Last week I had the honor of playing a show in Portland with sax player and mega-star, Mike Phillips. Before I tell you this story, I have to tell you another story…
In 2007, when I was in business school at the University of Oregon, I took a sports marketing course that spent a week talking about the power of branding. We spent a couple days talking about this young urban cat named Mike Phillips, and how he was the only non-athlete who was signed to Nike’s Brand Jordan as an endorser of their brand. Being a musician, I thought it was really interesting that Nike’s brand philosophy (Nike is NOT a shoe company, btw. They’re a branding company. Nike does not sell shoes. They sell an image) aligned with a musician (instead of an athlete).
Fast-forward five years, and I get a call from Mike, who was looking for a keyboard player for a quick gig in Portland before he takes off again for the Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour. I’m really excited. I’ve been blessed to play with some of the best musicians on the planet, but it’s been a goal of mine to play with Mike.
I say all of this because playing with an artist who truly has virtuous talent is a sobering reminder of how terrible our mainstream music industry is today. Go watch Before the Music Dies for a comprehensive explanation of why music on the radio today is horrendous (The cliffnotes version: Clear Channel owns most of the radio stations in the country, and they spin music for the sheeple).
Radio today is filled with no-talent ass-clowns (yep, I said it) who couldn’t sing if their life depended on it. Rather, they rely on studio & production tricks to sound like a singer. It wasn’t that long ago that you had to have serious talent to get on the radio. Remember when Boyz II men used to just stand on stage and sing? No auto-tune, no smoke & mirrors, no light show, no lip-syncs… just virtuous talent. That’s where mainstream music used to be.
Mike is one of a dying breed of artists who have spend thousands of hours honing & perfecting their craft, and for that we owe him a debt of gratitude.
True musical greatness still exists… you just have to search for it.
Here’s a great video of Mike playing a solo using his EWI Vocoder:
Here’s Mike playing in Atlanta on ‘The NBA on TNT’:
And lastly, this was at NAMM 2012 earlier in January. I was at this concert when Mike surprised the crowd and brought on the incomparable Stevie Wonder.