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Johnny (Portugie) Phillips Johnny Phillips was born in the Bronx on December 22, 1944 - the son of Genevieve Sullivan and John Phillips, Sr. In 1050 the Phillips’ bought a home in Levittown, NY under the G.I. Bill as John Sr. had served as a hospital assistant in the Navy during World War II. Young Johnny and his sister Patricia attended grade school and high school in the Island Trees School District in Levittown. Johnny began playing drums in 1959 and played with a pickup school band before forming his own groups, "The Jet Set," and "The Johnny Phillips Band" in 1962. For a short period he studied drums with Charley Perry, a well-known jazz and big band drummer from the late forties and fifties. John, Sr. became a welder after leaving the Navy, his talent for metallurgy engineering and welding are reflected in the early years of the Pall Corporation, which started in a garage in Glen Cove led by Dr. Pall. Pall Corporation became a multi-billion dollar firm and Johnny’s father was one of the few welders in the country approved for the LEM Project which sent an unmanned ship to the moon. Young Johnny’s company painted the LEM components for the same project. Johnny’s father was also a metal sculptor and painted in oils. His mom was also an artist who worked in oils and pastels. Some of their work is featured on this site. That’s the legacy that moved John (Portugie) to study welding sculpture with David Haussler Studios in Fort Salonga, New York. Johnny married his high school sweetheart, Janice Isasi and they had three daughters together - Stacey, Lisa and Jennifer - before their divorce in 1973. Johnny was away from music druing the next twenty years, except for some self-taught folk guitar, but the musical influences of rock, big band, country and Irish music were always being absorbed. He was employed as manager of a metal/paint finishing company before entering the New York City Police force in 1973. He served as a street cop on the west side of Manhattan for ten years before retiring with a hip disorder which had him on crutches for a number of years before bilateral hip replacement surgery. Johnny returned to private business work and ran a medium-sized contracting and building company for the next ten years. Subsequently, he returned to music - studying guitar and playing drums at Richmond Street Studios on Long Island and attended National Guitar Workshop for one week each year from 1994 - 2000. There he studied Basic Guitar and Blues Guitar with Ronnie Earl, and Country Blues with Paul Rishell. Johnny and Paul became friends and he still travels to see Paul and Annie Raines perform as often as possible. In 1994 Johnny took a side trip to an archaeological dig on the plains of Wyoming with the University of Eastern Wyoming. He spent two weeks camped on the High Plains at a ranch - studying an indigenous population that dated back 5000 years to the Plains Indians. It was there that he acquired the nickname "Portugie," after John Portugie Phillips, a famous scout who whas well known for heroic deeds during the days of Fort Laramie. In 1996 Johnny joined the Coalition for Disabled Musicians’ band "Range of Motion" which performs music in schools and other venues on Long Island and the east coast. They play for people of all ages and many styles of music. Johnny plays guitar, drums, and accordion, and in 2007, attended the Dewey Balfa Cajun Music Camp in Ville Platte, Louisiana to learn Cajun accordion. On a trip to Ireland, Johnny was fortunate enough to attend Irish music jams and workshops in Galway and play with street musicians in Dublin. Other projects include and album recorded with "Tres Blue," his first recording with an accordion and original music. Presently, Johnny is performing with multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Tommy and Maggie Ryan as the "Copper Rose" trio. This group performs many styles of music and is working on recording original music - especially songs written by Tommy Ryan, a very talented musician and composer. On his fabled trip to Wyoming, Johnny stopped in Steamboat, Colorado for some back mountain fly fishing and was involved in a hot air balloon crash - which he survived uninjured to the complete astonishment of his nephew, Peter Lautner who was following the balloon and was sure that he was about to die. Portugie lives!!! If you happen to visit Steamboat, you can see one of Johnny’s sculptures - a mountain scene made out of steel - proudly hanging on the wall of the Three Peaks Grill, which is operated by his nephew’s company. Say "hello" to Chef Lautner. Johnny spends Sunday mornings with his granddaughter, Alexandra, daughter of Lisa and Gary, teaching her drums and keyboards and some art techniques. Alexandra teaches him how to remember being a child again. She has great natural rhythm ability and a knack for playing marimba as well as a great ability to sing and play at the same time. Johnny likes to refer to her as "The Princess of Rhythm" because of her great gifts, and looks forward to performing with Alexandra on stage when she decides that the time is right.
UPDATE!! Well, I guess the time was right! Here's Alexandra and Grandpa at the Clan Gordon Highlanders recent party!
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This site was last updated 03/02/08
