On Bass

trio

Photo by Ped Leung

For my dyslexia consultancy work see http://isthisdyslexia.com

I play bass. I love music and my heart is in jazz. I’ve been found playing Latin, Gospel, Balkan music, rock, Klezmer, Bossa Nova, flamenco, Fusion, Reggae, Funk, Soul, Highlife and almost everything in between.

I was self-taught for most of my career but in the last half-dozen or so years has sought out the best teachers in London and Los Angeles. I have developed a recognisable profile on the internet through effective use of the new tools of communication and the power of recommendation.

My current regular gigs are with my Brazilian and contemporary jazz trios, and The Roots of Jazz .  As a coffee consultant and journalist, I am the former editor of London’s Best Coffee app and website and the former editor of Caffeine magazine. I have also reviewed a number of records for the No Treble website.

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Photo by http://bergseyeview.co.uk

Stream, buy and download our new live album here

26 thoughts on “On Bass”

  4. Phil, I can not seem to log into MusicPlayer. Don’t know why. Any green tea from a grocery store will work. Does not have to be some special brand or type. I just use Lipton or even a store brand. I keep it cold as I have a small frig in my music studio. I usually brew a gallon at a time. Drink it just like any other tea, or soda and sweeten it any way you like.

    Hope this helps. It helps me.

    Ray

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  5. Hello Phil,

    I hope you’re doing well.
    Man, thank you for your support of Vijay’s trio and the new album. We’ve all been very excited to feel the enthusiastic response from so many quarters. I really appreciate your kind and thoughtful comments on my playing!

    In addition to playing in that trio and a few other groups, I’m also a composer and bandleader myself, and I have a new album coming out this April with my Rosetta Trio, which features Liberty Ellman and Jamie Fox on acoustic and electric guitars, along with myself on bass and compositions.

    If you’re interested, I’d be happy to send you an album…CD, that is.
    Just let me know…

    Thanks again, Phil!

    All the best,

    Stephan

    P.S. – nice Wal!

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  8. I was a friend of Doug’s in the late 70’s in Philly just before he returned to San Francisco. My father and his father were close friends and we briefly became friends, too. I knew him when he was trying to stay clean. I liked him for who he was; a kind and tender soul.

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  9. hi there do you mind if I post your ‘Top Ten London Coffeeshops -August 2011’ on my blog? If you don’t I’d love to share that information with others and leave the source on it 🙂

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  10. Phil, I saw and heard you play last night at Notes in Covent Garden with your excellent guitarist and drummer friends. Awesome – looking forward to more of your gigs. Thanks. Peter

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  11. Hi Phil, it’s been a long time. I lost touch with Martin Glover a long time ago and I’m saddened to read that he had passed away! I of course remember you but didn’t know I had been christened the Diciple! I mainly play jazz commercially now besides the odd jazz club/festival gig and I teach and run a music diploma course for East Riding College. It’s great to see that you are doing well. Reading your blog brought it all back. I moved away to London in 1982 and although I’m back now, I don’t see much of Pete Minns. Martin Glover was a great player and a great man and I will always have fond memories of him. Take care, Martin Jones.

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  12. Great to hear from you Martin. I learned such a lot from you guys as a complete beginner back then. The Disciple is not that bad a nickname – must have been Pete and Martin’s in-joke. I wish I’d had the ability to copy phrases that accurately back then! I really learned such a lot from yourself and Pete and Martin. Glad you are still in music.
    I lost touch with Martin. I went to a performance of one of his classical compositions in London about 20 years ago and he gave me his address which I promptly lost and never got back in touch with – later I found out he died. I was so certainly fortunate to meet you guys at the right time in my playing development.
    All the best,
    Phil

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    • Hey you two! This is Chris, the Viewing Point (and Traveller, Phil!) drummer. I hope this gets to you…. I am very saddened to hear about Martin Glover – I did quite a few experimental musical things with him post VP, and I helped him getting to grips with the Mac. He was making music in a little upstairs room in a half finished house/ex-shop off Princes Road, with Kayla the Alsatian as his only companion. A true musical genius, and a lovely man. I knew he had high blood pressure and was on meds, and I suspected something like this had happened since I lost touch with him when (I believe) he moved away from Hull for pastures new. He wrote and played great stuff. Terribly under-recognised – the Hull curse.
      I loved playing with you Phil, even though in Traveller it was a bit crazy…but we had some good times, no? Do you remember the gig where you had to run offstage half way through to throw up, then spent the rest propped against the wall deathly pale? That’s dedication for you….I admired that! And Kilnsea? VP was great too, as it was obviously more your kind of thing and I had great fun trying to come up with something to match the adventurousness of your bass playing! I too learned much from the experience of playing in that group.I have done a few things with Pete over the years, including a ‘spontaneous improvised gig’ where he walked in half-way through and started to play. Confused the heck out of the ‘audience’. Happy days.
      I still drum. You’ll be glad to hear I listen mainly to Jazz & Fusion now, Miles Davis In A Silent Way playing as I write…
      Learning guitar now. Not in any bands, just making weird music that nobody ever hears.
      Hit me up with an email if you fancy a chat.

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      • Chris, amazing to hear from you. You were the first drummer I really clicked with as a bassplayer. Of course, I remember Traveller fondly although I often joke about those times – the stories. I was only just learning to play back then. Viewing Point was amazing and I saw Martin in London perhaps not long before he died, he’d written some classical pieces that a violinist was playing and he was there and we had a great chat but never kept in touch. I’ll ping you an email.

  13. Hey Phill hope all is well. will you making a list with the opening times of the london coffee place during the holiday season? thank you

    Saad

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  14. Hi, I saw your moving tribute to Martin Glover on the net whilst idly trawling through. I knew Martin very well for a couple of years. He was the most gifted musician and teacher I have ever known and he taught my son and a great number of his contemporaries music. Despite his demons he was a remarkable man and there are a great many musicians playing today who owe him a great deal and are very fortunate to have known him and had the privilege of his tutelage.

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  15. Hi Phil

    that’s very inspiring and creative! still learning to adapt to the life here, really thanks for your page. comforting…

    all the best
    冷溪

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  16. We could make good music – I’ve been playing jazz guitar for the last 40 years – if interested, then contact me – regards – Bernie

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