NEWS!!!



New CD from the Dan Phillips Trio "Destination Unknown" just released from Lizard Breath Records. Listen to audio samples

Download:
My Bio
My Resume

Buy Dan Phillips Trio CDs on-line at CDBaby:
"Journey In Mind"
"Moment of Clarity"

"Destination Unknown "

Dan Phillips has been a bandleader and composer for more than fifteen years and during this time he has performed throughout North America, and Asia developing an original voice and approach to improvised music.

Dan began his musical pursuits as a teenager playing drums and percussion as well as noodling on the piano. He entered a local Community College in his native Sprinfield, Illinois as a percussion major before realizing that guitar was his calling and switched in his second year. It was during this time in his hometown that Dan began playing his first Jazz gigs on guitar thanks to genourous compassionate local musicians who heard something promising in the very green young Be-Bopper. His progress was such that after only a few years on the instrument he had gained enough confidence and chops to enter Berklee College of Music in Boston as a guitar performance major.

While at Berklee, Dan had the opportunity to play and study with many greats and future stars in Jazz. Not satisfied with his own playing he began to realize how much work he had to do. He dropped out of Berklee after a year and a half and began shedding with renewed intensity (living on money he had earned working for his father in a Texas oil refinery during summer months). After a year of practicing and playing local gigs in Boston he decided with the encouragement (and a generous sholarship offer) of a Berklee faculty member to complete his studies. It was also during this period that he was able for the first time to begin performing his own compostions, a goal from the beginning of his musical journey. He led an ensemble in the Boston area that featured Berklee faculty and top students. During his final year he was selected as the guitarist to represent Berklee at the 1990 Montreal Jazz Festival.

After graduating from Berklee in 1990 he moved to New York City and began his performing career. Dan was fortunate to land an artist resident apartment on the lower east side in only his second year in the city. This was a blessing that allowed him to avoid the“day gig world” and focus on music completely. In New York he continued to lead his own groups as well as perform in a variety of settings as a free-lance guitarist in the vibrant downtown scene. New York was certainly fertile ground and his ensembles included many of the new voices in improvised music such as Jim Black, Ben Street, Owen Howard, John Arruci, Chris Speed, Pat Zimmerly and Mike Sarin.

In 1996 he moved to Chicago and again began leading his own groups. It was here that he gained enough confidence through an expedition into unexplored Borneo jungle and with the help of supportive musicians to record his first two CD’s featuring original compositions, “Journey in Mind” and “Moment of Clarity”. His Chicago groups included Tim Mulvenna, Chad Taylor, Krzysztof Pabian, Phil Gratteau and Tatsu Aoki among others. Since beginning his career as a performer in NYC he had always had students and in Chicago his teaching stuidio became a more important part of his musical (and financial) life. He began thinking of expanding his opportunities in this area and in 1997 returned to school (kicking and screaming) and received a Masters in Jazz Pedagogy from Northwestern Univesity.

In 2001 He relocated to Bangkok, Thailand and began teaching fulltime and acting as Director of Jazz Studies at a Mahidol University College of Music. While in Thailand he performed with various jazz ensembles and led concerts featuring many first performances of “jazz pieces”, sometimes frightening the locals (ok, well... Albert Ayler “Ghosts” may have been pushing it a bit) and became a well known free-lance guitarist. Life in Thailand had been an expanding experience (particularly for his herpetoligical interests) personally and in many ways.
In 2004 Dan began working in Tokyo, Japan for several months developing his trio concept in the local scene before returning to Thailand to accept a new position at Rangsit University Conservatory of Music as Lecturer in Jazz Guitar.

2005 brought another big change and Dan accepted a postion at Minnesota State University Moorhead where he is now working as Assistant Professor of Guitar. The adventure continues!

Dan has also performed with many international musicians not previously mentioned such as Gerald Wilson, Layla Hathaway, Danillo Perez, Judy Roberts, Bill Yeager, Jeff Parker, Fancois Lindemann, Matt Darriau and Ed Thigpen. Dan has performed at Jazz Festivals in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Thailand.