Born and reared in New Orleans, the cradle of jazz, Devin Phillips intense affair with the saxophone began at the age of eight. At 14, he was accepted into the prestigious New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, whose alumni include Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr. and Nicholas Payton. There, trained in music theory and multi-styles composition, he graduated in 2000 with top honors. Performing, touring and recording with top jazz artists, such as Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Palmieri, The Headhunters, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, musician Lenny Kravitz, and Los Hombres Caliente (with whom he recorded two award-winning albums) soon followed...
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Born and reared in New Orleans, the cradle of jazz, Devin Phillips intense affair with the saxophone began at the age of eight. At 14, he was accepted into the prestigious New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, whose alumni include Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr. and Nicholas Payton. There, trained in music theory and multi-styles composition, he graduated in 2000 with top honors. Performing, touring and recording with top jazz artists, such as Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Palmieri, The Headhunters, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, musician Lenny Kravitz, and Los Hombres Caliente (with whom he recorded two award-winning albums) soon followed. His reputation as a sax man with intricate and rhythmically innovative sounds made him a popular feature at jazz festivals: Frances Jazz de Vien Festival; Tokyos JVC Jazz Festival; Itanbuls The Ruins; Spains Barcelona Jazz Festival; the Netherlands North Sea Jazz and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.Christopher Brown, born March 22nd, 1977 in Portland, OR, was formally introduced to music at age five with piano lessons. By age eleven, he not only added both the saxophone and drums to his musical pallet, but also came to the conclusion that music was how he had planned to make a living in the future. Therefore, armed with a new focus, his hard work resulted in him having garnered numerous local, state, regional, and national awards before graduating from high school. In fact, the first of his three most noteworthy accomplishments during this period began with the recruitment of a bassist and a saxophonist one fall afternoon for the purposes of creating a quick recording to submit to Down Beat Magazine. The recording was later mentioned in Down Beat the following spring as being the top high school small group for 1995. The second accomplishment came when he was afforded the opportunity to perform with Wynton Marsalis at the Alladin Theater in Portland, Oregon. And lastly, he was cast as an extra in the 1993 movie Mr. Hollands Opus, starring Richard Dreyfuss. After his completion from high school, Christopher enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps as a drummer for four years, which is also during the time that he began to really strengthen his professional networking base, beginning with his association with Ellis and Jason Marsalis while stationed in New Orleans. But after one short year in New Orleans, the Corps sent him to Parris Island, SC where at the recommendation of Ellis he began working periodically with the bassist Delbert Felix, formerly of the Branford Marsalis Quartet. And from that association he caught the attention of the legendary jazz bassist Ben Tucker, with whom he worked on and off with for three years. And finally, right before his discharge from active duty, he was afforded the opportunity to perform with Jazz legends Buddy Defranco and Terry Gibbs at the Jazz Corner in Hilton Head, SC.
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