Rodney Whitaker - All Too Soon: The Music of Duke Ellington

2019 CD release.

Brian Lynch - Trumpet
Diego Rivera - Tenor Saxophone
Michael Dease - Trombone
Richard Roe - Piano
Rodney Whitaker - Bass
Karriem Riggins - Drums
Kavon Gordon - Drums (11,12)

Rockelle Whitaker - VocalsFor the second installment of an ambitious five-CD project, undertaken to observe his fiftieth birthday, master bassist Rodney Whitaker convenes a world-class sextet to pay homage to the oeuvre of Duke Ellington. It's a subject that Whitaker came to know intimately during his 9-year tenure with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, regarding it as his Ph.D in Ellingtonia through performance, deep study, and spirited conversation with Wynton Marsalis and bandmates through those years. With a front line of modern jazz masters - Brian Lynch, Michael Dease and Diego Rivera, the fiery, modern aesthetic of drummer Karriem Riggins, along with pianist Richard Roe and vocals by Rockelle Fortin, Whitaker celebrates the timelessness of Ellington's works by allowing them to live and breathe through the freewheeling, "cutting session" atmosphere he created for the session.