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.
Read more about this topic: Idris Phillips
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)