To speak with Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., and to hear his music, you would imagine an optimistic philosopher, or a student of ancient religious texts. While philosophy and ancient texts are of interest and influence, in truth, this new music composer is more a scholar of feeling than thinking - a conduit of emotional imagination, manifested through a set of composed music that is at the same time new as it is familiar.Joe Phillips' compositions may be classified as classical to some, jazz to others. But his ensemble Numinous - whose second recording Vipassana was released by innova recordings in April of 2009 - defies any classic genre definitions. Rather, the music moves fluidly between classical and jazz and other genres as yet undefined.
Phillips, as he says, is "interested in approaching things in a different way that's not seen very often." A self-proclaimed "late bloomer" in the composing scene, Phillips is no newcomer to musical accomplishment, starting with his degree from the University of Maryland. While teaching high school and leading award-winning student bands, earning an Educator of the Year award from the city of Bellevue, WA near Seattle, Phillips nurtured his growing interest in composing his own music and joined the Seattle Young Composers Collective. He was unable to ignore the temptation to do something with his own music, and the opportunity to bring jazz composer Maria Schneider out to Washington State for a student workshop and concert gave him the inspiration he was looking for - and a familiar face in New York City when he was ready to take some time for his own music career and become a composer himself.
"I was following my passion," Phillips says, "and what Maria's music did for me was the same as what John Cage's philosophical musical thought did to many other composers: give me a sense of the possible and a confidence to follow my own musical direction. I didn't want to wake up when I'm 60 and regret not at least trying to share what I had to say through composition."
Inspired by Schneider, as well as Steve Reich and John Adams and many other key figures in new music, in addition to visual and film artists and scientific, philosophical and social thought Phillips says, "I take all of them and use them in my own way to create my own musical world."
Clearly not in the mainstream classical world, Phillips explains that he loves the avant-garde and the element of improvisation in jazz, but when it comes to classifying himself, "I'm happy to be in the middle. I like not to be tied down in any one area."
Phillips' unique perspective and compositional techniques attracted the attention of BMI, who admitted Phillips from 1998 to 2004 into their prestigious Jazz Composer's Workshop program, which provides an environment where the composer has the freedom to explore new avenues in the creative process, while at the same time honing and solidifying his or her skills. The BMI Jazz Composers Workshop also stresses exploration in music and experimentation with form, harmony and orchestration to produce lasting works. Phillips' achievements in the workshop earned him a place as finalist for the BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Award.
As he didn't seek out jazz per se, Phillips also didn't seek out spirituality, but by happenstance or fate, he stumbled onto a reference to the unseen that would influence his music and musical career. While reading Carl Sagan's Contact, he discovered the inspiration for the ensemble he would assemble, compose, and conduct from the Fall of 2000 to the present.
The word numinous, the namesake of the group, describes something divine or spiritual, but for Phillips, that refers more to the feeling of awe that people can experience through religion rather than to a literal presence of a god. Phillips wants to be taken on a journey through music - and for him, it's through its creation. For the listener, it's a journey outside of themselves, and one that is both familiar and unlike any other they've experienced before. In creating something new, he hopes to create a sense of wonder and beauty that refreshes and enlightens listeners.Numinous features strings, various percussion, piano, bass, woodwinds, voice and brass instruments in a flexible grouping of up to 25 new music and jazz musicians from New York City. "I wanted to create a group that musically would do things that would create a sense of wonder, mystery, and beauty. This number of players and instruments lend me the flexibility to do the kind of music that I wanted to do," Phillips says.
While Phillips' compositional technique is not limited or defined by any one genre; it is a unique alamagation transmuted into a singular and indivdual style that has attracted plenty of attention so far. His achievements in composition - over a relatively short period of time, for this composer who started late in his career - have earned him a finalist for a Sundance Film Composers Lab Fellowship and a Meet the Composers grant and widespread praise. In addition to the worldwide performances of his works, which includes the 2003 Steve Reich Festival at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands, several new works have been commissioned including works for the St. Olaf Band, the University of Maryland Wind Ensemble, Edisa Weeks and the Delirious Dance Company, Takehiro Ueymana and the Take Dance Company, violinist Ana Milosavljevic, Chillichi, Festival of New Trumpet Music, and Face the Music.
In addition to his composing, and his work with Numinous, Phillips also founded Pulse, a federation of six award-winning composers who write and perform music that defies categorization and who are not bound by any one musical style. Indeed, Phillips continues to define himself without any clear definition. That's exactly how he likes it. Regardless of genre or the trappings of traditional classification, Phillips says, "I want to make connections with the audience".