Sonny Phillips

Sonny Phillips: My Black Flower

by Douglas Payne
August 1, 1999

Organist and pianist Sonny Phillips kept a rather low profile during his two decades in jazz. Born and raised in Alabama in 1936, Phillips headed to Chicago's DePaul University as a teen to pursue a career in education. At 20, he began studying privately with pianist Ahmad Jamal and started playing his own gigs in Chicago. Phillips joined Eddie Harris's band in 1963 and stayed with the tenor sax legend throughout most of the rest of the decade. By the ...