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Nick Phillips
A GRAMMY-recognized record producer, consultant, artist coach, playlist curator, educator, and Billboard-charting recording artist, Nick Phillips has been a ubiquitous, creative force in jazz for more than three decades.
Record Producer
A multi-GRAMMY®-recognized record producer, Nick Phillips has worked on several hundred commercially-released projects.
Newly-recorded projects produced by Nick include albums by jazz luminaries Kenny Barron, Richie Beirach, Bob Berg, Ruby Braff, Jimmy Bruno, Joanne Brackeen, Randy Brecker, Alan Broadbent, Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham, Fred Hersch, Nnenna Freelon, Jon Hendricks, Roger Kellaway, Nancy King, Marian McPartland, Chris Potter, Poncho Sanchez, Ray Vega, Kenny Werner, Jessica Williams, and others.
Historical projects produced by Nick include deluxe compilations and reissues spotlighting the works of music legends Cannonball Adderley, Gary Burton, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Vince Guaraldi, Little Richard, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Albert King, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, The Staple Singers, Sarah Vaughan, and countless others.
Several Nick Phillips-produced projects have garnered GRAMMY® nominations—including five nominations for albums by critically-acclaimed jazz vocalist Karrin Allyson alone—while the following recordings on which he worked went on to win the coveted GRAMMY® Award: Tito Puente “Lambada Timbales” (1990, Assistant Producer), Poncho Sanchez Latin Soul (1999, Associate Producer), Terence Blanchard “Be-Bop” (2008, Co-Producer), and John Coltrane Afro Blue Impressions [Deluxe Expanded Edition] (2013, Reissue Producer). The Bill Evans Trio On A Friday Evening project on which Nick worked as the release producer won the DownBeat Readers Poll for Best Historical Album (2017).
Jazz Consultant & Artist Coach
After more than two decades as full-time employee at Concord Music Group, Nick left his post as a staff producer and Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R in 2016 to focus on his own music production and consulting company, Nick Phillips Music. As a jazz consultant and producer he continues to produce historical reissue projects for Concord’s catalog division, Craft Recordings, and has also provided production and/or jazz consulting services for such companies as Mack Avenue Records, Blue Coast Records, iHeartRadio/iHeartMedia, and Empress Music Group. As an artist coach, Nick counts GRAMMY®-nominated jazz vocalists Karrin Allyson and Nnenna Freelon and Juno Award-winner Emilie-Claire Barlow among his individual recording artist clients.
Playlist Curator & Music Editor
In his part-time, five-year stint as the Jazz Music Editor of Digital Programming at iHeartRadio/iHeartMedia (2017-2022), Nick published more than 200 expertly-curated jazz playlists, including curating more than 40 dynamic, regularly-updated playlists; more than 90 artist-specific playlists for iHeartRadio's Thumbs Up playlist series; and facilitating more than 80 artist-curated playlists for iHeartRadio's Curated By playlist series.
Jazz Trumpet Player & Recording Artist
A critically-acclaimed jazz trumpet player and recording artist in his own right, Nick has released two of his own albums—Moment to Moment (co-led with pianist Cava Menzies, 2014) and Haiku (co-led with vocalist/pianist Jenny Maybee, 2016). Both albums landed on the Billboard Jazz and Billboard Traditional Jazz charts, with Moment to Moment debuting at #19 on the former (in-between releases by music luminaries Dave Koz and Diana Krall) and #14 on the latter. Both of Nick’s albums received accolades for their pristine sonics, while his lyrical, warm-toned trumpet playing drew laudatory comparisons to the work of jazz trumpet legends Miles Davis ("The Ballads Album Miles Davis Never Recorded"—East Bay Express) and Chet Baker (“…pristine and moving trumpet sound…Phillips nods to his predecessor’s (Chet Baker's) fragility but also imparts a feeling of strength that comes through a sense of restraint. ★★★★ ” —DownBeat). Nick has also been featured as a sideartist on projects by Karrin Allyson (Concord Jazz), Emi Meyer (Origin Records), and many others. “Movin’ On”—his collaboration with Billboard-charting dance music producer Tyler Stone—was released in late 2022 on Chicago’s storied house music label, Large Music. The single rocketed to the #1 spot on the Beatport "Best New Hype Deep House" chart.
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Cava Menzies & Nick Phillips Present Moment To Moment - A Mesmerizing Album Of Jazz Ballads
Source:
Antje Hübner
New York, NY - Ballads reign on Moment To Moment on the extraordinarily self-possessed new album by pianist Cava Menzies and trumpeter Nick Phillips. But this recording is much more than just a “ballads album.” Many artists have produced albums filled with love songs and torch tunes at slow tempos; theyʼre designed to pull at the heartstrings, or turn up the nostalgia, or to highlight the introspective phrasemaking that ballads allow. But very few succeed at also doing what this ...
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- “Nick Phillips’ name is on hundreds of major recordings, but not as a player. He’s produced a slew of artists, and crucial jazz reissues, for such labels as Concord, but his track record at this job should not overshadow his pristine, and moving, trumpet sound…Phillips nods to his predecessor’s (Chet Baker's) fragility but also imparts a feeling of strength that comes through a sense of restraint. ★★★★ ” —DownBeat ("Best Jazz Albums of 2014" list)
- "...Mr. Phillips seems to come from the line of pathos and irony created by Miles Davis…His handling of the mute is exquisite; he is in a minority of one when it comes to eliciting the primal cry of the horn, then making it sound almost human as notes bend and twist at his command." —Jazz da Gama
Chet Baker
trumpet and vocals
Miles Davis
trumpet
Bill Evans
piano
Freddie Hubbard
trumpet
Lee Morgan
trumpetMusic
Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
Videos
Nick Phillips
Location: Sacramento
Instrument: Trumpet
Born: July 14, 1965
