz Fest Saturday lineup, at the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center, be sure to click: ljf2022.eventbrite.com.