Flip Phillips, February 26, 1915 – August 17, 2001 was a jazz clarinet and tenor saxophone player. His work with Jazz at the Philharmonic, 1946-1957, is what he is most remembered. He played on many albums over a long career. After retiring to Florida for 15 years, he returned to music and recorded a CD with Verve Records in his 80s. Phillips was able to perform in many genres other than jazz. These include mainstream jazz, bebop and swing music. Phillips was an anchor of the Woody Herman Band in the mid-40s before he went out on his own and joined JATP. Phillips also played in the Woodchoppers, which was a spin-off of Herman’s Woody Herman band. His strong, articulate and clear playing combined with a rich sound made him stand out from his successors like Stan Getz in subsequent Herman bands. His orchestra recorded for Verve in 1949 and included Buddy Morrow (Timber Turk), Kai Winding, Sonny Crisss, Ray Brown, Shelly Manne, and Tommy Turk. Phillips was a regular player at Odessa Jazz Party, Odessa Texas. He played solos with Billie Holiday in 1958 (Album “Last Recording”) Text contributed by users is available under Creative Commons By–SA License. It may also be available under GNU FDL.
