Program Descriptions

5/14/08
Jazz At the Center presents "Songs My Mother Taught Me," a Mother's Day concert from The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American Art featuring Rodney Whittaker with the MSU Professors of Jazz - Randy Gillespie on Drums, Rick Roe piano, Diego Rivera saxophones, and Dwight Adams on trumpet, with vocalist Sonny Wilkinson and a very special guest, Rodney's "musical mother" Alma Smith.

3/15/08
join host Karen Dumas for Jazz at the Center, featuring Frank Manning, a ninety-three year-old choreographer and Tony Award winner. Manning was the February Artist in Residence for the Michigan State University Jazz Studies program, working with both the dancers and the MSU Jazz Band. He was one of the most renown swing dancers of his time, one of the original inhabitants of the "Cat's Corner" at the Savoy Ball Room in the thirties, and the inventor of the lindy hop "air step." In the program, the MSU Jazz Band, led by Rodney Whitaker, performs music featuring the work of Basie, Ellington, Thad Jones, and Woody Herman.

6/24/07
This episode features Rodney Whitaker and the MSU Professors of Jazz performing "What's Going On" and other material, performed at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History May 12, 2007.

5/19/07
Recorded at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the 4th Annual Detroit Women In Jazz Concert is featured. Rodney Whitaker and the MSU Professors of Jazz accompany Alma Smith, Sunny Wilkinson, Ursula Walker, Naima Shambourger, and Shahida Nurullah.

3/10/07
Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music at Historic First Congregational Church. Featuring the MSU Vocal Ensembles, Jazz Band I with special guests. Directed by Dr. Rudolph V. Hawkins and Rodney Whitaker.