Jazz has been the journey of a lifetime for master bassist and renowned educator Rodney Whitaker, who drops by Manly Jazz Festival (Sydney) in October.
“Jazz is about the journey, and I'm just blessed that people want to go on the journey with me and come see my concerts that I've been doing,” Rodney says. “Everywhere I've travelled and played I've had a good turnout and lots of supportive people, so I'm blessed.”
Rodney comes to Manly Jazz not only as one of the main attractions, but also as the close friend and colleague of Manly Jazz Festival Co-Artistic Director, not to mention lauded saxophonist, Andrew Speight.
“I was [at Manly] the other day taking photos for the festival and I got a chance to spend time on the beach a little bit and it's a beautiful place to play,” Rodney comments, adding: “it sort of reminds me of Monterey in California where they have the [Monterey Jazz] festival.
“For me it's an honour to to come. I've got a good friend in Manly, Andrew Speight. . . he's an amazing bebop saxophonist, and for me it's great to come to his home town and get a chance to meet the people he grew up with and play music in that community. So I'm excited to be included at the festival.”
Rodney and Andrew have been pursuing an intercultural partnership through jazz since meeting at Michigan State University in the '90s. “We played a lot of music together and are really close friends, so it's great to have an opportunity to come to his community and play some jazz in honour of his great father [pianist, John Speight].”
Rodney says he and Andrew will definitely be performing together at Manly Jazz as well as mixing it up with aspiring jazz musicians at the festival's popular jam sessions.
“That's what the music is about,” Rodney says, “we get to a stage where we have to play with the young cats so that the legacy and the feeling and everything survives, and that's how it works.”
As both an educator and highly-respected instrumentalist, Rodney is confident that jazz as an art form is safe in talented and dextrous hands. “This music will never die, it's always going to survive,” he states.
“Whenever we think that there's nobody playing, someone comes out of nowhere and they've figured it out. So it happens over and over and over again, and I'm in a good space in terms of what young people are doing.
“It's your job as a musician to explore and that's what you do – I did that when I was young and they will continue to do that, but there will always be people playing jazz and a lot of the young musicians play at quite a high level.
"I'm not negative about youth; I don't want to be the old guy that says 'young folks can't play',” he laughs.
