The Life and Music of Phil "The Thrill"

Take a walk through the Davis Fine Arts Building on any given day of the week and chances are you'll hear the subtle yet powerful melodies of a jazz chord-solo floating through an open office door. Take a look inside and you'll see the Charleston area's real "guitar hero," Phil Washington, his fingers nimbly jumping from fret to fret, string to string, like a nest of spiders turned loose on his unsuspecting guitar.

"What's happenin', bro-ski?"

That's Washington's favorite greeting, his fingers still running wild over the guitar neck even as he looks up from his music.

From his laid-back demeanor, you would never believe that Phil Washington is a highly regarded Charleston area guitarist, with a M.A. in Jazz Studies from Marshall University and his name on every theatre company's short list of musicians.

Washington performed with the Huntington Symphony Orchestra, recorded an album with local group The Esquires, and even performed with Grammy award-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis.

And it all grew from a desire to not show off.

"When I was going to State for my Bachelor's degree," Washington says, "the guitar teacher then had a bunch of guys who could play that widdly-widdly Van Halen stuff. Single note stuff, you know? But then a blues guy came in to play a clinic, and asked if he could play with some of the guitar students. The instructor had all those guys playing that single-note crap, and the blues guy just asked, 'Do you have anyone who can play a chord solo?'"

Washington was the only student at the time studying chord solos. His understated approach to the guitar, a complete contrast to his outstanding ability, led him down a different path than many guitarists at the time.

Washington sees this as a good thing.

"The rock stuff is boring and easy," he says. "Give me jazz any day, because it's more than the same old pentatonic crap over and over again."

One of Washington's early guitar heroes was the late Jimi Hendrix, a player who still influences him to this day.

"It was amazing, some of the stuff Jimi did," Washington says. "You think Stevie Ray Vaughan would have been famous without Hendrix? Look at everything he did, everything he wore. Just like Hendrix."

Even before Hendrix, though, Washington listened to the otherworldly guitar playing of jazz luminaries such as George Benson and Wes Montgomery. Their playing—possibly even more so than Hendrix—shaped the legend behind Phil "The Thrill" Washington.

"I was into Hendrix, yeah," Washington says, "but back before that I was into Wes and George, those jazz guys. I had been playing guitar for about a year, playing by ear, when I realized that I could play three Jimi Hendrix songs, but I couldn't even play one Wes Montgomery song."

It was at that point of his musical life that Washington decided he wanted to actually learn to read music—not just play along with recordings. Washington's friends didn't share his passion, but that didn't deter him for a second.

"There's just so much more you can do when you read," he says. "It opens up a whole new world of possibilities with improvisation and chord soloing. I don't know how I ever played without being able to read. Put a lead sheet on a stand in front of most of those rock and rollers, and they'll be like, 'You want me to play that? Show me how!'"

But jazz isn't Washington's only musical outlet. If you look at any four musical productions from the Charleston area in recent memory, Washington has probably played guitar on three of them. Some of these, believe it or not, have even pulled Washington into the world of rock and roll.

"The stuff for Rent was rock stuff, but it was tasty rock stuff," Washington says as he plays a chord progression he memorized from the challenging show music. "The guy who wrote it actually made it fun and interesting; it wasn't just a bunch of power chords."

Not that Washington never dabbled in rock and roll before. Until just recently he played bass with the Esquires, a local rock group whose roots go all the way back to the 1960s.

"We played the old standards," Washington says, "'I Feel Good,' 'Heard it Through the Grapevine,' you know, rock and some R&B stuff.”

Washington was an on-again, off-again member of the group until creative differences forced him to hang up his rock and roll hat to concentrate on what he loves to do: play jazz, and do his part in educating the next generation of guitarists.

That's how I met Washington two years ago, during my third year as a student at West Virginia State University. He is the resident guitar guru, and I was admittedly nervous preparing to completely reverse everything I'd taught myself about the guitar. I could read music, but could never apply it to the guitar

This was something that Washington used to his advantage.

