Malachi Whitson Something With Soul
Saturday, March 25 at 6 PM PT
Malachi Whitson
Drums
Spencer Geer
Guitar
David Michael Otis
Saxophone
Marlon Spencer
Bass
Mikaela Elson
Voice
Morgan Verrett
Voice
SOMETHING WITH SOUL
Something With Soul is the BrainChild collective assembled and led by artist, composer, and educator Malachi Whitson. This mellifluous newly formed ensemble delivers a harmonious, hybrid sound that idiosyncratically merges Jazz, Funk, and Rock genres. The quintet consisting of Drums (Malachi Whitson), Bass (Marlon Spencer), Saxophone (David Michael Otis), Guitar (Spencer Geer), and Voice (Mikaela Elson and Morgan Verrett) expresses songs of peace, adversity, and the trials of experiencing and evolving in this world, as encountered across intersections of difference.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Malachi Whitson is a Los Angeles-based artist, composer, and educator—and 2022-2023 Make Jazz Fellow at the 18th Street Arts Center. Having received prestigious awards for his musicianship from the Stanford Jazz Workshop, San Jose Jazz Workshop, and Folsom Jazz Festival, Whitson attained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific.
ABOUT HERB ALPERT FOUNDATION MAKE JAZZ FELLOWSHIP
Sponsored by the Herb Alpert Foundation and Sam Francis Foundation to honor and support jazz artists, 18th Street Arts Center annually hosts its Make Jazz Fellowship, awarded to a jazz composer for a three-month, fully funded residency. This opportunity elevates an individual jazz artist to experiment or complete a body of original compositions. The Make Jazz Fellow lives and works—for three months—among artists in sunny Santa Monica, California. The award supports the artist by providing a monthly stipend, a furnished live-in studio, and opportunities to inspire Jazz students in partnership with Los Angeles-area colleges and universities.
Become a Borderless Citizen
Borderless is 18th Street Arts Center’s monthly membership program focused on fostering connections between artists and cultural ambassadors who are committed to building healthy communities—wherever they are—through the arts. If you believe that a thriving arts community is key to addressing the major challenges of our time, we invite you to join us!
The World Stage is an educational and performance art space in Leimert Park Village, the heart of Los Angeles' African American cultural community. It was founded in 1989 by the late world-renowned master jazz drummer Bily Higgins and poet and community activist Kamau Daáood—in an attempt to fill a cultural void in the L.A. community. Initially formed as a loose collective of artists and arts supporters, The World Stage has grown to assume a pioneering and pivotal role in South L.A.'s music and art landscape. The Stage's mission is to secure, preserve and advance the position of African American music, literature and works in the oral tradition to a local, national, and international audience.