Sam "Sluggo" Phipps (born 1953) is an American saxophone player, best known for being a member of the new wave band Oingo Boingo.

Early life

Sam Phipps was born in Los Angeles, California. He played

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

and

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...

from an early age, but an interest in surf rock lead him to begin playing saxophone at age 15. Between 1971 and 1972, Phipps attended

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cou ...

in Boston.''Oingo Boingo Secret Society Newsletter Winter/Spring 1987 ''
/ref> Prior to the formation of Oingo Boingo, Phipps met future members

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered internatio ...

and Leon Schneiderman while they were friends of his sister. ''Oingo Boingo Farewell - A Brief History: Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo''
YouTube

Career

Music

While performing in Europe with singer and pianist Annette Peacock, Discogs – ''Sam Phipps''
/ref> Phipps was contacted by

Richard Elfman Richard Elfman (born March 6, 1949) is an American actor, musician, director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author and magazine publisher. Early life Richard Elfman was born in the Watts district of inner-city Los Angeles. His mother, ...

and asked to return to the United States to play with the then theater group The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. He played

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors i ...

and soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute, percussion, and provided occasional backing vocals for Oingo Boingo from 1973 until the band's breakup in 1995. Oingo Boingo's odd mixture of pop, rock, ska, and varying world musical styles often featured the band's brass and woodwind instruments, giving Phipps the opportunity to perform solos that are reminiscent of the band's more theatrical and traditional origins.Allmusic – ''Oingo Boingo''
/ref> During the early years of Oingo Boingo, Phipps recorded an album of original avant-garde jazz compositions entitled ''Animal Sounds'' with pianist John Larkin. Following the breakup of Oingo Boingo, Phipps, along with Oingo Boingo members John Avila,

Steve Bartek Steve Bartek (born January 30, 1952, in Garfield Heights, Ohio) is an American guitarist, film composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He is best known as the lead guitarist in the band Oingo Boingo and for his orchestration work with composer Da ...

, Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez, and Doug Lacy formed the rock group Doug & the Mystics, who released their first and currently only album in 1995. Discogs – ''Doug & the Mystics''
/ref> Although former Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman has stated that there will not be a full reunion, several other members, including Phipps, continue to perform with the band Oingo Boingo Dance Party, led by drummer Johnny Vatos, playing songs from their Oingo Boingo career with vocalist Brendan McCreary. Oingo Boingo Dance Party
/ref>

Film and Television

Phipps appeared as a member of Satan's band, alongside The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, in the 1980 film Forbidden Zone during the group's transformation period between being a theater group and becoming a rock band. Buzzine – ''Oingo Boingo''
/ref> With Oingo Boingo, he appeared in the

Rodney Dangerfield Rodney Dangerfield (born Jacob Rodney Cohen; November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He was known for his self-deprecating one-liner humor, his catchphrase "I don't get no re ...

film Back to School, the punk documentary Urgh! A Music War, and Longshot, as well as the music videos included in The Best of Oingo Boingo: Skeletons in the Closet and Farewell: Live from the Universal Amphitheater, Halloween 1995. He also had a cameo alongside bandmate Steve Bartek in the 1998 comedy film

Meet the Deedles ''Meet the Deedles'' is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Steve Boyum in his directorial debut, and starring Paul Walker, Steve Van Wormer, A. J. Langer, John Ashton, Robert Englund, and Dennis Hopper. This was the first live-action ...

, for which Bartek composed original music. IMDb – ''Sam Phipps''
/ref>

References

External links

* *
Sam Phipps
artist profile at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phipps, Sam Living people American male saxophonists Musicians from Los Angeles 1953 births 21st-century American saxophonists 21st-century American male musicians