Jennifer Wharton

A low brass specialist, Jennifer Wharton is a highly regarded bass trombonist who initially emerged in the mid-2000s playing Broadway and big band shows in the Bay Area. In 2019, she made her solo debut with Bonegasm. A native of California, Wharton started out on tenor trombone in middle school, then switched to bass trombone. Entering high school, she briefly gave up playing music to be a cheerleader. Rejoining her band class, she continued with bass trombone and tuba. After high school, she honed her skills studying music at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, California. She went on to attend the New England Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music before settling in San Francisco. There she embarked on a freelance career playing in musicals and theater productions. She eventually relocated to New York City, where she continued to find work playing in Broadway productions such as King Kong: Alive on Broadway, Beautiful, The Carole King Musical, Jekyll & Hyde, Curtains, and many more. She also expanded into education, teaching bass trombone at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Along with her theater work, Wharton is an accomplished jazz musician and is a member of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and the Alan Ferber Big Band. She has also performed with such lauded ensembles as the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, DIVA Jazz Orchestra, and Birdland Big Band, as well as artists like Ken Peplowski, Arturo O'Farrill, and John Yao. In 2019, she issued her debut album as leader, Bonegasm, which featured contributions by fellow trombonists John Fedchock, Alan Ferber, and Nate Mayland.
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