Philip John Lee R.I.P
I have just heard that Phillip John Lee passed away last night 06/07 march 2010 and it is believed that it is due to cancer.
I just received a telephone call from a promoter of concerts who was contacting me to give a concert and in the conversation about flamenco guitarists here in the UK he told me he had just spoken with the brother of Phillip John Lee and received this sad news.

I have never met Phillip but had communicated with him by e mail.

I have always enjoyed and respected his flamenco guitar playing immensely and thought him to be a caballero.

I am very sad to give this very bad news to you all.
Saludos cordiales


Tomás

and I am very sad to receive it. I never had the opportunity to meet him either, but had back in the 70's corresponded with him some by postal mail and in recent years by email. A very fine player of traditional flamenco. My thoughts are with his family and hope they keep his website going. Here is his website for those not familiar with Phillip. http://www.philipjohnlee.com/

Thanks for letting us know about that Tomás. That is sad news. He was an exceptional player. It is strange that I happened to be listening to his "The L. A. Concert" album when I read your post.

-Bob

I would like to thank everyone on this site that has taken the time to comment on my uncle's death. My uncle was a true artist and dedicated musician. Money and Fame were incidental to him and perhaps this is what made him a bit eccentric. He loved his music and the playing of his guitar. Wherever and whenever he played he left his audiences stunned and yearning for more. We all loved my uncle and his quirky ways.
Unfortunately his death was a prolonged and painful one due to late stage kidney Cancer. My mother, My aunt and uncles were with him during his final weeks, days and moments. He fought very hard to stay alive but unfortunately the cancer had spread to far and too quick. He died March 6th at midnight in his sleep. My only wish and I believe the wish of all that new Phillip is that we do not forget his music, Art and his love of life. Rest in peace my dear uncle you will be remembered!

Thanks Tim for the information. Are you also a flamenco player? Your Uncle was one of the first non Spaniards to reach the level of master virtuoso flamenco guitarist. I remember hearing his first LP for the first time and it amazed me that an Englishman could play with such passion, accuracy, and authenticity. His mark on flamenco and his devotion to hold on to the traditional old school flamenco and keep it alive will never be forgotten. I wish your family the best during this difficult time. My father died at 65 in pain also from cancer so I understand. Thanks again for the first hand information.

I was so very sad to hear about the passing of Philip I have been a student of his for the last five years and spoke to him just a week before he passed away, he allways let me film the lessons so that i could study them in detail, he was a superb teacher and a pleasure to know, I will treasure the video footage i have of him. The flamenco world has lost a true gentleman. Dennis Evans.

I am shocked to learn only now, more than two years later, of the death of Philip John Lee. He was a role model and was, through his Flamenco Guitar Album, responsible for my taking up flamenco guitar and travelling to Spain to study in Sevilla.

I had always hoped to meet him. I corresponded with him briefly a few years ago asking whether there were plans to re-release FG on CD. I was horrified to learn that the tapes had been lost when MFP folded.

His playing was fabulous, full of duende, pathos, drama, beauty and with a perfect light touch. I have listened to the LP thousands of times, and it still delights.

I offer my belated condolences to his family and friends.

Andrew Dale
Divonne-les-Bains
France

I am very sad to hear of Philip's death. I was a student of his some years ago and saw him only a few months back when he seemed far from well. He was a hugely talented flamenco guitarist and a phenomenally inspirational teacher who had enormous patience and enthusiasm. He will be greatly missed.

I had lessons from Philip from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1984 for a few years. I was a complete starter and a slow learner but Philip was a patient teacher, and I enjoyed contact with the world of flamenco through him.
That was mostly in his Sinclair Gardens flat, near my old school, so it felt appropriate to carry on learning things. The flat, a semi-basement, backed onto a former railway curve, in a slight cutting. The tracks had long gone, and there was only the quiet end of a long office building outside at the back.
Philip had a cat, which I always liked to see, as a cat lover myself.

