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R.I.P. Phil Chen
- Thread starter Lesfunk
- Start date
Damn.
Beautiful personality, gone
Sincere condolences to all his of closest. RIP
Beautiful personality, gone
Sincere condolences to all his of closest. RIP
What a fantastic musician and a sad loss! I feel very fortunate to have seen him a few years back with Krieger. He played the intro to Air Blower when Robby introduced him. I didn't know how old he was until just now, and would have been decades short if someone asked me to guess.
- Sep 26, 2005
- 1,955
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- endorsing artist: Dean guitars, Marshall , Rotosound strings
That’s a shock!
What a great player, and indeed a lovely person. Spent a good while chatting with him when I did a dean showcase with the rsb a few years back. he gave me some great advice, which I still use today.
rest well sir.
What a great player, and indeed a lovely person. Spent a good while chatting with him when I did a dean showcase with the rsb a few years back. he gave me some great advice, which I still use today.
rest well sir.
I got up close and personal with PC's recorded work when I was starting out. Did I ever.
I'd been at it for about 18 months and got my first gig with a band that played the usual hotel lounges and clubs. This is mid- to late-70's (Farah hair ! Earthtone shag carpet and kitchens ! Studio 54 !) and the sets included the Top 40 of those days with lots of disco. I was OK with 'Boogie Oogie', the BG's stuff, 'I Love the Nightlife', etc., but . . . . they decided to include Stewart's 'If Ya Think I'm Sexy'. Geez. I grew up on Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells a Story, Long Player, and A Nod's As Good as a Wink', and here he is now, the idol of spandex'd women and he's frosted his hair. What the hell . . . . where's Woody ?
So of course, this was when Rod had the band with Chen, Carmine Appice, that crew, hired killers all of them, and that song had that nonstop root/octave/octave pattern all the way thru it that PC put on the record. My hands were still growing into the job, and of all things, they'd stretch it out so people could dance. By the end of it, my right plucking hand would cramp up big time, I'd barely make it out of it, and fortunately they always used it to end a set, so I had some time for the blood to return to my hand.
Of course later I learned of just how many things he'd done, and had / have a lot of respect for the man. We're fortunate that so much of his work is still out there to hear . . . . and learn from.
Here's Phil with Rod back then; my hand starts to ache just listening to this, and all these years later, NOW I can play that all day. Yippee. . . .
I'd been at it for about 18 months and got my first gig with a band that played the usual hotel lounges and clubs. This is mid- to late-70's (Farah hair ! Earthtone shag carpet and kitchens ! Studio 54 !) and the sets included the Top 40 of those days with lots of disco. I was OK with 'Boogie Oogie', the BG's stuff, 'I Love the Nightlife', etc., but . . . . they decided to include Stewart's 'If Ya Think I'm Sexy'. Geez. I grew up on Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells a Story, Long Player, and A Nod's As Good as a Wink', and here he is now, the idol of spandex'd women and he's frosted his hair. What the hell . . . . where's Woody ?
So of course, this was when Rod had the band with Chen, Carmine Appice, that crew, hired killers all of them, and that song had that nonstop root/octave/octave pattern all the way thru it that PC put on the record. My hands were still growing into the job, and of all things, they'd stretch it out so people could dance. By the end of it, my right plucking hand would cramp up big time, I'd barely make it out of it, and fortunately they always used it to end a set, so I had some time for the blood to return to my hand.
Of course later I learned of just how many things he'd done, and had / have a lot of respect for the man. We're fortunate that so much of his work is still out there to hear . . . . and learn from.
Here's Phil with Rod back then; my hand starts to ache just listening to this, and all these years later, NOW I can play that all day. Yippee. . . .
No one has mentioned it yet, but he was actually Jamaican, and one of two Asian-descended founding fathers of ska/reggae bass…
Jimmy James & The Vagabonds | Garage Hangover
For this first one, click on “watch on youtube”:
That said, his riff on “Freeway Jam” has always been my warm-up exercise, from the time I started using my little finger.
Jimmy James & The Vagabonds | Garage Hangover
For this first one, click on “watch on youtube”:
That said, his riff on “Freeway Jam” has always been my warm-up exercise, from the time I started using my little finger.
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- Jan 5, 2017
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- No one in their right mind would pay me to endorse them....
Phil Chen, especially on Beck's Blow By Blow is one of the main reasons I play bass....
