Jazz, world, folk and popular styles.

Qualified, Professional and Patient

About your classes:

I structure the classes to your needs and always with a balance of learning and enjoyment in mind.

Beginners and advanced students are equally welcome. If you are aiming towards a professional career I can help you get there, if you want to learn at your own pace that’s also fine.

Have you failed to learn before? Why not try again? Often students are given too much information without adequate reference material. I either provide videos via email with a summary of the class, or a written summary in tablature (easy to understand) or music score or (in-fact usually) both. See the examples under the Scores and videos for learning heading on the right hand side.

These classes will be either monthly or Bi-monthly  in some cases as i live in London but travel to Holme, (Cumbria/Lancashire border) roughly twice a month.  I provide enough material for you to work on your own for this time.

About your teacher:

I’ve spent the last three years in the south of Spain taking in different influences but now im back and based in central London. I specialize in Jazz, World and Folk styles on acoustic but I also have years of experience playing and teaching popular styles on both acoustic and electric guitars. I have taught in WAC(weekend arts college), Guildhall University, CYM (Center for young musicians, Southwark) and various London schools.

My group Oriole have released two albums and have a third on the way. I have also played with many other groups over the years.

About your teachers music:

Quotes

“Our favourite jazz and world guitarist” London timeout

“Prolific guitarist-composer Jonny Phillips seems to have tunes coming out of his ears” The Guardian

“a musical mosaic that feels as spiritualy uplifting as a Paulo Coelho novel” Tom Barlow – Jazzwise ****

“As forceful as it is subtle, Oriole have in the space of two albums found something that most groups spend many moons searching for – a sound of their own.”
Kevin Le Gendre – Jazz At Ronnie Scotts

“This album delivers those light hearted and playful moments we expect of the summer, its skillfully and wholeheartedly composed and performed by an exceptional band.”
Miriam Hempel – Straight No Chaser

“A musical mosaic that feels as spiritualy uplifting as a Paulo Coelho novel”
Tom Barlow – Jazzwise ****

“an early contender for jazz release of the year – uplifting melodies that’ll make you smile, think and want to dance.”
Kerstan Macness – Timeout – London

“This is a beautiful album, flawlessly written, arranged, played and produced – A joy to listen to and it should be a contender for the album of the year”
Chris Mann -24dash.com

“the entire album is entrancing, affecting and compulsively playable. Unreservedly recommended.”
Chris Parker – Vortex website

“If the lineup sounds like a dream made real, so does the music – I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the return of warmth and sunshine than to spin Migration.”
www.allaboutjazz.com

“Dreamlike and beautiful, it sounds simultaneously contemporary and yet centuries old”
Timeout

“Oriole were absolutely exquisite, possibly my favourite performance of the whole festival.”
Bev Stapleton – Allaboutjazz – Cheltenham jazz festival review

“One of the festival’s standout performances – Their music is simply beautiful: deliciously easy on the ear.”
Chris parker – Vortex website

“prolific guitarist-composer Jonny Phillips seems to have tunes coming out of his ears”
John L Walters – The Guardian

Oriole features guitarist Jonny Phillips and singer Julia Biel, with their “Song for the Sleeping” providing a remarkable showcase for the latter’s uncategorisable stylings. Not quite jazz, not quite pop.
BBC Online

Song 4 the Sleeping a gorgeous lullaby performed by guitarist Jonny Phillips’ Oriole
Jazzwise

The Beautiful Song 4 the sleeping.
Straight No Chaser

Cinematic folkish lullabies exploring the cultural pathways between West Africa , Brazil and Europe. Gentle beautiful music that is surprisingly affecting.
Time Out – Kerstan Macknes

Oriole features guitarist Jonny Phillips and singer Julia Biel, with their “Song for the Sleeping” providing a remarkable showcase for the latter’s uncategorisable stylings. Not quite jazz, not quite pop.

This album is the latest broadside from the F-ire collective, and Oriole are one of those groups that avoid the obvious choices of instrumentation, coming instead with the colours of the bass clarinet and cello in the mix- reminiscent of a modern day Chico Hamilton. The combination of Seb Rochford’s grasp of African rhythms and Jonny Phillips’ songwriting brings exotic vibes on the tracks of Meme and Themes Des Tangos Celabres, while the title track, featuring the sultry tones of singer Julia Biel, is an off kilt lullaby from the stars, refracted through ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ and ‘Come Sunday’. Keeping the f-ire reputation for innovation and creativity on track.

More downtown New York than south east London , Oriole proves how open minded young British based improvisers are these days. As you’d expect from members of the fire collective, guitarist Jonny Phillips outfit includes artistry and adventurism in there vision of jazz, yet Oriole ultimately displays more lyrical and worldly traits than its contemporaries.
Indeed, Song for the Sleeping feels more rooted in folk than jazz. It explores the musical connections established by the slave triad, veering from the mellow Lament, a meeting between Venezuelan rhythms and English impressionism, to the West African soaked Eyes of a Blue Dog and other melodic dedications to tango, bolero, and Gabriel Garcia Marques. Rather than blazing guitar solos, Phillips prefers to contribute down-tempo almost filmic compositions marked by strong soloing from saxophonist Rob Leak and guest such as keyboard player Nick Ramm and Idris Rahman on clarinet. Songs count more than solos, yet the musical contributions of Seb Rochford and cellist Ben Davis are hard to ignore. Likewise the plaintive singing of Julia Biel which fits perfectly into Phillips’ beguiling world.

The F-IRE collective represents some of the London jazz scene’s most energetic and imaginative young musicians, and it’s the imaginative aspect that features strongly on its latest release. Led by guitarist and composer Jonny Phillips, Oriole is a nonet, including cello, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet and keyboards, with influences straddling tango, choro, Erik Satie, African rhythms and the melodic end of art rock. Indeed, the gorgeous Remedius could have been written for Robert Wyatt. Julia Biel, however, handles its aching, wordless contours beautifully and her contrite ecology song, Deep Snow, is beguiling. Elsewhere, the instrumentalists, underpinned by Aberdonian Seb Rochford’s superbly fluent drumming, combine to make creative, compact and affectingly understated music.

More super-confident new British jazz, with guitarist Jonny Phillips’ compositions for octet (with the addition of vocalist Julia Biel on two tracks, and occasional guests) providing tight, idiomatic themes that repeated listening brings to life. Standout instrumentalists are the strikingly good Ben Davis on cello, Sarah Homer on bass clarinet, and Seb Rochford on drums..