Matthew Whitaker is just 20 years old, but he’s been touring for almost a decade. He’s opened for Stevie Wonder at New York City’s Apollo Theater, been the youngest pianist ever to be endorsed by Hammond Organs or named a Yamaha Artist, and twice won the ASCAP Foundation’s Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award. Comparisons to Wonder are tempting, given the musicians’ connection, their shared instrument and the fact that both are blind, but Whitaker’s jazz stylings are excitingly fresh and unmatched. When the Matthew Whitaker Quartet takes the stage at Middlebury College, audience members will witness that impressive depth of talent.
