Idris Phillips - Early Career

Early Career

Born Phillip Bubel, Phillips began playing classical guitar as a child and by his teens was also an accomplished pianist.

Phillips found himself as a session player in a recording studio for the first time at the age of 16. Shortly thereafter, his composition and arranging skills tweaked the interests of record label executives who saw the talented and handsome young prodigy as a possible candidate for investment. Music industry politics and pressures pushed Phillips and his music out on the road where live performance earned him his reputation as a versatile and skillful player, opening for the likes of other popular jazz performers like Mose Allison and crossing backstage circles with artists like Richie Havens and Livingston Taylor.

Touring throughout the United States during the mid 1980s as a member of several jazz ensembles and rock bands, Phillips made his home in Phoenix, Arizona.

In 1989 he embraced Islam and became known as Idris Phillips - Idris being the Qur'anic form of the name Enoch.

Taking a break from cross country tours, Phillips worked briefly in the early 1990s as a hotel entertainment booking agent in Phoenix, AZ. He eventually found himself back on the road again, touring the U.S. and parts of Western Canada until the late 1990s when he settled outside Hollywood California to work as a session musician and composer for film and television music libraries.

In 2009 Idris Phillips re-located to Nashville, Tennessee living and working more closely with his son Matthew Bubel, an active session musician in Nashville.