Interviews
The idea to interview Phil’s friends and associates came early on. Brian already knew quite a few of them and it wasn’t hard to come up with a list of names. We decided to use Zoom to do our interviews and so far we think we’ve made a good start. Links to the interviews we’ve conducted so far are coming soon.
We had to begin somewhere with interviews, so one night in September of 2025, while working out how Zoom sessions were going to be used for interviews, we made an impromptu talk about ourselves and how the project formed, followed by a bunch of begging for anyone to help us out with an interview. We posted it on YouTube, and shortly after that we were approached by our first interview subject, before we even began to start asking around…
Bill Collins was our first person of interest. Bill established and operates the Sherman Jazz Museum, and has been documenting a lot of local music history on his own YouTube channel. All this happened after a full career of playing and teaching trumpet. Bill has been invaluable with his information and advice, and has positively coaxed us into the right directions to take in expanding the project.
Abby Holmes and Brian have been friends for decades, and she was eager to help us out. Abby is one of Dallas’s premier vocalists who worked with Phil from the 1970’s going forward.
Jay Saunders has been an avid supporter of our project and has assisted with rounding up people to help us out. Jay played trumpet on many of Phil’s sessions dating back to the 1960’s, and featured many of Phil’s charts when he led the NTSU Two O’Clock Lab Band.
I reached out to John Giordano as a total stranger and he agreed to do a Zoom interview, despite the fact he didn’t know who I was and that he had never used Zoom before. We set up a time and I coached him through the session-joining process, and he gave us an incredible interview- John’s generosity and insight provided a lot to our project.
Pat Coil was one of Phil’s favorite first calls for keyboards and has been a renowned musician for 40+ years. He approached us to be interviewed and was very gracious with his time.
Randy Lee was one of Phil’s favorite musicians and they collaborated on many sessions together throughout Phil’s Dallas career. Randy’s interview was genuine and heartfelt.
Lou Fischer was quick to agree to an interview and we joined with him on an easy Sunday morning for a fine, informative session. Lou’s interview was one of my personal favorites.
It took a few weeks to land an interview with Lou Marini, but it was well worth the wait. Lou and Phil played together in the 1960’s and 1970’s and Lou did not disappoint with his stories and recollections of Phil.
Stephen Fagin is the curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas where Phil lent a hand in the audio-visual presentations for the original opening of the museum in 1989, and much of his handiwork is still on display there.
Brian could not join us for the interview with Stephen Fagin, so we posted this follow-up to add a few insights to Phil’s input to the museum.
We met with Cynthia and Allan Mondell of Media Projects to discuss Phil’s soundtracks for three of their film projects.
Ken George played jazz trombone with all the greats before switching careers towards business and financing, and lately, AI business solutions.
Jack Evans played trumpet for many years in Dallas before moving out into the country. As luck would have it, one of my long time school friends just happened to be his neighbor out in the boonies, and thanks to her we were able to get a great interview out of Jack.
David Butler is a professional trombonist still active in Dallas as well as a manufacturer of quality carbon fiber trombones.
