Matthew Whitaker

Matthew Whitaker is a jazz organist and pianist based in New York. His playing sits where the Hammond B-3 tradition meets something looser — gospel harmony, a big-band arranger’s ear, and a trio that leaves room to breathe. Four albums so far: Outta the Box (2017), Now Hear This (2019), Connections (2021), and On Their Shoulders: An Organ Tribute (2024), a record built around the players who made the instrument what it is. He’s also the organ voice on a stack of collaborations you may have found him through — The 8-Bit Big Band, the PERSONA 5 concert band, WDR Big Band. Blind since infancy, he’s spent as much time working on how music technology gets built as on what he plays through it.