BLOOM Variety Is the Secret Spice for Bob Phillips Bob Phillips loves all kinds of music, but his passion for jazz plus his devotion to the belief that we cannot let it die out drives him to a dedication to local jazz music education programs that has earned him a respected place in the community.

By Dan Shafer

It is axiomatic that the vast majority of people who would describe themselves as musicians are, for the most part, only part-time professionals. Unable to rely on their art as a primary source of income, most musicians pursue their passion in the gaps and spaces created by their daily work routines.

Bob Phillips of Carmel is one of the rare and (he freely admits) lucky exceptions. His secret lies in his eclectic musical repertoire and wide range of interests. He can play keyboard, which is his main instrument-of-choice, and horns across a spectrum of musical styles that includes jazz on one end to opera on the other, taking in R&B, classical, and everything else between. Phillip's most recent venture is as keyboardist for his son David and daughter-in-law Nancy's new Cloud 9 Motown band in Monterey. But somewhat reluctantly admits to a preference for jazz "because of the infinite variety brought to it by improvisation," but his preference doesn't overpower his interests in the other musical genre. He gets as much kick out of backing opera singers and stomping at bluegrass festivals as he does playing the gamut of jazz styles from traditional through modern and Dixieland. "Because there are so many musical events and festivals on the Peninsula," Phillips said, "a lot of people assume the local music scene is really thriving. It's really good for a town this size, but relatively few clubs have live music and even fewer clubs have live jazz performance than most people probably imagine."

The Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) is one of those major "musical events" that Bob was talking about. The MJF this September is marking 50 years of consecutive jazz performance. Phillips will be playing at the festival together with Andy Weis and the Monterey All-Stars. This will be Phillips' fourth appearance at "Monterey," which is the name by which it is known throughout the world.

Bob's connection to MJF goes deeper than that of most local musicians. Two years ago, Philips' stepson Greg and his wife, Lucia Dalton, surprised Phillips and his musical colleagues by donating $50,000 to create the Bob Phillips Endowment Fund, which was the first endowment of its kind for the MJF.

"We all went to hear my son David's band," Phillips recalls. "During the evening, the whole group, including my wife Margo, my kids, and other family members, presented me with a letter announcing the formation of this new foundation. It literally took my breath away. I see it as the culmination of my 50 years of banging on the piano. The Foundation provides tangible evidence that all that time and practice and performance amounted to something."

"Everyone in the family was in on it but they managed to keep it a secret from me for months while they planned it and put it together," Phillips said with admiration.

The foundation, which is overseen by the MJF Board of Directors, invests in perpetuity the original $50,000 donation, together with other funds that are received from other sources. Proceeds from the investment are then specifically used each year to help the Monterey County All-Star Band make its annual trek to Japan.

In June of 2006, the Festival feted the official launch of the endowment with a gala at the Monterey Conference Center during the annual Next Generation Jazz Festival. During this festival, student musicians from all over the world assemble to compete with one another for seats in the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (NGJO) line-up. High school bands from all over vie with one another in the MJF National High School Jazz Competition.

Coach not Teacher
Unlike many of his fellow musicians, Phillips does not teach music. He does however coach local youngsters who want to get a good start in the world of jazz.

"Kids can't relate to jazz except by playing it," Phillips points out. "It's not a kind of music they can pick up from radio or TV like other musical genres to which they are exposed socially. The other genres are more stand-alone; in order to master jazz, you have to start with something more fundamental - typically classical training - and then improvise off those traditions and techniques."

Phillips has coached a number of local young musicians who have become part of the Monterey County All-Star Band, the beneficiary of the endowment fund set up in his name.

He expresses his love for coaching in an annual trek that he makes to a Dixieland camp where he acts as an instructor. This takes place each summer for two weeks, one week designated for younger musicians and the other one for adults.

"Dixieland is a great place to start in jazz," he said, "because Dixie is based on a simpler chord structure with more regularized patterns than mainstream jazz."

Phillips said a surprisingly large percentage of the young people who show up for the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee Dixieland camp each summer "really take to it."

Both Coach and Student
Like any accomplished musician, Phillips spends a great deal of time learning, honing his craft and practicing. He said he still has an enormous amount to learn. World-renowned saxophonist George Young is a source of great help in furthering his jazz skills. Phillips and Young practice together nearly every day and perform several times each month.