Haven't read all the comments, but he was a much underrated bassist. Saddened to hear of this.
This sucks. What a great bass player! I'll never forget hearing Do You Think I'm Sexy and being completely hooked by that bass line.
I hear ya. Chris Cornell died the morning of my birthday. Put a damper on the whole day.
So sad - this loss really hurts.
Phil was a gem, and such a loving, giving, person. I'm fortunate to have known him for almost 40 years, and he positively effected my time in the music biz.
When I first met Phil at the music store I worked at in the early 80's, the first thing he mentioned to me was James Jamerson. He gushed over Jamerson, and implored me to dig into his recordings with Motown (I loved Motown, but I was not familiar with JJ at the time.) It was a cool store with a solid selection of high-end basses. Within the next year or so, we became the top Trace Elliot dealer in the country when TE was first introduced in the U.S. in '84/'85.
In 1985 Phil contacted me to find out if we could provide the bass amplification for the upcoming Chuck Berry/Bo Diddley All-Star Jam which was going to be held at Irvine Meadows in October. This was going to be a big production to be featured on HBO. Phil was going to play bass along with John Lodge of the Moody Blues (Rudy Sarzo was the 3rd bassist in the show) and was to feature about 2 dozen other legendary musicians. With the help of Alan Morgan from Soundwave (the distributor who brought TE to the U.S.,) we provided 4 Trace Elliot stacks for the production (the 4th was used by keyboardist Bill Champlain.) Phil was very appreciative, and we appreciated the opportunity to promote Trace Elliot. Unfortunately, Chuck Berry did not cooperate which lead to HBO scrapping the project and only came out on DVD many years later. More on who was involved and what transpired here: Your Chuck Berry Story
Here's a still of Phil from that show:
In early '86 I was hired as national sales manager of Trace Elliot, and a few months later we opened The Bass Centre L.A., as the sister store to The Bass Centre in London which had opened in '84 (these were the first bass-only stores in the world.) We were very fortunate that this was news, so a few national articles were written about the store early on.
In early '87 I was contacted by a guy named Allan Slutsky, stating he wrote music books under the name Dr. Licks and that he was working on a book about Motown bassist James Jamerson. Allan was looking for some west coast as well as English bassists that he thought may be interested in participating. The contact I provided to Allan was Phil Chen. I shared with him that Phil was the biggest Jamerson fan on the planet, and that he had to be involved. I provided some other local names, and also put him in touch with Barry Moorhouse, the owner of the London store and co-owner of our L.A. store. Barry was instrumental with putting Allan in touch with Paul McCartney, John Entwistle & Pino Palladino.
The book was released in May 1989. We held the public launch party at The Bass Centre (by then in Studio City) on a Saturday, and the private launch party was held the night before at Ray (Ghostbusters) Parker's studio in North Hollywood. Needless to say, Phil was a central figure, as well as the Jamerson Family and Allan Slutsky. Both events were attended by dozens of famous bassists, many of which were involved with the book. Both Phil and I had the same idea, as we both brought Pre-CBS Fender basses to be autographed during these special events. Phil's can be seen in the video in this post. Phil was the first to autograph my bass:
This love and respect for James Jamerson eventually lead to us teaming with the Fender Custom Shop to produce the limited edition James Jamerson Tribute Bass (and Jaco Signature Bass) in '90/'91:
Phil would stop by the shop often, and was always happy to support his fellow bassists. Here's a photo of Phil with Nathan East, Rocco Prestia and Abraham Laboriel after Abe's clinic at the store in 1990:
R.I.P., Phil Chen, and thank you. You will be missed.
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RIP Phil Chen, thanks for the tasteful creative bass lines
RIP! Another great low ender goes to the great gig in the sky.
Per Wiki,
Phil Chen died on December 14, 2021, at the age of 75 from cancer as per a statement from the official Phil Chen Facebook page. The statement states that he spent his final days surrounded by family and close friends and cherished time with his grandchildren who always brightened his day.
He actually was just shy of 81'st birthday on December 25th.
Link Removed
Phil Chen died on December 14, 2021, at the age of 75 from cancer as per a statement from the official Phil Chen Facebook page. The statement states that he spent his final days surrounded by family and close friends and cherished time with his grandchildren who always brightened his day.
He actually was just shy of 81'st birthday on December 25th.
Link Removed
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