Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer.
Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began taking lessons from Harvey LaRose at a local music shop. His heroes on the alto saxophone included Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges. He studied music with Lennie Tristano at the Manhattan School of Music and at the Juilliard School. His friend, Joe Lopes, coached him on clarinet as there was no saxophone major at Juilliard at the time and received a bachelor’s degree in 1952. Although he did not copy Charlie Parker, Woods was known as the New Bird, a nickname also given to other alto saxophone players such as Sonny Stitt and Cannonball Adderley.
In the 1950s, Woods began to lead his own bands. Quincy Jones invited him to accompany Dizzy Gillespie on a world tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department. A few years later he toured Europe with Jones, and in 1962 he toured Russia with Benny Goodman.
After moving to France in 1968, Woods led the European Rhythm Machine, which tended toward avant-garde jazz. He returned to the United States in 1972 and, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish an electronic group, he formed a quintet, which was still performing, with some changes of personnel, in 2004. As his theme, Woods used a piece titled "How's Your Mama?"
Woods earned the top alto sax player award almost 30 times in DownBeat magazine's annual readers' poll. His quintet was awarded the top small combo title several times.
In 1979, Woods recorded the album More Live at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas. His best known recorded work as a sideman is a pop piece, his alto sax solo on Billy Joel's 1977 "Just the Way You Are". He also played the alto sax solo on Steely Dan's "Doctor Wu" from their 1975 album Katy Lied, as well as Paul Simon's "Have a Good Time" from the 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years.
Although Woods was primarily a saxophonist, he was also a clarinet player, and solos are scattered through his recordings. One example is his clarinet solo on "Misirlou" on the compilation album, Into the Woods.
Woods, along with Rick Chamberlain and Ed Joubert, founded the organization Celebration of the Arts (COTA) in 1978 late one night in the bar at the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. The organization would eventually become the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts. Their initial goal was to help foster an appreciation of jazz and its relationship to other artistic disciplines. Each year, the organization hosts the Celebration of the Arts Festival in September.
In 2005, Jazzed Media released the documentary Phil Woods: A Life in E Flat – Portrait of a Jazz Legend, directed by Rich Lerner and produced by Graham Carter.
Woods was married to Chan Parker, the common-law wife of Charlie Parker, for seventeen years and was the stepfather to Chan's daughter, Kim. They divorced in 1973. In 1985, he married Jill Goodwin, the sister of his drummer Bill Goodwin. On September 4, 2015, he performed a tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and announced at the end of the show that he would be retiring. He died a little more than three weeks later of emphysema on September 29, 2015, at the age of 83.
Grammy Award, Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance: Images, 1975
Grammy Award, Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Individual or Group: Live from the Show Boat (1977), More Live (1982), At the Vanguard (1983)
Altology (Prestige, 1976)[2LP] – rec. 1956–57
Into the Woods (The Best of Phil Woods) (Concord, 1996)
Moonlight In Vermont (CTI, 2005)[4CD]
Complete Quintet And Sextet Sessions 1956-1957 (Fresh Sound, 2007)[2CD]
Gonzalez, Henry (1990). The Armadillo Years: A Visual History
Nisenson, Eric (1996). Round About Midnight – A Portrait of Miles Davis (2nd ed.). Da Capo: Printing Press. ISBN 0-306-80684-3.