Somewhat of a mystery man, guitarist Dan Phillips recorded two CDs in Chicago in 2015 and 2016. One a trio session, and the other a septet with a cast of heavyweights from the Windy City. Phillips, a Berklee and Northwestern graduate, has been living and teaching in Bangkok, Thailand since the turn of the new millennium. Born in Illinois, he spent five years in New York, and returned to Chicago for another five before decamping to Bangkok. It's just as the old saying goes, you can take the musician out of Chicago, but you cannot take Chicago out of the musician. Both of the discs below display that muscular Chi-town sound and the experimentalism that is often missing from the regimented East and West Coast hierarchies.

Dan Phillips / Krysztof Pabian / Tim Mulvenna
Fading Light
Lizard Breath Records
2017

This reunion (of sorts) between guitarist Dan Phillips, bassist Krysztof Pabian and drummer Tim Mulvenna produces the imaginative Fading Light, the trio's fourth recording. Back in the day, when Phillips was a resident of Chicago, the three collaborated quite frequently. Pabian a classically trained bassist, also holds a masters degree in jazz. His influence on this guitar trio cannot be emphasized enough. Utilizing a bow on Phillips' composition "Ominous Thoughts," the bassist's solemn melody carries the elevated sensibilities of the music. He is also a precise timekeeper, as a bassist must be when the ensemble is a two string affair, plus a drummer. For his part, drummer Tim Mulvenna has been a mainstay of a the diversity that is Chicago music, playing with the funk/dub outfit The Eternals, clarinetist