Phil was born in Torquay in the UK in 1940. Both his parents were singers. He learnt tumpet from age 15 and played and sung with local jazz groups, moving to London in 1963 to play with Mike Westbrook. From the mid-1960s he worked in dance bands in the UK, Canary Islands and Sweden. Rejoining Westbrook in 1972, he was a regular member of his Brass Band untill 1984, playing trumpet and singing extensively in Europe, the US and beyond. Through the last 30 years he’s worked mainly as a improvising singer and sung with most of the world’s leading improvising musicians as well as been a guest singer in music by many composers. He collaborated with pianist Veryan Weston on compositions such as Songs from a Prison Diary and is currently a member of improvising groups TooT, No Walls and Axon. He also has a quartet with Veryan, John Butcher and Roger Turner. He was a NESTA awardee in 2005 and in the last 15 years has travelled to many countries with his “Feral Choir”, a workshop and concert for all people who want to sing.

philminton.co.uk