About the Professors of Jazz

Rodney Whitaker | Wessel Anderson | Vincent Chandler | Derrick Gardner | Randy Gelispie

Diego Rivera | Rick Roe | Sunny Wilkinson

Rodney Whitaker
Associate Professor of Double Bass and Director of Jazz Studies

Photo by Richard Galosy

Rodney Whitaker is associate professor of double bass and director of jazz studies at the Michigan State University College of Music. One of the leading performers and teachers of jazz double bass in the United States, Whitaker is a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and has received national recognition performing with the Terence Blanchard Quintet. He has also toured internationally as a featured performer with the Roy Hargrove Quintet and has appeared and presented master classes at International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) conferences. Featured on more than 100 recordings – from film to compact discs – Whitaker's film score, China, directed by Jeff Wray, was released on PBS in 2002. In 2006, he was nominated for the Juno Award, Canada's equivalent to the Grammy, for his work on “Let Me Tell You About My Day,” produced by Alma Records. Whitaker collaborated with musicians Phil Dwyer and Alan Jones on the album, which was nominated for Traditional Jazz Album of the Year.

A proven and committed jazz educator, Whitaker has presented numerous master classes across the nation at locations such as Duke University, Howard University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, the New School (NY), Lincoln Center, and the Ford Detroit Jazz Festival. In addition, he is a consultant with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the development of a jazz education department, and has served on the faculties of University of Michigan and Juilliard Institute of Jazz. Whitaker attended Wayne State University, and studied with Robert Gladstone, principal bass with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. Whitaker recently signed a recording deal with Mack Avenue Records.

Wessell Anderson
Associate Professor of Jazz Studies

Wessell "Warmdaddy" Anderson is associate professor of jazz studies at the Michigan State University College of Music. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and longtime sax player for legendary New Orleans jazz artist Wynton Marsalis’ band.

Anderson (alto and soprano saxophones) began playing the saxophone at age 14. He attended Jazzmobile workshops in Harlem, studied with Frank Wess, Frank Foster, and Charles Davis, and frequented jam sessions led by saxophonist Sonny Stitt at the Blue Coronet. Before entering Southern University, where he studied with clarinetist Alvin Batiste, Anderson met Wynton and Branford Marsalis. In 1988, he became a member of Wynton Marsalis’ Septet, with which he toured and recorded for seven years, and has been a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra since it began touring in 1992. Anderson has recorded and released three solo albums, entitled "Warmdaddy in the Garden of Swing" (1994), "The Ways of Warmdaddy" (1996), and "Live at the Village Vanguard" (1999). Anderson is a frequent participant in Jazz at Lincoln Center educational events, and he served on the faculty of the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies.

Vincent Chandler
Visiting Instructor of Trombone

Vincent Chandler, visiting instructor of trombone at the Michigan State University College of Music, studied music education and jazz at the University of Michigan and the University of South Carolina. He has performed with Chicago Pete and the Detroiters, the Gerald Wilson Big Band, the Lincoln Center Big Band, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, Joe Henderson, Stefon Harris, and Clark Terry.

Derrick Gardner
Assistant Professor of Jazz Trumpet

Photo by Richard Galosy

Freelance trumpeter, composer and arranger Derrick Gardner is assistant professor of jazz trumpet at the Michigan State University College of Music. He has performed worldwide and at many premier venues throughout the United States, working with some of the biggest names in jazz today, including the late Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Frank Foster, Jon Faddis, Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Rufus Reid, Clark Terry, Kenny Baron and James Moody. Gardner can be heard on numerous internationally distributed recordings, such as Frank Foster's "Leo Rising," Carlos Garnett's "Moonshadow," and Craig Bailey's "Brooklyn."

As a former member of the world famous Count Basie Orchestra, Gardner performs on the ensemble's 1997 Grammy award-winning recording "The Count Basie Orchestra Live at Manchester Craftman's Guild," with the New York Voices. Having toured with the big band of singer/actor Harry Connick, Jr., Gardner was the featured trumpet soloist in the Broadway musical "Thou Shalt Not," for which Harry Connick, Jr. wrote the music and lyrics.

As composer/arranger, Gardner has written for the Count Basie Orchestra and also leads his own explosive sextet, The Jazz Prophets, featuring his brother, trombonist Vincent Gardner of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Derrick Gardner and The Jazz Prophets debut recording on Impact Music, "Soul Station #1," was released in Fall 2002.

