Grammy-award winning keyboardist George Whitty has spent 20 years playing on the road with the Brecker Brothers, Herbie Hancock, David Sanborn, Richard Bona, Chaka Khan, Sadao Watanabe, and a dozen others, and his resume as a session musician includes some of the best-selling records of all time: Santana’s “Supernatural” (with Dave Matthews), Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You” and “These are Special Times”, and more than 100 other CDs. As a producer/keyboardist, his Grammy-winning streak began with Chaka Khan’s “The Woman I Am” in 1992 and extends through 3 award-winning releases with the Brecker Brothers, most recently Randy Brecker’s “34th and Lex”, 2004’s Grammy-winner for Contemporary Jazz Record of the Year. In April 2010, he completed work on several tracks for Herbie Hancock’s CD “The Imagine Project”, programming Herbie’s live rig for the tour as well. As a composer, he’s written for hundreds of episodes of television and several award-winning films, composing for a dozen shows from “The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliot” to “As the World Turns”, for whose music he was nominated for a 2006 Emmy award. George recently finished the score to the feature film, “The Getdown”, and has been working extensively with Herbie Hancock, both live in Herbie’s band at the Hollywood Bowl and as an arranger/keyboardist; the current project is a duo CD for Herbie and classical pianist Lang Lang involving arrangements from full orchestra to percussion ensembles. He is currently also working on several CD projects, conducting clinics and master classes and teaching private lessons around the world, and enjoying life in the mountains outside Los Angeles with his wife and two very small boys.
“The set kicked off with 2003’s “Comin’ Home Baby,” a spacey, atmospheric groove that provided a background to showcase Sanborn’s wildly talented keyboardist and organist, George Whitty.” – The Buffalo (NY) News, 05.21.07
CURRENT PROJECTS as of 08.2012:
Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter: Currently arranging several pieces by Herbie and Wayne for full orchestra. The first of these, “Sonrisa” premiered on November 9, 2011 with the Calgary Philharmonic featuring Herbie Hancock, and continued on to the Oregon Symphony and the Seattle Symphony. Also programming keyboards, loops, and backing tracks for Herbie’s solo concert series.
Randy Brecker: Currently playing with Randy Brecker and the Brecker Bros. Reunion Band, featuring Will Lee, Dave Weckl, Mike Stern, and Ada Rovatti. The band played a nearly sold-out week at the Blue Note New York, and filmed a live DVD there on Saturday night of the week, which George is mixing. Also producing, arranging, mixing and playing on Randy’s forthcoming CD, featuring David Sanborn.
Drew Zingg: Wrote and arranged several pieces for the debut CD by long-time Steely Dan/Boz Scaggs guitarist Drew Zingg, and played all keyboards on the sessions, featuring Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, Vinnie Colaiuta, Will Lee, and several other guest artists. Due out in Fall, 2012.
MacProVideo: Beginning work on an instructional video for this company, the largest Macintosh-oriented video training site on the world-wide web. The focus of the video is the use of Logic’s Environment to create extreme live-performance and studio possibilities, illustrated by the work George has done programming live rigs for Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker.
Live Performances/Tours: Live performances in the past year include road work with Randy Brecker, Herbie Hancock & Carlos Santana, David Sanborn, Chris Minh Doky and the Nomads, and George’s own trio “3”, featuring Ric Fierabracci and Tom Brechtlein.
SELECTED RECENT CREDITS AND EXPERIENCE:
CD PROJECTS:
Drew Zingg: Drew Zingg – keyboards, arranger, composer (5 songs).
The Imagine Project: Herbie Hancock – keyboards, synthesizer orchestration.
Supernatural: Carlos Santana and Dave Matthews – keyboards.
34th and Lex: Randy Brecker – Producer, Keyboards/programming, Mix Engineer. 2004 Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album
Falling Into You: Celine Dion – Keyboards, programming, arrangements
Till The End Of Forever: Michael Bolton – Keyboards, Mix Engineer
These Are Special Times: Celine Dion – Keyboards, Arranger
The Woman I Am: Chaka Khan – Producer, Keyboards, Programming, Arranger. Grammy for Best R & B Vocal Performance
Time Is Of The Essence: Michael Brecker – Producer. Nominated for 2001 Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Album
Tales from the Hudson: Michael Brecker – Producer. 1996 Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Album
Out of the Loop: The Brecker Brothers – Producer, keyboards, arranger. 1995 Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album
TOURS:
David Sanborn: 1999-2010
Randy Brecker: 1992-2011
Chris Minh Doky: 2002-2010
Sadao Watanabe feat. Richard Bona: 2001-2004
The Brecker Brothers: 1992-1997
FILM:
03.11 The Getdown – Scored this feature comedy film
11.07 ASCAP’s Harold Arlen Award for Orchestral scoring, out of 300+ applicants
11.07 Breaking All Records (documentary) directed by Christopher Vallone
07.07 Jinx! (dark comedy) directed by Adam Baran. Bought by the Independent Film Channel
07.07 ASCAP’s Film and TV Scoring Workshop – 1 of 12 selected worldwide for this boot camp for the best young composers
03.07 Cleansing (supernatural thriller) directed by Sean Kreminitskiy
01.07 One (suspense/action/drama) directed by Sean K. Won Gold Medal for Best Score, 2008 Park City Film Music Festival
10.06 Open Season (drama) directed by Joseph Caldwell. Nominated for Best Director, Best Drama, Hollywood DV Film Festival
06.06 Chi (action/martial arts) directed by Chris Vallone. Nominated for Best Action Sequence, Action on Film Festival
02.06 Bad Dream (dark comedy) directed by Eduardo Benchoam. Screened at HBO’s NY Int’l Latino Film Festival
06.05 The Cask of Amontillado (horror/drama) directed by Sean K
Several dozen film and TV cues, most with video, are available here: lwww.gwhitty.com
TELEVISION:
The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliot – Reality series
MTV’s Stankervision – Sketch comedy series
The Entertainer – Reality Series
Science Times – “Living With Fire” – Discovery Channel Documentary
As the World Turns – Nominated for an Emmy for my work on this show