Phil Manuel grew up in the Midwest of the U.S.A., moved to Scottsdale Arizona, and after an all too brief stay in the Southwest, moved back the Kansas City metro area. He’s played guitar since about 9 years of age. Mostly self-taught, taking a few lessons here and there along the way. Phil played in a number of bands and enjoyed a relatively good career playing music during his younger days.
Now, older, Phil plays music for pure enjoyment. His latest focus is Gypsy Jazz, and Swing music, though, he still, finds time to play the odd blues and folk number from time to time. He does continue to write music, but has said, “I find songwriting with lyrics not as fulfilling as just picking up my guitar, and playing a tune – music speaks volumes.”
Gypsy Jazz music is like the desert in the Southwest – it’s hot, and intoxicating. You either love it, or you don’t. For me, like the Sonoran desert, it touches my soul, and is part of me – and seems to have always been so. – phil manuel
Phil,
My name is Steve Davis and I live in Kansas City.
I’ve been working on learning the Gypsy Jazz style for a couple of years and have a Manouche oval hole gypsy guitar. I surf Djangobooks.com everyday and just noticed you (a.k.a. Jazzdawg) are from Mission, KS. It’s great to see that someone else in this area is interested in this style of music. I’ve been a professional musician for over 40 years and for the last 20 years I’ve been playing the part of George Harrison in the Beatles tribute band Liverpool. My girlfriend and I are working on this style of music together. She is also a pro musician and an incredible violinist and vocalist. She studies Grappelli and Tim Kliphuis and I study Django, Bireli, Stochelo, Angelo…etc. I have all of Denis Changs dvd’s and the new Stochelo dvd. If you would
like to chat my email address is stevedavis909@gmail.com.
Thanks, Steve Davis
Steve,
Man this is a great Christmas present. Ha, Gypsy Jazz and Beatles, don’t get much better than that, eh! Would love to get together. Sorry, I’ve missed you and the rest of the ‘Beatles’. I knew there had to be at least somebody else out there with the gypsy bug. I’ve got a D-500, so we’re a good match, and with a violin/vocalist, wow we could have fun.
Yes, get in touch. Look forward to getting together.