I had been fascinated by flamenco from about 1960, hearing someone’s LPs of Sabicas, and specially after getting my own first ever LP. “Jose Greco - Flamenco Fury” for that Chrismas. I was 14 years old then (same age as Philip). I loved the music but did not understand the various compas or structure until the lessons.
I was glad to see that Philip had that, and another, Jose Greco LP.
I guess that qualifies me for Old School Flamenco. Of course it belongs to the Spanish and is theirs to do what they want with, but I preferred the Alegrias before it seemed to become compulsory to put in a few sour cadences.
Back in school days, every hot summer holiday when there was time to tinker on some sort of guitar all day, my imagination would be over in Spain.
But Philip was a hero who had actually lived that dream. In the years of the lessons, I had fairly secure jobs on computers (with a big break and an attempt at school teaching), and I was aware of what Philip had sacrificed for his art.

Philip was multi-talented. Does anyone remember the painting of pottery kilns which achieved almost photographic realism in places?
He had wider musical sympathies than I did. I had commented that if people know that you play the guitar they expect the Concertio de Aranjuez, or worse, my pet hate, The House of the Rising Sun. “Oh, don’t you like that?” said Philip, immediately launching into an expert rendering of it.
He was generous in lending flamenco LPs from his large collection, and I think that I read his copy of the book “Lives and Legends of the Flamencos”.
Flamenco guitar technique originally seemed to me like an impenetrable but marvellous mystery. My own attempts to imitate it in the past almost convinced me that the notes were not to be found anywhere on any guitar which I owned. When Philip played, just to demonstrate a section, I never ceased to wonder at how the mystery became real in his hands, and I sensed tremendous discipline and strength required to make it happen.

He went out of his way to work out the fingering of the classical Spanish piece, the Capriccio Arabe by Tarrega, at my request, and of course he mastered it himself on the way.
To illustrate the clarity needed for the apuyando technique, he once suggested that I should hold a chord with my left hand while he would reach over my shoulder to demonstrate the right hand apuyando. It was so forceful that I flinched in case a string broke, and my left hand struggled to hold the strings down.
At one time he was experimenting with some multi-tracking and effects like a flanger which he kindly explained as a filter. He let me listen to a new composition of his. Whereas I had sometimes in the past overlayed one track on another on the family tape recorder in a haphazard way, to hear what the result might be like, it was obvious that Philip had designed his composition to take full musical advantage of the special effects. I think that he was quietly pleased when I told him that.
Did anything come of those recordings?

I heard something of the background of every stage of the making of his “Five Swords” LP, how when it came to the recording, an overnight slot at the studios was all that was available, but Philip got all the takes done. He appreciated the help of his brothers with transport, sandwiches, &c.
The record label owner had dictated a lot about the cover design, and Philip had had worries about the mixing of the various recording channels, ambient and close-up. I was fascinated when he said that the vinyl cutting process itself added high frequency. I had worked in engineering and digitized recording. Philip had a C-Ducer pick-up, just like the strain gauges which we had used for metal. The C-Ducer gave amazing output as if you were inside the guitar.

The last time I saw Philip was before he went to the USA, and we exchanged a couple of emails when he was back and in Hanworth (my side of London).
I was very sorry to hear that he had died. At my age, hearing of losses like that of Philip begins to add up, and I recently appreciated some old recordings of Seguiriyas and Mineras in a completely new way.
It has been great to read the tributes, but I myself had no email at home to add to them until now.

I have a cassette on which Philip kindly put his Alegrias in D for me, playing some parts at half speed, and he can be heard saying a few words.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Peter)-----------|

I did not know who this man was but after reading these comments about him just a few days ago I took the time to find out why he was thought of so highly. There are a number of great audio recordings of his on U tube. When I first heard flamenco many years ago it was the way Philip John Lee played on these recordings. It was what got me hooked on flamenco. I acknowledge the genius that is Paco de Lucia but I much prefer flamenco the way Philip John Lee played. I will be looking for more of his work. Pity I became a fan so late.