Support for Jazz 91.9 WCLK comes from The Suite Food Lounge, 375 Luckie Street in Downtown Atlanta, home of the Suite Jazz Series on Thursday nights. This Thursday night features the Official Mike Phillips Album Release Party. Doors open at 6:30pm with dinner and Jazz at 7:30pm. More information including reservations can be found at JazzBeat Promotions or eventbrite.com or call 404-577-2500.
If there’s one particular word which comes to mind while both describing critically hailed saxophonist MIKE PHILLIPS and an ongoing theme of his illustrious music career within the jazz, R&B and even hip-hop worlds, it would be “authentic.” Phillips’ unusually high appreciation for music since early childhood, which manifested into everything from absorbing and learning musical instruments and immersing himself into all things music – his widely-noted, soulfully warm saxophone-driven sound sonically and melodically personifies the term. Phillips latest groove-driven smooth-jazz musical offering, Pulling Off The Covers, cleverly turns out to be not only the soundtrack of his life but many of ours as well. “When you’re doing a cover, you do it your way…you do it how you do it,” Phillips explains of both the title and overall approach to his multi-influenced new set. “The song has to have swag and personality, and a harmonic or melodic outlook on something that already exists. The secondary meaning is you’re getting deeper into the song from an instrumental standpoint and maybe pulling off a layer. My perspective is getting deeper into songs.”