Phil Donkin (born November 1980 in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, England) is a British jazz bassist. Donkin began playing electric bass at 12 years old. At 17 he unsuccessfully auditioned for the then-vacant bass player position in the British band

Jamiroquai Jamiroquai ( ) are an English acid jazz and funk band from London. Formed in 1992, they are fronted by vocalist Jay Kay, and were prominent in the London-based funk and acid jazz movement of the 1990s. They built on their acid jazz sound in th ...

. At 19 he then moved to London to study at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...

where he completed a degree in music. It was here that he began playing the acoustic bass, where this became the instrument he played exclusively. After graduating in 2003, Donkin was active in the London jazz scene. He worked with musicians such as

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, Order of Canada, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he w ...

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Tim Garland Tim Garland (born 19 October 1966) is a British jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His compositions draw from modern jazz and classical concert music. Career Garland was born in Ilford, Essex and grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He starte ...

Stan Sulzmann Stanley Ernest Sulzmann (born 30 November 1948) is an English jazz saxophonist. Biography He was born in London, England. Sulzmann began playing the saxophone aged 13 and played in 1964 Bill Ashton's London Youth Jazz Orchestra, later the Nat ...

and

Gwilym Simcock Gwilym Simcock (born 24 February 1981) is a Welsh pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music. He was chosen as one of the 1000 Most Influential People in London by the ''Evening Standard'' in 2009. He was featured on the fr ...

. In the years that followed, Donkin toured Europe with people such as John Abercrombie,

Marc Copland Marc Copland (, ; born May 27, 1948, as Marc Cohen) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Copland became part of the jazz scene in Philadelphia in the early 1960s as a saxophonist, and later moved to New York City, where he experimented wi ...

, Bill Stewart,

Greg Osby Greg Osby (born August 3, 1960) is an American saxophonist and composer. Biography Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, then at the Berklee College of Music. He moved to New York City in 1982, where he played with Jak ...

Kurt Rosenwinkel Kurt Rosenwinkel (born October 28, 1970) is an American jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer, educator, keyboardist and record label owner. Biography Born in Philadelphia to a musical family, Rosenwinkel began taking piano lessons when ...

Chris Speed Chris Speed (born February 12, 1967) is an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. Early life and career Speed grew up outside of Seattle and studied classical piano and clarinet from an early age. He later began studying jazz, took up ...

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, Jonathan Kreisberg,

Terrell Stafford Terrell Lamark Stafford (born November 25, 1966, Miami) is an American jazz trumpeter. Stafford studied music formally, taking a bachelor's degree in Music Education at the University of Maryland in 1988 and a master's degree at Rutgers in 1991.Ga ...

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and many others. He also performed with some jazz legends such as

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

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and Eddie Henderson. In 2010, Donkin moved to New York City, where he, played with artists including

Ben Monder Ben Monder (born May 24, 1962) is an American modern jazz rock guitarist. Biography Monder started playing guitar when he was eleven, after two years on violin. From 1979–84, he attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music, the University of ...

Kevin Hays Kevin Hays (born May 1, 1968) is an American jazz pianist and composer. He began playing in New York while still at high school and led his first record date in 1990. He has recorded more than twenty albums as leader or co-leader, including thre ...

, Adam Rogers, Mark Turner,

Seamus Blake Seamus Blake (born December 8, 1970) is a British-born Canadian tenor saxophonist. Early life and education Blake was born in London, England and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His mother introduced him to jazz when he was a c ...

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Bruce Barth Bruce David Barth (born September 7, 1958) is a jazz pianist, composer, and producer. Early life Barth was born in Pasadena, California, on September 7, 1958. He started to play the piano around the age of five. He had private jazz lessons with ...

, Edward Simon. As of 2013, Donkin was based in both Germany and New York. Donkin is a member of many projects in Europe, such as

Dhafer Youssef Dhafer Youssef (; born 19 November 1967) is a Tunisian composer, singer and oud player. Biography Dhafer Youssef was born in Téboulba (a small village of coastal Tunisia); his grandfather was a muezzin. He calls the radio "the most important s ...

's Bird's Requiem featuring Eivind Aarseth and

Nils Petter Molvaer Nils is a Scandinavian given name, a chiefly Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Latvian variant of Niels, cognate to Nicholas. People and animals with the given name * Nils Elias Anckers (1858–1921), Swedish naval officer * Nils Beckman (1902–19 ...

. He is a member of Rainer Böhm's trio, and a collaborative quartet featuring

Pablo Held Pablo Held (born 27 December 1986) is a German jazz pianist and composer. Life and career Held was born on 27 December 1986. He is from Hagen. His father played the piano and introduced him to the music of Federico Mompou. Held was also influ ...

Johannes Enders Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, '' Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Ye ...

and

Nasheet Waits Nasheet Waits is an American jazz drummer. Early life and career Waits is a New York native who has been active on the jazz scene since early in his life. His father, percussionist Freddie Waits, died when Waits was 18. Before pursuing a mu ...

. He also plays regularly with

Nils Wogram Nils Wogram (born 7 November 1972) is a jazz trombonist, composer and bandleader. He began classical study at the age of fifteen. He was a member in the National German Youth Big Band, participated in classical competitions and formed his own ...

's 'Root 70',

Marius Neset Marius Søfteland Neset (born 2 January 1985) is a Norwegian jazz musician (saxophone) living in Copenhagen. He is known from collaborations within the jazz bands "People Are Machines", "Kaktusch", " JazzKamikaze" and Django Bates projects "Sto ...

's 'Birds' quartet, the Ben Kraef Trio and the Max von Mosch Tentet. Donkin has led projects as a band leader, releasing the album ''Dimaxis'' in 2006 and the album ''The Gate'' in 2015.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donkin, Phil 1980 births Living people British jazz double-bassists British male double-bassists British male jazz musicians Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama 21st-century British double-bassists 21st-century British male musicians Musicians from Sunderland Whirlwind Recordings artists