"That's a good thing, man," Washington says, "because you're not obsessed with modes. All these people come to me and say, 'I know all my modes,' and I'm like, 'Congratulations, you can start a scale on a note other than the root.' It's like they want to be rewarded for being ignorant."

From that day on, I could always count on learning something new every time I went in for a lesson. And not once did Washington disappoint me, always coming in with something new and epic to work on, from jazz chord solos to single-note interpretations of songs by The Who. All this is interspersed by Washington playing excerpts from his favorite jazz pieces.

How can he play all these things from memory? Necessity.

"When I was at Marshall getting my Master's," Washington says, "I had to perform a solo recital of a bunch of different pieces from different genres. I practiced my butt off for weeks to get that down, but I went in there and nailed it. And my teacher, he was tough! Lesson was at noon, and if I showed up at one minute after he'd be packing his stuff to go, because lesson didn't start at one minute after."

Washington also recalls fond memories of playing with the faculty jazz ensemble, as he was a student teacher during his time at Marshall.

"That same guitar teacher," Washington says, "when he would play licks onstage, he'd turn his back to me so I couldn't cheat and steal his stuff. I'd be like, 'Come on, man!' Because really, that's where jazz guys get their best stuff. They hear or see something they like, and make it their own."

Washington's education paid off, landing him a number of gigs in musical theatre throughout the Charleston area. He played guitar for a number of shows in recent years, including Romeo and Juliet, Rent, and The Blob, and will take part in the upcoming Gypsy and Barnum.

Somehow he balances these performances with teaching, both at WVSU and at Kerr's Music, leading the WVSU Guitar Ensemble, and performing with the praise band at his church, which actually released an album.

"The album cost about six thousand dollars to make," Washington says, "and only five hundred copies were pressed. We didn't turn a profit, but the guy that financed it said he didn't want anything in return. It was a pretty positive experience."

"Positive" is the word that best sums up the man jokingly—but also lovingly—nicknamed "The Thrill". Washington never looks back on his past in anger, instead seeing every event in his life as something pushing him forward to where he is today.

"I was always mad when I was younger," Washington says, referring his days in Detroit. "Mad at this, mad at that...you never accomplish anything when you're mad, because you can't see where you're going through all the rage."
"And don't worry about making a bunch of money with your playing," Washington tells me. "That's where a lot of people get lost, because they're worried about money. I learned real early that all money does is let you buy stuff. If you really love to play, though, you've already got all the stuff you need, so why do you need any more?"

Washington's positive nature is emphasized during lessons. No matter what level of skill you may have attained prior to the start of your lessons, Washington always knows exactly what to say to keep you going.

Take for example one of my first lessons, a particularly frustrating run through a piece with complex (at the time) chord changes and a few single-note runs containing accidentals that I had yet to map out on the fret board.

Naturally, I struggled through it, but managed to finish it eventually. I expected Washington to be harsh with his criticism; it was a terrible effort, after all.

"I was playing for a show once," Washington ways, "and we were rehearsing, and I thought I was absolutely killin' the piece we were playing. After we were done, the conductor looked at me, and asked if I had a broom. When I asked why, he said, 'To sweep up all those notes you dropped.'"

In addition to his impressive guitar resumé, Washington is a singer—and believe it or not, an announcer. He sings at his church; did vocal work for the Esquires; and is a television announcer for the West Virginia Lottery.

That's right, folks: Phil Washington calls the lottery numbers. In his office there is a large picture of him in a gigantic, purple, spherical suit and a top hat.

"Yeah, that's me," he says when asked about its origin.

Of course, right next to that picture is one of him jamming on the bass with Wynton Marsalis, which reminds anyone who sees it that while Washington may not be the most serious man on the planet, he takes his music seriously.

"You can joke around and have fun and whatnot," Washington says, "but at the end of the day you've got to play to get anywhere in this business. And I don't mean get up there and play some pentatonic crap or the blues scale over and over. If you want people to notice you, you've got to play."

And whether it is the guitar or any other instrument that "The Thrill" is playing, rest assured that he will play from now until forever.