Phil Donkin (born November 1980 in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, England) is a British jazz bassist. Donkin began playing electric bass at 12 years old. At 17 he unsuccessfully auditioned for the then-vacant bass player position in the British band Jamiroquai. At 19 he then moved to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he completed a degree in music. It was here that he began playing the acoustic bass, where this became the instrument he played exclusively. After graduating in 2003, Donkin was active in the London jazz scene. He worked with musicians such as Kenny Wheeler,

Julian Arguelles Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (give ...

Tim Garland Tim Garland (born 19 October 1966) is a British jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His compositions draw from modern jazz and classical concert music. Career Garland was born in Ilford, Essex and grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He starte ...

, Stan Sulzmann and

Gwilym Simcock Gwilym Simcock (born 24 February 1981) is a Welsh pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music, often blurring any distinction between the two musical forms. Simcock was chosen as one of the 1000 Most Influential People in Lo ...

. In the years that followed, Donkin toured Europe with people such as John Abercrombie,

Marc Copland Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...

, Bill Stewart,

Greg Osby Greg Osby (born August 3, 1960) is an American saxophonist and composer. Biography Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, then at the Berklee College of Music. He moved to New York City in 1982, where he played with Jaki ...

, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Speed,

Ari Hoenig Ari Hoenig (born November 13, 1973) is an American jazz drummer, composer, and educator. Educational materials Hoenig has taught and is on the faculty at New York University and The New School in New York. He gives clinics and lectures at music ...

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Terrell Stafford Terrell Lamark Stafford (born November 25, 1966, Miami) is an American jazz trumpeter. Stafford studied music formally, taking a bachelor's degree in Music Education at the University of Maryland in 1988 and a master's degree at Rutgers in 1991.Ga ...

David Binney David Binney (born August 2, 1961) is an American alto saxophonist and composer. Early life Binney was born in Miami, Florida, and was raised in Carpinteria, California. From his parents, who loved music, he was exposed to albums by John C ...

, Tyshawn Sorey and many others. He also performed with some jazz legends such as Quincy Jones, Roger Kellaway and Eddie Henderson. In 2010, Donkin moved to New York City, where he, played with artists including

Ben Monder Ben Monder (born May 24, 1962) is an American modern jazz guitarist. Biography Monder started playing guitar when he was eleven, after two years on violin. From 1979–84, he attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music, the University of Miam ...

Kevin Hays Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an ...

, Adam Rogers, Mark Turner,

Seamus Blake Seamus Blake (born December 8, 1970) is a British-born Canadian tenor saxophonist. Early life and education Blake was born in London, England and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His mother introduced him to jazz when he was a c ...

, Steve Cardenas, Bruce Barth, Edward Simon. As of 2013, Donkin was based in both Germany and New York. Donkin is a member of many projects in Europe, such as

Dhafer Youssef Dhafer Youssef ( ar, ظافر يوسف; born 19 November 1967) is a Tunisian composer, singer and oud player. Biography Dhafer Youssef was born in Téboulba (a small village of coastal Tunisia); his grandfather was a muezzin. He calls the radio ...

's Bird's Requiem featuring Eivind Aarseth and Nils Petter Molvaer. He is a member of Rainer Böhm's trio, and a collaborative quartet featuring

Pablo Held Pablo Held (born 27 December 1986) is a German jazz pianist and composer. Life and career Held was born on 27 December 1986. He is from Hagen. His father played the piano and introduced him to the music of Federico Mompou. Held was also influ ...

Johannes Enders Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...

and Nasheet Waits. He also plays regularly with Nils Wogram's 'Root 70',

Marius Neset Marius Søfteland Neset (born 2 January 1985 in Os, Hordaland) is a Norwegian jazz musician (saxophone) living in Copenhagen. He is known from collaborations within the jazz bands "People Are Machines", "Kaktusch", "JazzKamikaze" and Django Bat ...

's 'Birds' quartet, the Ben Kraef Trio and the Max von Mosch Tentet. Donkin has led projects as a band leader, releasing the album ''Dimaxis'' in 2006 and the album ''The Gate'' in 2015.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donkin, Phil 1980 births Living people British jazz double-bassists British male double-bassists British male jazz musicians Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama 21st-century double-bassists 21st-century British male musicians Musicians from Sunderland Whirlwind Recordings artists