Born October 27, 1934 in San Francisco (California), double bassist Barre Phillips died on December 28, 2024, in Las Cruces (New Mexico) with his family. He was 90 years old. Emigrating to Europe in 1967, installed in the old abbey of Pierrevert (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) in France, he has, in complete independence, marked generations of musicians and vocalists through his attitude, his gesture and his thoughts. Philosopher of sound, velvet fingers in a velvet glove, Barre Phillips left with his secret. A secret that he nevertheless resolutely shared with several generations of musicians, singers and dancers.
Read the review (in 2021): Article reserved for our subscribers Barre Phillips, composer of the moment, rides his double bass in Nantes
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Studying in the department of Romance languages at the University of Berkeley, he abandoned philology for music and for the ample, deep, telluric as well as round sound of the double bass. As a family, at the Phillips house, on Sunday afternoons, we play country and Dixieland music – dad on the banjo; mother at the piano; Peter, the brother, on guitar… But the Phillips are also very attentive to the classical repertoire and to this “third current” defended by the composer Gunther Schuller (1925-2015): the impossible alliance between jazz and art music. Barre Phillips dreams of studying with double bassist Frederick Zimmermann (1906-1967), a renowned teacher and member of the New York Philharmonic.
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