Davis Whitfield

Now well past its centennial mark, jazz’s creative well has yet to run dry. If anything, its practitioners keep proving the music’s resourcefulness. Davis Whitfield is a case in point. Hailed in his teen years as a prodigy on the piano, Whitfield is now 27 and has only become more prodigious as an adult. In particular, the pianist—and son of acclaimed guitarist Mark Whitfield—constantly finds new ways of subverting time. New syncopations and patterns seem to shoot out of him fully formed, like a spider’s web, with enough cunning to challenge even the most flexible of rhythm sections. (Not that he needs a rhythm section; Whitfield has a big band’s worth of swing in his fingers.) Combine that with a polyglot’s grasp of bebop and blues idioms, and you’ve got a one-man gusher, ready and able to replenish that well yet again. Whitfield will livestream a solo piano performance on Oct. 5, presented by the Arts Club of Washington. The concert begins at 7 p.m. on Oct. 5. Tickets are available at artsclubofwashington.org. $5. —Michael J. West