Whittington, who turns 87 next month, grew up in Los Angeles and started to play boogie-woogie style piano by ear when he was 4. Although he attempted to stick with classical piano lessons, he preferred to teach himself by copying the jazz and popular music of the 1940s that he heard on radio and records. He studied with exceptional jazz piano teacher Sam Saxe by the time he was 16, learning more about keyboard harmony and improvisation than he would from any other teacher at that time. By analyzing the music of Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and other great jazz pianists, Whittington developed quickly and by the time he finished high school he was able to sit in with many of the best musicians on L.A.’s South-Central jazz scene. While earning his college degree in elementary education at CSU Northridge he was working gigs with Bobby Hutcherson, Sonny Criss, Barney Kessel and Charles Lloyd. Later on he worked as an accompanist to singers Anita O’day, Ernestine Anderson, Dinah Washington and Mel Torme.
Monterey Herald