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Book Cubby Phillips for a groupmuse

Solo improvised guitar


Details

Cubby Phillips full profile / Electric guitar / 1 musician


Full program notes

During his solo improvised shows, Cubby employs a distinctive approach to vital grooves and harmonic terrains. He and his audiences are regularly propelled into surprising domains, uniting tenderness, gravity, and heat. He stretches familiar forms, creating contexts for spontaneous discovery. The material is completely improvised, although he occasionally imports melodies from the traditions with which he has had the most intimate connections: jazz, blues and R&B. The direction of the performance is tailored to the room, the audience, moods and longings voiced or otherwise. Sometimes he challenges the listener, and often himself, to overcome expectations, presumptions, and doubts that plague receptivity. He is committed to earnest joy, serious play, forging with a spring in his step.


Historical context

Cubby's steadfast reliance on improvisation is reinforced by his devotion to the lineage of jazz and blues visionaries of the last 100+ years. These artists were aware that moment-to-moment receptivity supports their forays into the unknown. They understood that trusting one's ears, one's body, and the unfolding of a phrase brings the utmost freedom to performers and listeners alike. Cubby has found that the approaches developed by these great improvisers form a stable bridge into Mystery, from which springs beauty and novelty. His performances are equally a devotion to continuous discovery and a devotion to the historical revelations that have brought freedom-music to his life, such that he can bring it to the lives of listeners.


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