Phil French: A Saxophonist With A Song and A Story Of Salvation On The Seas

By Andrea R. Williams

Few have the musical resume that Inspirational Jazz Saxophonist Phil French d Phil French oes.  Names like Fred Hammond, Richard Smallwood, Kim Burrell, The Winans, The Clark Sisters, Stanley Turrentine, Norman Connors, Ramsey Lewis, and Najee pop off the page of his illustrious curriculum vitae, but for Phil, music isn’t just about the many stages on which he’s been blessed to perform.  One day, he realized that the presence of God and His comforting Spirit was available to him just by picking up the saxophone.

In the late 80’s, French was serving in the United States Navy as a Petty Officer – IC3 (Interior Communications Technician – 3^rd Class) in the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm (and ultimately Desert Shield).  He was on board the USS Trenton LPD-14 when they were running search operations in a high-risk area of floating mines.  Phil says, “I remember that day.  Thank God, everything went uneventful while we floated through the dangerous territory.  But there was another ship that was only 20 minutes behind us.  And then it happened. Unfortunately they ran into one of the fatal mines we had just missed.  There were casualties and damage to their ship.”

In the pandemonium, many were frightened and scared.  Phil recalls fellow officers thinking of family, friends and loved ones, which at the time they couldn’t reach out and touch or call.  But in spite of the chaos, Phil knew where his solace was.  “That’s when I began to worship and play my horn,” he recounts.  “It was then I had to learn to pray for myself.  It was then when I learned how to worship by myself.  I didn’t have a worship leader provoking me to praise the Lord; I didn’t need one.  It was in the Persian Gulf where I learned how to play from my soul.  I didn’t have a band backing me up; it was just me and God.  Then I was reminded of how David played before the Lord by himself. It must have been just David before God and His creation—nature, the animals and the angels there as his audience.  Yes, it was like that for me when I learned to shut out my fears and my circumstances and just play as unto the Lord from my soul.  I truly believe God protected me that day on my ship”.  That day French experienced God’s power in a way he had never known before.  His life has not been the same since.

Phil has taken that same intimacy with God he experienced on the USS Trenton and poured it into 7 CDs.  His latest release is Everlasting Featuring Terrence Richburg.  Last year, French collaborated with Richburg, signing with his Stellar Award-nominated record label, RichEscape Music.  The two created musical magic during the making of the new CD.  With stunning compositions and instrumentation by Richburg and smooth sax sounds from French, the 17-track project, released in early 2015, includes an array of vocal and instrumental songs.  A melodic masterpiece fashioned to inspire the soul and delight the ear, the CD includes tracks like “In My Heart”, “Wave Offering”, “Twilight”, “I Won’t Let Go” and “Consider Now Eternity”, each leaving the listener begging for more.  Just one listen and it’s clear that this musician has been given something very special.

His love affair with the saxophone started at the age of 10.  All it took was one look at the shimmering brass-colored instrument, and he knew he needed to try it out.  “At school, you had to be in 5^th grade in order to play the saxophone, but at the time, I was in 4^th grade,” Phil recalls.  “People tried to encourage 

me to play something else in the meantime, but I waited.  There was something about the saxophone that drew me in, even before I picked it up to play it for the first time,” he says.

Mentors like the late Grover Washington, Jr. poured into Phil and eventually doors opened for him to play for artists such as Pieces of a Dream, Marion Meadows, Brian McKnight, the late Ollie Woodson formerly of the Temptations, Marvin Sapp, William Becton & Friends, and Maurette Brown Clark.  He served as a band member and Music Director for GRAMMY Award winner Yolanda Adams for over four years and as a leading band member of the legendary Jazz Great Jean Carne.  His experiences with Yolanda Adams and Jean Carne helped him to polish his stage presence and perfect his amazing, jaw dropping circular breathing technique. Phil has also performed and recorded on sessions with the award winning Ben Tankard.

A Dallas, Texas resident, and member of the renowned Potter’s House where Bishop T.D. Jakes is pastor, French has become one of the most sought after inspirational jazz instrumentalists in the country.  But most of all, Phil simply wants to bring God glory.  “I remember one evening, a young man came to me and wanted to talk with me,” shares Phil.  “He said to me, ‘I have one of your CDs and there is one song that I keep playing.  There is something about that song.  I used to do things before I heard your music that I don’t do anymore.  I used to abuse my wife, but that song took that spirit off of me’.  That one conversation let me know that I can’t stop doing what I am doing.  I will never stop.  That’s what it’s all about.”