Randy Gelispie
Instructor of Jazz Drums

Photo by Richard Galosy

Randy Gelispie is instructor of jazz drums at the Michigan State University College of Music. He has been a professional jazz drummer since he started playing with a 10-piece band when he was in the ninth grade.

Gelispie has traveled on the road with Wes Montgomery, Sonny Stitt, Dinah Washington, Etta Jones, Lou Donaldson, and Gene Ammons. In the Detroit area, he has performed with Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Oliver Jones, O. C. Smith, Al Hibbler, and most recently with Geri Allen.

He has worked with several blues musicians, including Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, and Big Maybelle. Locally, he has played with many great jazz musicians, including Donald Walden, Marcus Belgrave, Perry Hughes, Rodney Whitaker, Gary Schunk, Rick Roe, Marian Hayden, Bill Heid, Andrew Speight, and Wycliffe Gordon.

Diego Rivera
Instructor of Jazz Studies, Saxophone, and Improvisation

Photo by Richard Galosy

Diego Rivera is instructor of jazz studies, saxophone, and improvisation at the Michigan State University College of Music.

He studied under Andrew Speight, former director of jazz studies at MSU; MSU saxophone faculty members Joseph Lulloff and Ron Blake; and jazz great Branford Marsalis, saxophone. Rivera has toured with Rodney Whitaker; and in 1999, he toured nationally with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. He has performed with MSU jazz faculty members Wycliffe Gordon, trombone, Rick Roe, piano, and Ron Blake, saxophone, in addition to Branford Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Marcus Belgrave, Randy Gillespie, Ali Jackson, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and The O’ Jays. He has also performed at the Detroit Ford and Lansing Jazz Festivals.

Rick Roe
Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano

Photo by Richard Galosy

Rick Roe is assistant professor of jazz piano at the Michigan State University College of Music. He won first place in the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in 1994, and was a semifinalist in the 1993 and 1999 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. He has been a featured performer in the festivals of: Jacksonville (Fla.) Jazz, Savannah (Ga.) Onstage International Arts, Montreaux/Detroit Jazz, Birmingham Jazz, Lansing Jazz, Flint Jazz, and Hawaii Jazz (with Frank Morgan).

Roe has served as an educator/clinician at the University of Arizona, North Texas University, Michigan State University, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Michigan, and the Montreaux/Detroit Jazz Festival. He has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Frank Foster, Jon Faddis, Wess Anderson, Wycliffe Gordon, Frank Morgan, Rodney Whitaker, Greg Hutchinson, Louis Smith, Donald Walden, Randy Gelispie, Tim Reis, Bobby Watson, Marcus Printup, James Carter, Derrick Gardner, Vincent Gardner, Rick Margitza, Harvey Mason, Sean Jones, Victor Goines, Andrew Speight, and many others. His recordings include "The Changeover" (1997), "Monk's Modern Music" (1995), "The Late Late Show" (2001), "Bop Culture" (2002), and most recently "Sphere" (2005).

Sunny Wilkinson
Assistant Professor of Jazz Voice

Photo by Richard Galosy

Sunny Wilkinson is assistant professor of jazz voice at the Michigan State University College of Music. Wilkinson received a B.A. from Arizona State University and has studied with Helen McComas, Robert Edwards, Richard Dales, and Douglas McEwen.

One of the most inventive and flexible singers of her generation, Wilkinson is a mischievous vocal stylist who loves to toy with rhythm and tonal color. Her wide range, marvelous intonation, effortless agility, and passion for what she sings make her a one-of-a-kind artist. Her performance credits are impressive, having sung with the Count Basie Band, Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, Mark Murphy, Milt Hinton, Marvin Stamm, Bill Mays, Bill Watrous, Curtis Fuller, and Edgar Winter, among others. Wilkinson also performs regularly at jazz festivals and clubs across the country. She is past president of the Michigan chapter of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE); past chairperson for IAJE's Women's Caucus; and co-founder of the Sisters in Jazz mentoring program, which has been implemented internationally through IAJE.

Wilkinson's latest release is a big-band CD on Chartmaker Jazz, called Sunny Wilkinson "High Wire." Her other CDs are "Alegria," on the Hibrite Label, and "Sunny Wilkinson," on the Positive Music Label. Sunny has a new CD due to be released in December 2006 on the Chase Music Label featuring pianist Tom Garvin, entitled “When Sunny Meets Tom” (A Gentle Time).