Herbie Phillips

Herbert Daly Phillips, better known as Herb or Herbie Phillips (April 20, 1935, Lincoln, Nebraska - September 13, 1995, Las Vegas, Nevada), was an American jazz trumpeter, big band composer, and arranger. He was prominent in the Las Vegas music community. He played trumpet in several notable big bands, including those of Louie Bellson, Buddy Morrow, and Billy May, but he is better known as the composer of pieces such as "Little Train," recorded several times by The Buddy Rich Big Band. Phillips worked as trumpeter and conductor for both Frank Sinatra and Frank Sinatra, Jr..

His mother, Evelyn Phillips (née Daly), a graduate of the University of Nebraska and a kindergarten teacher, died in 1949 when Phillips was 14. She had played a major role in introducing Herbie to the arts. Distraught over the loss, and as a teenager, Herbie did not did get along well with his father, Guy W. Phillips, especially when the latter remarried. Herbie moved in with his maternal aunt and uncle. Phillips' father, a salesman for the George F. Burt Company, died in Lincoln, Nebraska, when Herbie was 19.