"I'm awed at being able to share a stage with this guy," Phillips said. His admiration was evident in his voice and in his dancing, expressive eyes. "I'm far from the world's greatest jazz pianist, but he's not far from being the world's greatest jazz sax man."

George Young, who moved to Monterey about seven years ago after launching a wildly successful career on the East Coast, is a big local draw. He has performed on hundreds of albums including titles by Quincy Jones, George Benson, Earl Klugh, Stan Getz, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, and dozens of other famous soloists and groups. He also appeared with the Louie Bellson Band as well as other touring jazz orchestras.

Phillips typically downplays his own significance on the music scene. Last year, for example, he initiated and managed a Herculean effort by putting together 50 consecutive free Saturday jazz concerts at Del Monte Center. The concerts were held for the benefit of jazz musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area. After raising just a bit less than $10,000, Phillips and his wife Margo traveled to New Orleans to present the money to local musicians and to see their plight first-hand.

"We had fortunately already scheduled a jazz cruise about that time," Phillips said, "so after completing the 50-week fund-raiser, we just took off and went down there for a week."

Philips said he started the 50-week series both to help the Louisiana musicians who'd lost everything in the hurricane and "to see if I could play and have fun for 50 consecutive weeks without once grumbling about having to carry my heavy equipment around, setting up and tearing down, and all the other stuff' that goes with live performance."

When he's not banging the keys at some local venue or festival, Philips can be found at Pacific Coast Church in Pacific Grove, where he has served as the congregation's musical director for 20 years.

Early Influences
Phillips was born in Newton, NJ, a town he called home until he graduated from high school and headed to New York City to live the jazz scene. Interested in music from the age of seven when he learned to play a plastic flute, he took 11 years of classical piano in Newton before leaving for the Big City.

"I heard Dave Brubeck and George Shearing and I got the jazz bug," he recalls. He also heard some Thelonious Monk but, "It was many years before I could understand and then try to emulate his approach and style. He was complex."

When he arrived in New York City, the reality of life there hit him squarely in the face.

"The only apartment I could afford was awful," he recalls, "so when I went to the union hall to sign up and they asked if I wanted to go on the board with a five-piece hotel band, I signed up on the spot."

Over the next 15 years, Phillips maintained an apartment in New York City while he attended the Manhattan School of Music (from which he almost graduated), got married for the first time, had a baby, and played all over New York City.

He also spent one year in Orlando when Disney World opened where he played with show bands behind big acts like the Four Freshmen, Mel TormÈ, Patty Page, and many others.

The musicians and bands he counts among his greatest influences during the formation of his early career includes George Shearing, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Horace Silver, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington.

During his East Coast life, Phillips, like most other musicians of the time, played frequently in the Catskills in the summer and in the Pocono Mountains from time to time, as well. Both of these vacation destinations were great teaching and proving grounds for emerging musicians. Phillips credits his Catskills experience as being his "lucky break."

"Working there in the summer, you'd have to play with a big band one night, front a comedian the next night, and jump into a trio or quartet another time. You'd play show tunes, jazz, and swing. I came to appreciate all the different types of music and enjoyed the challenge of playing each one so that I didn't get typecast as a particular category of musician."

Phillips also did a stint on Broadway where he was keyboardist in the pit orchestra for the huge Burt Bacharach hit, Promises, Promises.

At the same time, he had a studio in midtown Manhattan where he sold audition support to hundreds of up-and-coming Broadway singers. Later, he worked a New Hampshire resort that was home to dozens of would-be opera performers.

In 1971, Phillips headed west to Monterey to join one of his good friends from the Poconos days, Buddy Jones. Jones was a first-class bassist who'd been a CBS studio man for many years and was known far and wide in jazz circles. Other Poconos players also had moved to Monterey, so there was already a vibrant community in place when Phillips arrived. Many of the original gang are still active on the local musical scene.

Since his arrival in Monterey, Phillips has become a popular fixture on the local scene. He has a number of fond memories of outstanding events over the past 36 years.

"I was fortunate enough to join Stan Getz and my old pal Buddy Jones at Mission Ranch for Clint Eastwood's birthday party one year. What a great kick," he recalls. He also learned Dixieland at the feet of local celebrity Jake Stock and the Abalone Stompers. That group is also the source of one of Phillips' fondest MJF memories.