User:Nanniesbox

KENT Was born in Cheltenham (July 1947). In 1957 he moved to London where he commenced his education at Fortescue House School, in Twickenham, Middlesex. It was during this time that he had his first introduction to jazz, when he bought his first record "African Waltz" by Johnny Dankworth (1961). - In 1962 he left school at the age of 15, and moved to the pretty village of Mayfield,in East Sussex. Here he started working as a waiter at a local local inn called "The Middle House". His then employer, and the Landlord of the inn, wasthe famous impresario and bandleader Jack Payne. Phil recalled that he was busy serving dinner one evening in November 1963, when all the guests suddenly rushed out of the dining room, and hurried into the lounge where they all crowded around the television. The reason soon became apparent - the American president John F Kennedy had just been assassinated! - Like many other teenagers around that time, Phil took a great interest in pop groups of the day such as The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. However, one evening he turned on the television, and watched a programme called "Not Only, But Also" which starred Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. These programmes featured The Dudley Moore Trio. Phil was most interested in this music and immediatly purchased the first and second albums by Dudley Moore. Having been impressed by the excellent bass playing of Pete McGurk, Phil bought a second hand double bass, and decided to move to London to pursue a career in Jazz. For two years, he then studied jazz improvisation and music theory etc, with the eminent double bass virtuoso Peter Ind. After his education in jazz, he then went fully professional, and went on to play with most of Britain's top jazz musicians, including, Tubby Hayes, Acker Bilk, Don Rendell, Brian Lemon, Sandy Brown, Phil Seman, Eddie Thompson, Tony Lee, and many more, as well as being the regular bass player with Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazzmen. After gigging around London, and touring all over Europe for around 15 years, Phil decided to slow the pace down a bit, so he bought a cottage down in Somerset. - Having been a fan of The Rolling Stones, and an admireer of the Stones founder and guitarist Brian Jones, he then launched a fan club in his memory which he named "The Brian Jones Appreciation Society" and hardly a month goes by when Phil doesn't pay a visit to his grave in Cheltenham Cemetery. These days Phil is still very much involved with music, and currently runs websites for Dudley Moore, and German jazz pianist Horst Jankowski, as well as his own Black Forest Jazz site. He is currently working on an acoustic solo bass jazz CD, which he is hoping to release later this year. (2009)