“Everything in this world is musical. Birds—birds talk to each other with music, don’t they?”
When it comes to speaking the language of music, Phil Bingham is trilingual: “I speak in three languages. What are the three? I speak jazz, I speak classical, and I speak gospel”. Gospel is where it all began for Phil. Born in the Bronx, New York, Phil became a church pianist at the young age of eight years old. Music had been a part of Phil’s life since day one, though, with both his parents being church musicians as well. He recalls spending much of his childhood tinkering around with a piano at home, fondly calling himself a “nerd” because while, “all the other kids were outside with skates, playing football, baseball, riding bikes…I was a nerdy kid, teaching myself how to read and play [piano]”.
He was introduced to a variety of other instruments in elementary and middle school, including the flute and clarinet, and later went on to master an even wider range of instruments in order to receive a diploma in music education. Despite this, Phil Bingham always found his way back to the piano—back to the instrument he loved. Sitting safely in his home right now is actually the grand piano of legendary jazz musician Barry Harris, who was Phil’s mentor and teacher.
Newly independent and only eighteen years old, the two met in 1968 at a school called the Jazz Mobile, which was located in Harlem, New York. Every Saturday, Phil would take free lessons at the Jazz Mobile, sharing the same space with the likes of jazz legends Jimmy Heath and Frank Foster. He recalls fondly the 11 to 4 o’clock schedule that the classes ran on in order to accommodate the gig times of the musicians that taught them. Before Barry Harris, though, was Billy Taylor, Phil’s first jazz piano teacher and the founder of the Jazz Mobile.
Out of Phil’s three musical languages, jazz came last. “I could not play jazz because my parents were very religious…so we played classical music and gospel music.” Phil would not trade in his childhood playing for the church for anything, though, stating that he learned the fundamentals of harmony and ear training through osmosis in church. “One of my greatest gifts at eight was not only reading music, but if somebody came up and said, “I’m going to sing so and so and so,” my ear was so tuned to improvise that I could play for that person.” These skills were transferable to all genres and led to Phil’s greater understanding of his relationship with music. “Music, classical music, does not come from your head or your eyes, it comes from here (motioning towards his heart). Inside. If you know the movement of the music…you’ll be able to play it in any key.”
Phil Bingham is a teacher at Jazz House Kids in Montclair, New Jersey, and is currently a Board member at Keys 2 Success. Phil brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table, all of which he has garnered through decades of devoting his life to the creation and teaching of music. He may have studied with the world’s most renowned musicians and performed at the most prestigious of concert halls and establishments, but it’s his true dedication to ensuring that young people get to experience the joy of music that makes him shine as an individual and as a teacher. “So you asked for my defining moment in my career, and my answer is the defining moment is now—connecting, developing, searching out, and pouring it into the students, and failing, and succeeding, and doing it all again. Keys 2 Success is about pouring into these students and pouring into you guys the quest to be the greatest musicians. Do you know what spring means? It means that we sow the seeds for a new tomorrow. With Keys 2 Success, we are sowing the seeds. We are going to spit out of Newark the great prodigies—the students who would have never had an opportunity to play the piano”.
Everyone who lives inevitably leaves their mark on the world and people around them—Phil Bingham has left a life-changing mark on more aspiring, young, musicians than one can even begin to imagine.
Interview conducted by Seraphina Taylor; article was written by Ella Platts
