Phil Gates - In The Pocket (2020)

Phil Gates was born in Chicago Ill., into a family of musicians that helped form his music style, and ability. Phil began playing musical instruments at the age of eight, and listening to a wide array of music has always been his main source of inspiration. Phil has played venues from small clubs, to the U.S. Air Force’s “Tops in Blue” World Tour, which performed in sixteen countries as well as the halftime show of the NFL Superbowl.

Phil has performed at many venues all over the world with his band. Also, the band was featured for five consecutive years on Hornblower Cruise’s “Friday Night Blues Dinner Cruise”. Phil’s style is reminiscent of the early high energy Buddy Guy, mixed with a special blend of flavors from Jazz, Fusion, New Orleans, and the Chicago, Delta, and Mississippi Blues styles.

The Phil Gates Band won the “Beale Street Blues Kings” Competition in Memphis, and competed in the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge.
Phil has been steady contributor to the Blues Community in Southern California. He founded the Los Angeles Blues Society, and has been a valued judge for the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, and also at many of the Guitar Center “King of the Blues” competitions in Hollywood, CA

Phil has also performed at great venues such as B.B. King’s, Cozy’s, Biscuits and Blues San Francisco, Highway 99 Seattle, WA, The Coach House, CA, The Monterey Bay Blues Festival, The Santa Clarita Blues Festival, The Topanga Canyon Blues Festival, The Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Festival, The Blues Music Awards Blind Raccoon Showcase, The Blues Nights Gossau(Blues Festival in Gossau, Switzerland), The Rock und Blues Festival in Gams, Switzerland.

Phil had the opportunity in his early years to listen and study great talent. As front of house engineer at the Caravan of Dreams Performing Arts Centre in Fort Worth, Texas, Phil worked with some of Blues and Jazz’s greatest performers to include: Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Dizzie Gilespie, Wynton & Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Eartha Kitt, Dianne Reeves, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and many others.